how we bought a flat in Berlin, and why we bought a second one
It took some time, to refurbish them, to stitch up proper mini-websites, but eventually here they are. Click on the links on the right…
The 1920s flat has a surface of only 54 square meters – plus a mezzanine! – and is located in a beautiful Altbau. The 1960s flat is cuddly, only 30 square meters but its location is magic!
Both are located in the Bayerisches Viertel in Schöneberg…our ideal neighborhood!
One year ago we started this blog. Two main reasons: to report about our “flat in Berlin” experience. And to keep track of our renovation adventure, which had just started and needed a bit of a public kick – an official timekeeper online!
One year later, we are going to spend soon our first ever real holiday in our flat in Berlin, having dedicated 1/4 of our weekends in the past 12 months to blitz-trips to Berlin in order to follow the renovation works, sort out paperwork, choose tiles, buy furniture and make the flat feel like our home in Berlin.
One year later, and 3/4 of a global financial crisis later, we’re happy about our choice. It is true, other real estate markets plunged so deep that now there are several “cheap” real estate markets in the world. But we were not just looking for a bottom-fishing real estate opportunity, we wanted something very specific: an apartment with good bones in Schöneberg at a reasonable price, not a seaside flat in Spain or a maisonette in England. In the meantime, garage prices in Rome plunged by 3%. Maybe the Italian real estate market will undergo a correction one day, but the reality is, a 1-car garage in Rome still costs more than a flat in one of the nicest areas of Berlin. Period. Continue reading ‘One year later…1 candle on the cake!’
It is always difficult to figure out the exact ergonomics of a living space, first on the paper with the architect project, then when you do some little changes as work unfolds. Again when you have to furnish the place and imagine how you will move around in the house.
This week A flat in Berlin underwent its user friendliness test. Even more demanding: a”friend friendliness” test!
Friends flocking to the city for the Bread and Butter fashion week stayed at our flat. Rome’s monsoon season was responsible for their adventurous arrival in Berlin at 2am at Schönefeld, but eventually the ladies were able to take a well-deserved night’s sleep in quiet Schöneberg, before tackling their busy schedule of meetings at the fair the next day.
Apparently the user friendliness test was passed with flying colors! They found the right things in the right drawers, they liked the big window and the solutions we adopted. Nutella and Wasa in the pantry were a welcome comfort food after their long hours in the aircraft stuck on the tarmac waiting for takeoff… 
I know the feeling!!!
Now that’s what I call a well-documented analysis. The Irish Times reports on Berlin, the fractured metropolis. The anxious punk?
Graveyard of ambitions?
A collection of individuals pursuing their interesting paths outside national ghettos?
A local management culture difficult to grasp?
A city attracting people who don’t know what to do next?
Or a place where – if you know what you want and fight for it in an equally disciplined way as you would do in Paris or London – you can find an unparalleled quality of living (after gray-sky vaccination)?
Find out…
THE IRISH IN BERLIN
Is Berlin a capital of creativity, as the hype would have you believe, or rather a slacker’s paradise, where every day is a Saturday? DEREK SCALLY talks to some Irish immigrants who have managed to forge careers there.
JOHN LENNON ONCE remarked that life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. For many Irish, the German capital is a place they never intended to make their home but, to stretch Lennon’s logic, they have found Berlin to be a fine spot to live while making other arrangements.
“The ideal neighborhood” is the most visited page of this blog, since ever. I guess this has to do with the fact that we all long for finding some sort of village-like harmony (but not flatness). Among the points of the ideal place there is the sense of community, call it “no big retail chains around” or “feeling safe in your whereabouts”.
I quite liked Mr Brule’ s article comparing Lisbon, with its ancient haberdashery and grocery-style beauty stores, with Notting Hill no man’s land in the making. Continue reading ‘the haberdashery factor’
Monocle Weekly – February 1st 2009
With these grey and rainy sundays IN ROME it is a pleasure to listen to Monocle’s Weekly radio broadcast, at lunchtime.
This week Mr Brule’ and guests discuss about innovative, small-scale shops …and that’s in Berlin.
And also, about innovation in printed media, guess where…in Berlin, again.
With the crisis beating into cookie-cutter big-scale operations, sustainable models like Berlin win. As per our Ideal Neighborhood list…
Well, there’s no empirical evidence. Not much research either. We have absolutely nothing against old Mitte.
It’s full of history and icons, ancien and glitzy architecture. But it’s not our idea of Kiez. It’s overwhelming. It does not fit our very personal Ideal Neighbourhood List of Criteria, ie the Kiez ideal either for living (ie renting) or for spending a few days (B&B or FeWo).
Of course we like adjacent areas, like Moabit, Hansaviertel, Tiergarten… But the pure Mitte, ie the SuperCentre, it’s a bit too central to be called a city village. From Brandenburger Tor to Alexander Platz, there’s simply too much.
There is plenty of info out there if you are a Mitte supporter. An ocean of information. For instance, Viaggi del Sole 24 Ore just published a Berlin guide with plenty of good reasons to buy in Mitte, supported by enthousiastic real estate agents interviews…
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