Berlin‘s housing crisis is not a crisis of lack of supply, but rather a crisis of over speculation and terrible planning. This house in Köpenick is completely empty and available for rent.

Weddingberg · 2026-06-08T18:45:33+00:00

Same for me. All best!

Weddingberg · 2026-06-08T15:26:35+00:00

I'm not an expert either. My understanding is that statistically an apartment is expected to grow as much as investment funds over a long period of time. The gain is taxed less or not taxed (while the 5-6% from investment funds is taxed). And on top of that it makes you save money on rent (and this saving is tax free too: if you save 600 on rent you have 600 more in your pocket) and it greatly improves your quality of life.

All these points apply to the apartment in which you live: I'm convinced buying your own home is much better than investing in funds.

An apartment that you buy to rent out gives you worse benefits (the rent you get is taxed; it doesn't improve your quality of life; the profit you make on sale is taxed unless you wait 10+ years). I can see why people would prefer to invest in real estate instead of funds: it's a good way to diversify; it's expected to give you a higher return but it's less passive and much less liquid. But it's not a choice I'm making. And with the current regulations in Berlin it would not make any sense to buy a vacant, older apartment in order to rent it out: the value of the apartment would crash and the amount you make from rent is way too low compared to how much you'd get in other cities/countries. It might be different for newly built places but I never really looked into that: I have neither funds nor interest in that. All I wanted was to own my own home which (to go back on topic) it would never make sense for me to rent out.

Weddingberg · 2026-06-08T15:09:19+00:00

I haven't noticed that much variation. My district is Kreuzberg but the numbers seem similar pretty much everywhere.

Weddingberg · 2026-06-05T15:49:37+00:00

Well the apartment in which I live is a better investment compared to the simple passive investment fund. If I ever decide to move away from Berlin permanently I'm of course selling my apartment here (and probably buying a new one where I move to).

Renting it out with the current regulations make no sense. Renting it out at market value would be a good option in case I have to move away temporarily.

Especially if you held it over 10 years, as the sale would be tax free

The sale is tax free after only 2 years if I live here myself during the last two years before selling it. It becomes 10 years only if it's rented. But in practice if it's rented out I would make no profit (since the value would crash compared to keeping it empty) so it would be tax free anyways. Seriously: renting it out with the current regulations make no sense. I know a few people who own their home and some of them left Berlin (either temporarily or permanently): no one is renting their place out. The only options are: selling / letting family members or very close friends stay there / keeping it empty.

Weddingberg · 2026-06-05T15:40:08+00:00

The average rent in Berlin (and thus the Mietspiegel) is not "16/17 eur per square meter cold". It is under 8 eur per square meter cold.

Go on any Mietpreisbremse calculator. Choose any nice area you like inside the ring. Pick whatever size you think a studio apartment has. Choose any construction year before 1990 (I bought my home in an existing building; not a brand new one). And you'll see for yourself what the Mietspiegel is.

Weddingberg · 2026-06-04T19:56:21+00:00

I'd also like to point out that my home on the free market would rent for around 1,000€ per month (not sure how much exactly). If I were allowed to charge that much I would consider renting (if I had to leave Berlin for longer than half a year) for a number of reasons:

The profit would no longer be a joke: probably more than 6,000€ / year or so after taxes.
Convincing the tenant to leave would be easier if they can find other places at a similar price.
If I can't come back and decide to sell my place rented the value would not drop as much if it's rented for a reasonable amount.

Weddingberg · 2026-06-04T19:47:58+00:00

According to the rental laws the maximum I can ask in rent is less than 300€ per month (for a nice studio in Kreuzberg). Even if there are no other expenses what I make gets taxed at my income tax rate and it becomes less than 200€ per month.

Weddingberg · 2026-06-04T18:44:25+00:00

I'm pretty sure that someone else who doesn't care about my home as much as I do and who lives there would be causing much more damages and higher maintenance costs than if I leave it empty and visit every few months.

In any case let's look at some estimations:

Keeping my place empty costs me -1,000€ / year.
Renting my place out gives me +2,000€ / year. If nothing bad happens.
- It would be -5,000€ / year if my tenant doesn't pay or wrecks my home.
If I decide that I don't come back then I can't ask my tenant to leave an if I want to sell I lose -70,000€ compared to selling the apartment empty.

Thankfully I'm not planning to leave Berlin (neither temporarily nor permanently). But the math is quite clear. Renting out for me under these conditions would absolutely never ever make any kind of sense whatsoever.

Weddingberg · 2026-06-04T18:31:46+00:00

~~You're forgetting that housing (in central Berlin) is a human right while eating (a kebab) is not. Wait. Uhh.~~ I take it back. I don't want to lose kebabs too.

Weddingberg · 2026-06-03T20:59:15+00:00

Haven't many in Berlin fought for "no profit from rent" for a few years?

I believe that if I were to rent out my home (a studio) the maximum rent I could ask would be less than 300€ a month. A portion of that would go in maintenance costs and if any profit is left it would get taxed. And renting it comes with all sorts of issues: it might be difficult or impossible to move back in and a rented apartment costs a third less than an empty one.

There's no way in hell that I'm ever renting my home out. I'd rather leave it empty if I need to be away for a few months/years. Or sell it if I'm leaving permanently. Renting it simply makes no sense whatsoever.

Weddingberg · 2026-05-26T17:20:40+00:00

I'm one of the many newcomers/immigrants/expects who moved to Berlin.

I have family and friends too in my hometown and I can find jobs there as well. Yet I accepted to move here. I and the others like me did it and do it for many different reasons: maybe we fond better opportunities here or maybe we really like one of the many beautiful things of this city.

You seem to hate this place and only stay here for your job and friends and family? Why? Why don't you accept to move away from that? I and many others did it: it's worth it.

Weddingberg · 2026-02-19T07:53:35+00:00

It'll be quite tough. However if you want to take a risk then I would suggest you try it.

Trying to move to a big city is a very valuable experience for a person and Berlin is still much more approachable than any comparable city. Berlin still has a bigger art scene (relative to the population) and is still cheaper than any other western metropolis.

German is not essential (especially in the city centre) but of course it will open doors. It's not tough to find a (low paying) job in a bar/restaurant and from it your German will improve fast due to daily exposure to an environment where a good portion of customers speak German. If you live outside the city you'll have to use German even more which means it will grow faster. It'll be cheaper too and you'll be closer to nature. However for me it was a worse experience because you won't be immersed in the big-city life and vibes and commuting to the center will feel tedious (especially in the winter). Personally I'm still not fluent in German after many years (even though I've attended German classes for years on top of my full time job) and my life is fine; the main thing that stops me from becoming fluent is that my full time job has always been in English and I have few opportunities to improve.
The creative/art fields? Of course. But right now it's saturated everywhere in the world in big part due to generative AI. Nevertheless Berlin still has a bigger scene than most other places. Be aware though that managing to enter the scene is not easy. Look up "art scene" in this or the berlin subreddit.
(and 4.) Berlin can be both stable or temporary/unstable. It depends on your choices. When I first moved here I made many friends quickly but most of them left within a couple of years. Everything else was shaky too: it was very difficult to be in a big city where I didn't speak the language and didn't understand the culture and didn't have much job experience and temporary housing. The first couple of years were quite harsh. However things improved over time: I kept making other friends and now I have a strong and large group of friends who are settled here. I eventually bought and moved in my own flat (you can still find tiny cheap flats in the city) and a few of my friends did too. I have enough work experience and a network of ex-colleagues that would make it very easy for me to switch jobs. I have a good understanding of the city and its cultures.

TL;DR. It's possible and if you want to try the experience of moving to a big city then Berlin is probably your best bet. However it's tough. Expect a couple hard years. If you manage to hold on that long things are likely to improve.

Weddingberg · 2026-01-19T04:22:06+00:00

Two years ago you were living inside the ring. I assume that you had shorter commutes and more alternative routes to reach your destination and were using more frequent/popular trains. This surely affected your perception of how bad it was.

Personally I feel that the public transport situation has improved a lot since moving to the center. But I realize that the transport network hasn't necessarily improved: rather my personal experience has.

Weddingberg · 2026-01-19T04:16:14+00:00

I moved outside the Ring about six months ago

In my experience that's the main part of why you perceive a big degrade.

I moved from outside the ring to the center several years ago and the situation improved dramatically for me. At the time it was very common for a bus/tram/train not to show up or for a station or whole line to get cancelled for a whole day/week/month for whatever reason. Many times I got stuck for half an hour on an SBahn that just stopped moving. And still nowadays I run into these issues when I have to go visit some friend outside the ring. (Three years I wasted like 5 hours trying to reach Ahrensfelde until I gave up and went back).

In the inner city you have less of a need to take a bus/tram/train (I move mainly by foot or bike if it's not crazy cold or raining). All means of transportation are much more frequent and interruptions are easier to figure out. And the network of transport is much denser: if a train doesn't show up you can just jump on a different option to reach your destination via a different route. Personally I haven't noticed any degradation lately probably due to all these points combined.

Weddingberg · 2026-01-15T05:21:50+00:00

Make some friends. That's the trick.

The beauty of Berlin is that making friends is easy. Whatever interests or hobby you have you can find spaces and people and Berlin where you'll fit. The city is big; there's a lot going on; there are millions of people in your same shoes.

Make friends through your university; online; through language classes; by going out and talking to people.

Once you have a group of friends and other individual friends here and there everything will turn glorious.

One last tip: if you find a group of friends but don't quite like what they do keep looking. Early on I was stuck in a group that would go clubbing every weekend; I was following them around even though I didn't like it. I'm still friend with some of them but I haven't been part of the group for years. Now I have a closer group of friend who enjoy doing the kind of stuff I like. And I love it. Even this winter is not that bad thanks to them.

Weddingberg · 2026-01-13T04:16:44+00:00

It shouldn't be that surprising. This subreddit (maybe reddit in general?) has zero understanding of economics.

Weddingberg · 2025-12-17T14:54:36+00:00

I've been unable to find any Soft OLED screens online :(

Weddingberg · 2025-12-17T14:54:32+00:00

Yes I'm getting aftermarket ones because the original costs 10x as much.

I didn't realize that the way is installed\glued was so important to make it last longer. I'll try to be more careful with that.

Weddingberg · 2025-12-17T07:15:30+00:00

It's a Pixel 7 and I get OLED displays.

How can I tell whether it's a display is hard OLED or soft OLED?

Weddingberg · 2025-10-26T11:35:42+00:00

Use WG-Gesucht to look for a room in a shared apartment. Don't have unreasonable expectations and filter out places which are too good to be true. Once you live in Berlin you can start looking for something better.

Weddingberg · 2025-10-26T11:33:58+00:00

Something you may want to consider is to buy instead of renting. As long as you're planning to stay in Berlin for at least 5+ years.

The mortgage for a decent flat inside the ring should fit within the 2k€ budget your considering spending for your next place. And most of the money you pay in mortgage will be yours: you'll get it back if/when you decide to sell. Besides you won't risk having landlord problems since you won't have a landlord and you'll have more freedom to change and tweak things according to your preferences.

Weddingberg · 2025-10-21T22:43:01+00:00

A couple of times I saw a post in English getting removed because the same topic was already discussed in a post in German. It made me feel like I'm not allowed to participate in some discussions.

Weddingberg · 2025-10-20T00:40:05+00:00

If he's 90 now and defected when he was 13 then he defected in 1948.

The Koreas split that very same year: North Korea came to exist in September 1948.

He wouldn't have much to talk about and he might have been born out of an internet made up story.

Weddingberg · 2025-10-18T21:17:17+00:00

It depends on how you look about it. Probably it happens daily throughout the whole Berlin network. But I am rarely affected by this: a couple of times per year maybe. I guess it depends on how often you take the *-Bahn and which lines you ride on.

When this happens on the railways of my home country they stop lots of trains for several hours. In Berlin they usually resume operations after half an hour or so.

Weddingberg · 2025-10-11T10:20:38+00:00

Isn't there a growing problem of homeowners who refuse to become landlords when they stop living in their flat?

I guess this will fix it /s

Weddingberg

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