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Berlin real estate – a planned economy Anyone who has ever read any reports on Germany’s property markets will know that the real estate economy in the country is broken down into a number of sub-sectors, both in terms of geography and property types. Given the country’s federal structure, with 16 individual states and city states, there is not a single, dominant property market in the way that …
July, 2015
As far as housing is concerned, and as mentioned in a previous blog post, Germany can be seen pretty much as a nation of tenants rather than owner-occupiers. In major cities such as Berlin and Munich, between 75-85% of the population currently live in rented apartments, which means that only 15-25% are homeowners—extremely low figures when compared to the situation in other European countries. Similar, but different Why do such …
Mietminderung (the right to withhold all or part of your monthly rent payment) was one of the first words that sprang to mind as I read this article, part of the Guardian’s series on “Generation Rent,” on my way to work this morning. High rents + poor housing = frustration It seems that lots of tenants are not only complaining about the high cost of renting an apartment …
How to get the perfect translation results Translation, like any other form of creative writing, depends on a number of factors. Understandably, having a native-speaker translator who is familiar with your subject area helps a great deal. Direct communication with your translator or translation project manager will also make it easier to coordinate the entire process and enable you to pass on your individual specifications and preferences. Using a translator or …
Grunderwerbsteuer is Germany’s tax on the transfer of real property (equivalent to stamp duty in the UK). Whether you are a developer buying land earmarked for construction, a potential owner-occupier considering a condominium or an investor on the market for a property portfolio, all transactions involving land and property will be subject to Grunderwerbsteuer. Read on to find out more about the tax, how it is levied and how to reduce the amount …
Mitch Fuqua [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons How do you deal with betreuen? There are some German words that just don’t have a single, direct equivalent in English. A few weeks back, we looked at the verb “realisieren” and today the lucky word is “betreuen”. If you want to know more about this verb and its related noun “Betreuung”, all you have to do is read on! Betreuen in …
Anyone who has taken a stroll along Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm will have come across a number of landmark buildings, both old and new (and often a combination of the two). From the Filmbühne Wien, now home to Apple’s flagship Berlin store, to the Mendelsohn Building at Lehniner Platz, home to the Schaubühne Theatre, with hundreds of the city’s characteristic, pre-1918 Altbaus in between. One such striking building is Haus Cumberland, at …