Berlin puts Eur 5m “for sale” sign on resi arm

An interesting article by Lucy Scott from PropertyWeek

Berlin puts Eur 5m “for sale” sign on resi arm

Berlin’s State government is to make the biggest disposal in the German residential sector for three years with the sale of Berliner Immobilien Holding.

The housing company, which has a price tag of €5bn (£4.5bn), owns 39,000 flats, 29 offices and 285 retail properties, as well as retirement homes and hospitals, and employs 469 staff.

The properties are divided among 29 closed-ended property funds that were taken over from Landesbank Berlin in 2007 and generate €390m (£354m) a year. The portfolio has an 8% vacancy rate and is mainly in Germany, but also in the UK, the US, the Netherlands and Sweden.

A sale at the asking price would be the biggest German residential transaction since 2005, when Guy Hands’ Terra Firma bought Viterra for €7bn (£6.3bn).

Top ten property investments for 2009

Before continuing our exploration of Historicismus-style buildings in Berlin, a quick glance on an interesting article from Country Life…Berlin is the top 4th world-wide real estate location on their ranking.

AflatinBerlin fully agrees. At par with London and Paris on the sightseeing ground, Berlin lags behind the two other capitals when it comes to business attractiveness (but that doesn’t mean it won’t change!)  but wins in terms of entry price, quality of buildings (old and new) and refurbishment craftmanship and most of all on the city’s logistics.

So, in terms of value for money & quality of life, Berlin for us is number one! Actually, it indeed came first in the ranking last year, but due to the bust of several real estate bubbles elsewhere in 2008 (and Berlin had had its bubble thing a decade or so ago), this is why Berlin only ranks number 4 now.

The fundamentals in Berlin didn’t change, and recession is going to hit everybody, so looking on a long-term trend Berlin remains highly compelling. The pros and cons highlighted by John Howell a year ago did not change with the recession:

Bohemian Berlin’s coolest landmark to be sold off to the highest bidder

Hello! Buona Befana! (how do you say that in english…?)

Today on the Independent an interesting article on Tacheles…another building of Historicismus era (1908), more famous for its “between-ruin-and-a-squat” cultural centre. Let’s hope that Tacheles survives without becoming another hub of trendy (sic) boutiques…Mitte is becoming toooooo mainstream!!

Our marvellous Berlin Architecture Guide says that the building initially hosted a department store, in 1928 AEG moved in, only after WWII it became a a cinema and an art school and the Fall of the Wall marked the start of the artists’ association.

Berlin’s coolest landmark to be sold off to the highest bidder

Artists’ collective fights to stay in Tacheles building visited by thousands

Neoclassicism, Historicism, Jugendstil…and maybe Art deco?

The Flat was built in 1914…not yet Bauhaus time, not yet Art Deco…still Jugenstil and not far from Neoclassicism.. There is a Jugendstil flavour in the external stuccos, but if the building’s structure is definitely massive Neoclassicism – Historicism without organic indulgence.

Bauhaus hadn’t arrived yet: no flat roof, no big glass windows, no bare shapes, on the contrary…our roof is pretty pointy, very bavarian, I suppose? (Bayerisches Viertel oblige!).

Yet you can perceive it was built during a sort of transition phase, in which organic decoration and redundant shapes left space to purer lines. There were more Modern Times in the air. Skirts were getting shorter, too.

Maybe it is easier to compare our beloved Altbau with sibling buildings born in the same years. Thanks to the fantastic Berlin Architecture Guide we discovered many interesting stories. For instance, the Flat falls in the same generation of the KaDeWe building…(and in the same area, as well).

It’s Prussian and massive…at the time of building quite an exploit.

Another masterpiece of the days just before WWI is the U-bahn 4, and its magnificient stations! This one is Rathaus Schoeneberg, the prettiest in town and one of the first…at the time of construction its name was Stadtpark Schoeneberg, you can still see the old name in mosaic letters.

Here we are in 100%  Schoeneberg treasure territory…The U-bahn connecting the Schoeneberg village to Berlin was built for ladies to go to KaDeWe shopping in an Augenblick!

This is the only station in Berlin from which you can admire ducks diving and herons fishing while waiting for the tube inside the cozy french-window tunnel. A tunnel with a view…an U-bahn with windows…that’s Industriekultur…pragmatism plus beauty.

Hum…almost Art Deco-ish, isn’t it?

Yes…the form is definitely following the function…this pillar is beautifully crafted, yet it is definitely a pillar, no useless iron with bolts. We’re definitely in the era of Industriekultur, when technology had still a craftmanship soul and craftsmen and ironsmiths had branding power. Do visit the Museum of Technology and you will dive into railway beauty! But let’s not part from the lane of this post…

The U-bahnlinie 4 was built around 1908, it is just 2,9 km long, and MeinMann and I call it “our own private underground”. Viktoria-Louise Platz station (and square) are also beautiful, and one wonders how nice Bayerisches Platz had to be at the time of construction…sadly now a lot must be left to imagination due to bombings during WWII…it was a beauty in 1935.

Well, let’s get to the terminus station, Nollendorfplatz, the station with a fancy hat! In front of the station there is another Neoclassical-almost Art Deco building, constructed more or less in the same pre-pre-war years, the Goya…I really have to get this book by Susanne Twardawa about Nollendorfplatz…it’s a Kiez full of history and central in the Berlin history.

I try to visualize those building sites, in between 1908 and 1914…a new neighbourhood in the making, modern U-bahn systems, and a brand new cafe’ and shopping district to serve the new citizens…

80 years later, Form still follows Function…

In 2009 Bauhaus celebrates 80 years…good good!

An interesting article on Bauhaus appeared a year ago on IHT…”How Bauhaus was shaped into greatness”…check it out…

“In Weimar in 1919, Walter Gropius founded the State Bauhaus. It went on to become world famous as the leading modernist art school. This special anniversary is now being marked by an equally special exhibition. Berlin Martin Gropius Bau will be hosting The Bauhaus Model, the first ever joint exhibition by the three Bauhaus institutions: the Bauhaus Archiv in Berlin, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and the Foundation of Weimar Classics”. (source: website)