In this post we break down just how expensive it is to rent or buy in the German capital. If you want the current average prices by neighbourhood, just scroll down.
Evolution of Prices: Property prices in Berlin are no longer the good deal they once were. Rents have risen about 60% since 2014. The average price to buy was 1500 EUR/m2 in 2011, and it’s now 5000 EUR/m2. Berlin had the world’s fastest growing property prices.
People used to move here because the rent was ridiculously cheap, if you were used to places like London or Paris. Get used to the fact that it’s no longer the case! And try not to think: ‘had I only bought ten years ago’. It’s spilled milk, as they say.
Nonetheless: an apartment in Berlin is still less than half the cost of the average apartment in Paris (which is 32 EUR/m2 for a rental, compared to Berlin’s average of 14 EUR/m2). The price to buy in Berlin averages 5000 EUR/m2, which is half of Paris’s 10 000 EUR/m2. It’s still cheaper here, just not as cheap as it used to be.
But I wouldn’t forget that the rapid increases in price have been extremely difficult for local Berliners and those on fixed incomes.
Cold versus Warm: Apartments are priced ‘warm’ or ‘cold’ (not including utilities). For a 50 sq- meter apartment, one can add about 2,5 EUR/m2 per month, or an extra €125 /month, for utility fees.
Price Controls: Note that city initiatives to stop rental increases seem to be working (the ‘Mietpreisbremse’, or rental ‘brake’). This means that the expensive neighbourhoods have not fluctuated all that much since the previous (2018) edition of this guide. Now they hover around €16 / sq meter, only a couple percentage points over what they cost a couple years ago. That said, finding an apartment in one of them is what’s tough. The real change is that previously cheaper neighbourhoods (Alt-Treptow, Wedding, and Moabit), which used to cost, maybe €9, are quickly rising up to the level where, say, Kreuzberg has been capped. Moabit used to cost €9/ sq meter three years ago, now it’s the same price as Mitte on average (because of some luxury building), although there are cheaper pockets.
Average rents: Cold costs per square metre are about the following in each neighbourhood for unfurnished apartments (2019, on average, taken from what I saw on immowelt.de, wohnungsboerse.net and similar sites). Newly built apartments or furnished apartments can be much more expensive:
-Mitte: approx. €18 / sq meter (€900 for 50 sq meters per month)
-Moabit: €17/ sq meter (€850 per month for 50 sq meters)
-Prenzlauer Berg: €16 / sq meter (€800 for 50 sq meters per month)
-Kreuzberg: approx. €16 / sq meter (€800 per month for 50 sq meters)
-Friedrichshain: €16 / sq meter (€800 per month for 50 sq meters)
-Alt Treptow (‘lower Kreuzberg’): €15/ sq meter (€750 per month for 50 sq meters)
***€14 / sq meter Berlin Average***
-Schöneberg: €14/ sq meter (€700 per month for 50 sq meters)
-Neukölln: €13/ sq meter (€650 per month for 50 sq meters)
-Wedding: €13/ sq meter (€650 per month for 50 sq meters)
-Weißensee: €11/ sq meter (€550 per month for 50 sq meters)
-Lichtenberg €11 /sq meter (€550 per month for 50 sq meters)
-Spandau €10 /sq meter (€500 per month for 50 sq meters)
REMEMBER: To add to the above warm costs, plus about €30 for electricity, plus about €30 phone/internet… approx. €200 + more for 50 m2!
While these are average rents for people living in these neighbourhoods, expect to pay a little more for a new lease.
Average Cost to Buy: according to Immobilienscout and similar sites are now more than:
€7500 / sq meter in Mitte
€6500 / sq meter in Charlottenburg
€6000 / sq meter in Kreuzberg
€5500 / sq meter in Schoeneberg
€5500 / sq meter in Prenzlauer Berg
€5500 / sq meter in Moabit
€5500 / sq meter in Friedrichshain
***€5000 / sq meter Berlin Average***
€5000 / square meter in Neukölln. (It’s no longer possible to buy an 80 sq meter apartment in Neukölln for €100 000 unless you go through a forced auction).
€4500 / sq meter in Wedding
€4500 / sq meter in Lichtenberg
€3500 / sq meter in Spandau
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(the author asserts his right to copyright, revised 04/2019)