Mitte is a central borough of Berlin consisting of six sub-entities: Mitte proper, Gesundbrunnen, Hansaviertel, Moabit, Tiergarten and Wedding. It is one of two boroughs (the other being Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg) that were formerly divided between East and West Berlin. Mitte is not only a trendy neighborhood, but it is also home to many of Berlin’s most famous landmarks and sights. In addition to its creative scene, the district offers several leisure and nightlife options, particularly around Oranienburger Straße.
It includes Berlin’s historic core and some of the most significant tourist attractions, including Museum Island, the Reichstag and the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Checkpoint Charlie, the TV tower, the Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden, Potsdamer Platz, and Alexanderplatz, the last five of which are situated in former East Berlin.
Here are some fabulous snapshots of Mitte, Berlin captured in 1991 by S. Dekind.
“why can’t we have the cheap rents of berlin in the 90’s?”
berlin in the 90’s:
nobody expects a 100 sqm apartment in Mitte for 100€ like in the 90ies. But 2500 – 3000€ for the same is just too much. Nobody can handle this price gouging today
Unfortunately, people can and people do. Just not average people. The issue is the lack of housing.
The lack of housing is not the issue, but precisely two laws. And the market prices now don’t mean that people with a running contract paying them. It only means every new contract is overpriced. Hence, your conclusion that people already afford is flawed
The demand is so high that only the rich can afford it. Just because you don’t know it doesn’t mean it’s not true. I’m not saying it’s not overpriced, I’m saying it’s overpriced for a reason: demand>market. And some people don’t mind that price.
clearly people are handling it, otherwise there wouldn’t be such a shortage. sucks to say but it’s true. market in berlin is still way more affordable than paris, london, munich, amsterdam…
The available amount of apartments for rent dropped by 60% since 2020 when Mietendeckel was introduced, which means nobody is moving anymore from cheap apartments as they CAN NOT afford the overpriced rents.
Your gutfeeling on this topic is simply incorrect
and since 15.4.2021 the mietendeckel isn’t a thing.
That’s correct. The mietendeckel caused the initial drop of available apartments due to legal insecurity of the mietendeckel. Then the law was rejected by Bundesverfassungsgericht and the market didn’t recover since.
If people would afford the high rents you would see way more offers on Immobilien scout similar to like 4y ago.
Landlords also use loopholes much more to rent out barely furnished apartments to increase rent.
And here we go with a nice loop: nobody moves out, no empty apartments, low supply on new apartments, high demand, higher prices aaaaaaand nobody moves out aso.
This is not an issue in Vienna for example or Paris. They have better working regulations, because most people can’t afford 2k-3k€ just for rent alone
paris is more expensive than berlin and salaries are worse. vienna is an overly dense city inside of a small country with a protectionist/insular economy… people always use it as a comparable city but it’s not the same or even similar at all.
regardless, people are still moving here and the population grows every year. old contracts may increase scarcity, yes, but vacant flats do not stay on the market for long. people are still taking them.
Last year we saw an increase in inhabitants mainly by Ukrainian refugees. If you remove these numbers then Berlin is actually shrinking due to the housing crisis.
I gonna end it here
“you see, if you ignore the people moving here, you’ll see that people aren’t moving here” – you
What nonsense argument. These are refugees who are not necessarily need to pay for housing and they usually don’t live in apartments of the housing market. Sorry, but it seems you lack of information. Bye
I actually think it looks nicer than today (just my personal preference).
It’s so weird not seeing 3 billion tourists all taking pictures of someone’s döner vomit etc. but in a way this also looks depressing in how empty and concrete it is. i would like a happy medium.
Imagine thinking Berlin is overcrowded by tourists. Have you been anywhere else ?
We would be happy to send them to you.
March 1991, guys from my school recorded this song (oldschool East Berlin HipHop) if you want to see Friedrichshain instead of Mitte:
https://youtu.be/IF9nBmhY4NM?si=2YI2bCvCkyL5YkX7
Did the communists hate trees or something?
The achievements of socialist urban planning were often located much further down the pyramid of needs than our tree-loving needs today. It is easy to overlook the lack of a tree when electricity, running water and heating are available for the first time. Especially as very small places (which are often perceived as closer to nature) were politically unpopular. Back then, people realized what economies of scale could do to lift people out of absolute poverty … and village life does not scale.
However, I could also imagine that maybe that is not true and the left simply hate trees. Damp rags on gnarled branches stuck in the dirt.
They are capable of anything really. 🙁
In 1991, after four decades of socialist rule?
I just explained what many people back then might have associated with this style of urban planning and architecture.
And while updates to living conditions in Berlin probably weren’t as pronounced as at some Soviet outpost, people usually still expected better living standards from those developments.
This context just lessens over the decades and today, free from any of those associations, we find it hilariously tasteless.
It’s not like there are more trees planted nowadays…
What? Of course they are
Berlin, der Krieg und die Autos, eine Tragödie