令人垂涎的德国房产，投资的最佳时机已到

http://soufun.com/news/2012-12-03/9101016.htm@
2012-12-03 18:12德国搜房 germanysoufun 

[摘要]尽管欧元危机，人们对于世界金融市场有越来越多的悲观情绪，可是我们可以看到在德国的房地产出现了积极的趋势。德国的房地产市场比金融危机前有更大的发展机遇，而且更具吸引力。

尽管欧元危机，人们对于世界金融市场有越来越多的悲观情绪，可是我们可以看到在德国的房地产出现了积极的趋势。德国的房地产市场比金融危机前有更大的发展机遇，而且更具吸引力。

当在12个欧洲国家（包括德国）进行了一项调查，一些公司和投资者评估了欧洲各地的房地产价格。调查显示德国的住宅和零售物业形式大好，而且在继续朝一个积极的方向发展，十分的具有吸引力，价格也进一步在上涨，几乎所有的受访者都对德国和德国的房地产市场持乐观态度，比其他欧洲国家更加明显。这个积极的趋势可能要归因于德国有稳固的经济基础为投资房地产。
从房地产基金、银行、住房协会以及房地产公司中的调查显示，99％的受访者认为德国房地产市场是“有吸引力”，甚至是“非常有吸引力”的。与欧洲其他国家的市场比较，52％的受访者觉得德国的房地产市场是非常有吸引力的，而且很多投资者也纷纷表示，德国房产交易正在蓬勃发展。
德国经过了长期稳定的住房价格后，特别是在在大城市，住宅物业的价格也开始上升快速，而且对公寓的需求特别的高。在德国房产还没有出现泡沫化的形式下，德国的房产是非常令人垂涎的，是时候值得投入了。

寻求安全投资，德国房地产受追捧 German real estate booms as people seek security

 http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2012/12/13/german-real-estate-booms-as-people-seek-security?page=2
December 13, 2012 

By DAVID RISING, Associated Press
BERLIN (AP) — Buying a home in Berlin is widely viewed as one of the safest investments a German, or any European, can make.
That is why some real-estate experts are worried the market could get overheated.
Home prices in Germany's largest cities are booming. Building permits and home ownership rates are climbing fast. And the percentage of foreigners snapping up second homes in Germany is on the rise.
In Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and four other red-hot markets, prices surged an average of 10 percent during the first half of 2012, according to Deutsche Bank. German central Bundesbank data show increases of 9 percent in 2011 in the country's urban centers and 5 percent the year before. Things may not be as frothy as Las Vegas, Phoenix or Miami during the peak of the U.S. boom, but it is bordering on breathtaking in a country where home prices declined or stagnated from 2000 through 2009.
The rate at which home prices are rising in Germany is not sustainable in the long term, says Steffen Sebastian, the chairman of the University of Regensburg's Institute for Real Estate Finance. However, Sebastian adds, there won't be a repeat in Germany of the Spanish and Irish financial crises, where real estate markets disintegrated and economies were brought close to collapse after overextended homebuyers and banks were hit by the Great Recession of 2008.
"When we talk about bubbles of course the market in Germany cannot be compared with the U.S. market," he said. "Usually the other bubbles are driven by excessive use of leverage by borrowing money but in Germany borrowing was always quite heavily regulated and this is not going to change."
The recent fervor for German real estate is a consequence of the European debt crisis.
To stimulate economic growth, the European Central Bank has driven its benchmark rate to a record low of 0.75 percent and that is helping to drive down consumer borrowing costs across Europe. As mortgage rates fall in Germany, many are jumping at the opportunity to finance home purchases, pushing Germany's home ownership rate to 53 percent. That's up 10 percentage points from a decade ago, according to figures from LBS, Germany's largest mortgage lender.
Because of the ECB's interest rate policies, some Germans are fearful that borrowing and spending could rise too quickly, pushing up the prices of everyday goods to unhealthy levels. While inflation remains low in Germany — it's 2 percent compared to 2.2 percent across Europe — Germans have long feared the threat of rising prices ever since the hyper-inflation the country experienced in the 1920s.
As a result, Germans are still looking to protect the value of their savings from inflation. And they are turning to real estate as an investment. If inflation heats up, they can always raise the rent or sell their home at a higher price than they paid for it.
"Here in Germany that's a very emotional issue," said economist Michael Voigtlaender, head of the Real Estate Economics department of the Cologne Institute for Economic Research.
Even if the market does bubble, Germans are still paying large parts of the sale prices with their savings — rather than high-interest loans — so they stand to lose money they have, rather than money they don't have, which would cushion the blow of a bubble burst.
People across Europe are also snapping up German real estate. With their economies shrinking and banks paying very little interest on savings, Italians, Spaniards, French and others view Germany as a haven, and its housing market as an undervalued asset class.
Italians Andrea Bricconi and Claudia Mosca recently traveled to Berlin with one goal in mind: to buy a second home.
"It's our favorite city in Europe and we have some money to invest, so we decided to try it here," said Bricconi, 42, who lives in Austria and works as a marketing manager at a technology company. "It's much cheaper than fancy places like Paris or London."
"We like to think outside the box," said Mosca, 38. "And we like the idea that it's a vibrant city, especially with the interests that we have — music, cinema, dance — it's really the place to be in Europe now."

The couple couldn't find as good an investment opportunity in Italy and they say Germany's rising rents and home prices make it a safer place to get a return on their money.
Within a day, the married couple with two kids fell in love with an apartment in their €150,000 price range in Berlin's trendiest neighborhood, Prenzlauer Berg.
Bricconi and Mosca say the apartment in Berlin will not be just financial investment. They'll rent it as a holiday apartment, use it themselves when they are in the capital for the annual Berlinale film festival or just on vacation or let their kids — now 4 and 7 — use it if they go to university in Berlin. They can even see themselves ending up in the city full time.
Ziegert Bank and Real Estate Consulting, one of Berlin's largest real estate agents, says that more than one in six of its clients this year have been from outside Germany. Last year, it was roughly one in ten.
Another reason for the increasing interest in Germany's real estate is its economy, which has continued to grow — albeit at a slow rate — despite the financial crisis wracking the other 16 European Union countries that use the euro. The Berlin government currently expects 0.8 percent growth this year and 1 percent in 2013.
To help Italians, like Bricconi and Mosca, to find properties in Berlin, Ruth Stirati has set up a website, Case a Berlino. She says the renewed interest in German property from her clients coincided with the European financial problems. Clients were worried that a financial crisis at home would wipe out their savings, she said.
"They thought we are going to end like Argentina they are going to close our bank accounts, they are going to take our money, so my clients started panicking."
Adding to the property market's stability is the tradition for Germans to pay large parts of the sales price with savings, rather than high-interest loans.
German banks normally demand a deposit worth 20 percent of the property's value. A typical mortgage has its rate fixed for 10 years, after which time the homeowner agrees another rate for a new term. Thirty-year mortgages are not uncommon.
These factors mean that German homebuyers are less at risk of finding themselves unable to repay their mortgages in bad times. Fewer repossessions and foreclosures, in turn, help avoid sharp drops in housing prices.
Berlin is among Germany's most attractive real estate markets — especially for foreigners looking for mid-range investments. Average apartment prices are at about €2,000 per square meter as compared with Munich's €3,300. By comparison, apartments in Paris fetch between €6,000 and €12,000 a square meter, depending upon the neighborhood, and properties in some prime London neighborhoods cost as much as €17,775 a square meter.
The reason for the big price difference, says the University of Regensburg's Sebastian, is that other European countries' economies are focused on one or two cities — which draws people there and helps keep real estate prices up — Germany's is dispersed over many cities.
"Foreigners have come in waves to the German housing market, and they keep telling us the prices in Germany are undervalued, especially in Berlin, but they always misunderstand that Germany is not the same market as any other European country," he said.

《經濟學人》稱：歐洲危機助推德國房地產價格升高

據《經濟學人》網站11月23日報導，德國房價開始出現泡沫危險，柏林、慕尼黑、漢堡和科隆等德國大城市房價2011年增長了9%，預計2012年全年增長11%。
　　對歐元的恐慌是推高房價的主要原因，不僅德國富人投資房地產，外國人也將德國視為投資天堂。德意志銀行稱，外國資金主要來自俄羅斯和盧森堡。多數專家分析，房地產價格不會過高，可通過控制貸款防止市場過熱。但一些人士擔憂，貸款利率已保持10年穩定，如提高利率，會使許多人陷入困境。另外，房貸占德國很多小銀行投資業務的50%，一個泡沫可能意味著德國整個銀行系統的麻煩。

http://news.sina.com.tw/article/20121127/8404370.html

北京新浪網 (2012-11-27 07:28)

Germany to Sell TLG’s Apartments to TAG for $275 Million

 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-19/germany-to-sell-tlg-s-homes-to-tag-immobilien-for-275-million.html     

 By Dalia Fahmy - Nov 19, 2012 7:59 PM GMT+0800     BLOOMBERG

The German government agreed to sell the residential arm of TLG Group, a real-estate management company, for about 215 million euros ($275 million) to reduce its deficit.
TLG Wohnen GmbH, owner of 11,350 homes in eastern German cities including Berlin, will be bought by TAG Immobilien AG (TEG), a Hamburg-based landlord that will assume 256 million euros of debt as a result of the deal, TAG said in a statement today. The government plans to choose a buyer for TLG Immobilien GmbH, the company’s commercial-property unit, in the weeks ahead, according to a separate statement.

“TAG was only interested in buying TLG Wohnen, and presented a long-term strategy for the properties’ maintenance and further development,” the Finance Ministry said.
The government is seeking to take advantage of demand for German real estate as investors look for a safe place to put their money amid the European debt crisis. Investors bought 8.67 billion euros of apartments in the first nine months, more than twice as much as a year earlier, according to data compiled by BNP Paribas SA. (BNP)
TLG replaced Treuhand Gesellschaft, the company that oversaw the sale and restructuring of thousands of companies after the collapse of communist East Germany. Many of TLG Wohnen’s assets are Cold War-era concrete apartment blocks known as Plattenbauten for their prefabricated panel construction.

Barclays Plc (BARC) advised the German government on the sale.
TAG will sell new shares to help pay for the purchase, which will increase the number of homes it owns to 69,000, TAG said. The deal is expected to close in the coming weeks, according to TAG’s statement. In a sales prospectus obtained by Bloomberg, TLG Wohnen was valued at 482 million euros. TLG Immobilien was valued at 1.38 billion euros.
The German government shelved a plan to sell TLG in 2008 because of the global financial crisis. Some German politicians, including leaders of the Linke party, the successor to former East Germany’s ruling communists, said they didn’t want the properties sold to financial investors who might violate Germany’s tenancy laws.
TAG agreed to terms protecting tenants and employees, the government said in its statement.

The Finance Ministry targets a federal deficit of 17.1 billion euros in 2012.

危機中德國更顯強勢 柏林儼成歐洲新首都

鉅亨網陳怡君 綜合報導　　2012-10-24  21:20　
http://news.cnyes.com/Content/20121024/kfnds2u4o1iku_2.shtml

柏林城市的形象與帝國之城聯結不起來。新的政府大樓─總理辦公室、聯邦議院、外交部─以大片玻璃與自然光設計，象徵透明與民主。而眾所周 知，德國財政部藏在空軍舊總部裡頭。然而那些宏偉壯觀的建築如菩提樹大道（Unter den Linden）、布蘭登堡門（Brandenburg gate），大多是普魯士王國的遺產。現代柏林的臉孔親和熱切，吸引無數旅客與年輕人遠赴此地。
然而，儘管這座德國首府刻意避開皇權標幟，但柏林儼然具有歐盟實質首都的架勢。當然，比利時布魯塞爾仍是歐盟主要機構委員會與議會的所在地，只是，愈來愈多重要決策是在柏林敲定。

希臘必須退出歐元區嗎？這個國家在共同貨幣組織內的最終去留命運掌握在柏林手中。政治家將會支持更進一步紓困南歐嗎？關鍵的激辯將會在柏林聯邦議院上演。國際貨幣基金會找誰商議歐元危機？最重要的對話在德國政府與位於法蘭克福的歐洲央行舉行─而不是歐盟委員會。
《金融時報》國際事務首席評論員、著名經濟學者Gideon Rachman指出，歐元危機加速這股力量從布魯塞爾移轉到柏林的過程。德國總理梅克爾當然還是得到布魯塞爾參與高峰會，不過歐元危機促使她成為談判桌上最重要的領袖。
其它歐盟大國則拽著各自不同的苦衷，在布魯塞爾低聲下氣。西班牙、義大利是債台高築的求助者；而鑒於目前歐元成員高喊團結一心，不屬單一貨幣的成員的英國就被邊緣化了；波蘭也還沒有使用歐元且該國經濟規模甚小，無法與大國平起平坐。
那法國安在？傳統上，法德同盟是任何歐盟協議的中心，多年來，歐盟高峰會之前，總要先由法德兩國舉行會前會，還要發出兩國聯名信。薩科奇當政時，他與梅克爾的關係好得不得了，衍生「梅科奇」這個廣為流行的新聞字眼，也更加強德法兩國主導歐洲走向的強勢地位。
即使如此，許多人仍抱持懷疑態度。一位歐盟高層官員嘲弄法德根本只是各取所需，「法國需要德國來掩飾自己有多無能，德國需要法國來掩護自己有多強 大。」現在這層遮掩也被扯掉了，最近一次的歐盟高峰會前不再發布所謂的法德聯名信。相反的，法國總統歐蘭德接受歐洲媒體採訪，試圖施壓梅克爾在歐債與銀行 聯盟的建立上退讓，但在高峰會上，德國人顯然不疾不徐。
有些人認為法德同夥關係陷入低潮，但兩國終究仍將再次結盟，只是這次可能不同過往。法國與德國的權勢差距已非常明顯，而分化兩國的原因又太根深蒂固。

法國針對歐元區債券、銀行聯盟、歐盟基礎建設支出、共同社會方案提出的多種計畫，都不被柏林信任。德國人是這樣想的：這些構想的最終目的，其實是一 種取德國納稅人的錢補貼法國的計策。而德國人提出的反向建議─歐盟成員國家預算交由歐盟委員控制─在巴黎也以侵犯國家主權為由而遭到抵制。
法德關係理當重建，但兩國歧異太根本，就算達成協議恐怕也難以輕易實踐。就這方面而言，經濟相對強韌的德國，可能更加具有決定性的力量，尤其如果法國真的太不爭氣，陷入深層經濟危機的話。

德國的力量逐步增強，但柏林並不必然感到驕傲，他們心理反而矛盾。由於歷史因素，戰後德國從未貪圖扮演支配歐洲的角色。兩德統一後，德國 總宣稱自己要當「歐洲的德國」，而非「德國的歐洲」。然而，它國的財政失禁讓惱怒的德國，愈來愈朝後者前進。要求德國財政援助的代價，可能就是必須接受柏 林制定的規範與法律。
這種力量可能導致氣燄囂張，柏林街頭可能有人議論傲慢的西班牙人、高傲的英國人、虛妄的法國人、貪腐的希臘人，不過整體討論的氛圍是嚴肅、有耐心且負責任的。德國人堅稱他們對歐元與歐盟忠誠，他們會致力於讓一切運作順暢。
問題在於，如果真有問題的話，柏林的生活太甜蜜，德國繁花盛景而柏林愉悅時尚。希臘與西班牙的掙扎結束之日遙遙無期。歐元區其它地區鬧分離，益發彰顯柏林形成歐洲獨一無二首都的趨向。

全球投資者增加對歐洲房地產領域投資

發佈時間：2012/11/6      記者：美南新聞

http://www.scdaily.com/News_intro.aspx?Nid=62270

據英國《金融時報》5日報道，歐洲房地產公司Internos Global Investors認為，全球機構投資者對房地產投資的態度正在發生結構性改變，預計機構投資者將會把資產組合中所持房地產資產的比率由目前的5%-8 %提升到10%。另據地產公司仲量聯行最新數據，今年前9個月，投資者向歐洲房地產領域凈投入較去年同期顯著提高。  　　仲量聯行數據顯示，截至9月底，美國投資者向歐洲地產領域凈投入了30.3億美元，較去年同期的18.7億美元增加了62%。跨境進入歐洲房地產領域的總資金額由去年同期的70億美元上升了60%到112億美元。 　　隨著歐債危機的持續，歐洲銀行業正大力出售所持有的商業地產以鞏固資本金。摩根士丹利預計，歐洲銀行業可能將至多削減7600億美元對商業地產的風險敞口。 　　據《紐約時報》報道，由於歐洲房地產資產在歐債危機背景下降價出售，退休基金、大學捐贈基金和慈善基金會等美國各類機構投資者，目前正爭相以優惠價格從歐洲銀行購買包含商業地產抵押貸款在內的債務投資組合，並有望獲得12%-18%的收益。 　　Internos Global Investors創始人肖特表示，目前美國機構投資者正在引領全球機構投資者對歐洲房地產領域的投資熱潮，但一些歐洲本土投資者機構也開始對房地產業表現出更大興趣。

"我的柏林": 德国柏林市中心全新住宅房60平方米, 只售人民币108万 "My Berlin" Germany Berlin city centre brand new apartments 60sqm selling at 128000 Euro

 http://www.ziegertasia.com/index.php?cms=estate/estate&path=&estate_id=184

小區"我的柏林", 德国柏林市中心全新住宅房60平方米, 只售人民币1,080,000, 每平方米售@18000人民币, 易出租可代租，回报高，保值又升值! "My Berlin"; brand new project, Germany Berlin real estate 60sqm, near city centre good location, selling price Euro 128,000; easy to rent out, rental management service available, attractive rental return.

德国柏林市中心全翻新住宅房47平方米, 只售人民币56万 Germany Berlin city centre apartments 47sqm selling at 70670 Euro

http://www.ziegertasia.com/index.php?cms=estate/estate&path=&estate_id=183

德国柏林市中心全翻新住宅房47平方米, 只售人民币56万, 每平方米售@12000人民币, 易出租可代租，回报高，保值又升值! Germany Berlin real estate 47sqm, near city centre good location, selling price Euro 70670, easy to rent out, rental management service available, attractive rental return.

國際買家青睞柏林豪宅 (華爾街日報) 2012年 10月 25日

http://chinese.wsj.com/big5/20121025/lux081951.asp?source=UpFeature

柏

林低廉的租金和廢棄的倉庫孕育了眾多活力四射的夜店、畫廊和畫室，讓柏林成為歐洲最熱門的文化聖地。但這座被其市長形容為“貧窮但性感”的德國首都直到最近也只有少數幾個大型公寓項目。

現在，豪華公寓在這座人口350萬的城市急劇增多。過去一年豪華公寓的建設增長了近10倍。這種轉型証實了一個長期公認的看法，即柏林會將其“飢餓藝術家”聚集區變成世界創意產業的中心。

Kronprinzengärten Berlin

房產圖片：柏林黃金地段豪華公寓

幾 個最大的項目已經在柏林市中心的米特（Mitte）社區破土動工。這裡是議會以及其他政府大樓的所在地。該區最早屬於東德，但卻是柏林的歷史中心，擁有勃 蘭登堡門（Brandenburg Gate）和柏林大教堂（Berlin cathedral）等地標建築。它是柏林 倒塌後第一個得到復興的社區。

其 中一個豪華的新項目是濱臨斯普利河（Spree River）的Yoo Berlin。這棟10層階梯式建築的外觀由柏林建築師埃克•貝克爾（Eike Becker）設計，室內由法國設計師菲利普•斯塔克（Philippe Starck）打造。這棟擁有95套公寓的大樓預計於明年底完工，它是倫敦設計事務所Yoo與開發商合作、設計並宣傳的全球37個城市高檔住宅網絡的一部 分。

這棟大樓中帶兩個露台的頂層角落公寓報價高達470萬美元，面積為3,014平方英尺（約280平方米）。該項目發言人說，約75%的公寓都已經售出，買家主要來自意大利、美國、中國、澳大利亞，還有德國。大樓的總銷售額預計將達到1.07億美元左右。

Yoo Berlin有一個稱為“健康水療區”的區域，帶酒吧、中庭和咖啡廳。這些是在柏林幾乎聞所未聞的豪華設施。柏林公寓樓直到最近才引入了24小時門衛、健身房和免費窗戶清洗服務。

在 附近Living Bauhaus的開發項目Das Meisterhaus中，3,229平方英尺（約300平方米）的頂層公寓價格高達900萬美元。室內空間為定制設計，買主可以選擇是否需要泳池、壁 爐、帶冷卻頂板的天花板、冷凍室和酒窖，還有豪華廚房和衛浴。大樓晚上會點亮LED燈。蒙古大使館將會在明年2月率先入駐該大樓。

米特區最新的一個建設項目是Lux，這幢位於Unter den Linden大街和斯普利河之間的大樓共有64套公寓。

這 棟公寓樓為流線型玻璃結構，由西班牙房地產公司Triple A承建。據仲量聯行（Jones Lang LaSalle）的研究顯示，這棟樓的公寓價格從34.9萬至410萬美元不等，也就是每平方英尺540到1,260美元不等，該區平均房價為每平方英尺 400美元。該項目開發和建設成本約為5,800萬美元，目前已有約55%售出或預訂。該項目將於本月晚些時候破土動工。

Lux經紀人尼古勞斯•思傑（Nikolaus Ziegert）表示，柏林目前共有包含260套新公寓的九個項目在建或處於籌備階段，均價為每平方英尺600美元或以上。

還 有一棟在去年年末動工的住宅樓是1.1億美元的Die Kronprinzengarten，即太子花園（Crown Prince's Garden），是位於德國外交部附近的聯排別墅和公寓群。該項目包括約50個居住單元，價格從51.7萬到520萬美元不等。單元面積最高達5,920 平方英尺（約550平方米），包括七棟聯排別墅。購買頂層公寓者可要求配備頂層泳池。該項目代理商ICON Investmentconsulting說已經售出75%，預計將於2014年年底開盤。

盡管如此，柏林的豪華樓盤還是只佔整個市場的3%左右。有人質疑柏林是否已經為這種高檔的都市生活方式做好了準備，因為柏林最有錢的購房者通常都安家在柏林西部郊區。

改變購房者需求向更豪華住房轉變的一個因素是，諾基亞（Nokia）、德國聯邦鐵路公司（Deutsche Bahn）和拜耳（Bayer）等公司正吸引越來越多的高管來到柏林，同時政府也在擴張，引領人們適應更富足的生活方式。

仲量聯行的一份報告顯示，柏林在過去幾年人口迅速增長，其中半數以上的增長來自搬來柏林的外籍人士。單米特區的居民過去五年就增加了約6,800人。

房地產公司Berlin Capital Investments國際市場負責人卡汀•漢瑞科茲（Khadine Henriquez）說，柏林的人開始賺更多的錢了。該公司專做米特區的房地產項目。

她說，就在2007年，她剛從巴黎搬到柏林的時候，米特的女士們穿衣服還是追求舒適。她說，當時沒有人穿細高跟鞋，而現在找不到不塗指甲不穿高跟鞋的姑娘了。

就在那年，當地媒體報道布拉德•皮特（Brad Pitt）和安吉麗娜•茱莉（Angelina Jolie）在米特區購置了一套loft。

漢瑞科茲說，對豪華住宅需求的增加也反映了德國以及法國、南歐、亞洲和美國投資者的一個舉動──為歐洲債務危機尋找避險之地。她說該公司代理的豪宅75%左右的買家都來自其他國家。

和法蘭克福及慕尼黑等德國其他城市相比，在柏林買豪宅比較劃算。從仲量聯行的研究數據來看，在慕尼黑，房地產市場最高檔的10%房屋均價約每平方英尺822美元，而在柏林約為464美元。

柏林的代理商表示，相對中檔公寓，高檔公寓需要更多的時間才能賣出去。米特區的房子可能是個例外。從仲量聯行的報告來看，去年米特區建了211套住宅，公寓每平方英尺均價上漲了21%。

代 理商表示，外國買家需要留意柏林房地產市場一些特有的情況。買家需要支付約相當於成交價12%到15%的過戶費用，包括1.5%的公証費、5%的房地產稅 以及約7%的中介費。還有，國際買家需要用現金支付約一半的房款。漢瑞科茲說，德國銀行一般只提供60%的貸款，非德國籍人士可以拿到低至2.7％的10 年期或20年期利率。

她說，德國在前十年會對房產征收資本利得稅，所以買家對自己的投資至少應該維持十年。

----

柏林概況
總人口：350萬

生活成本：在截至8月的12個月內，德國的消費者價格指數（CPI）增長了2.1%，而美國同期增幅為1.7%。

平均最高和最低氣溫：1月──36/28華氏度（約2/-2攝氏度），7月──73/57華氏度 (23/14攝氏度）

100萬美元以上的住宅存量：2011年，柏林房地產市場有189套公寓每平方米價格在5,000歐元以上。

過去一年100萬美元以上住宅的銷售情況：在柏林，2011年僅五套公寓以每平方英尺1,201美元以上的價格售出。2012年截至6月，共有七套公寓以超出這個數字的價格售出。
住在米特區的名人：德國總理安格拉•默克爾（Angela Merkel），布拉德•皮特和安吉麗娜•茱莉，德國歌手莎拉•寇娜（Sarah Connor），廣告巨頭及藝術藏家克裡斯蒂安•博羅斯（Christian Boros）。

談資：米特意為“中間”，這裡曾被柏林 一分為二，這裡擁有勃蘭登堡門、查理檢查哨（Checkpoint Charlie）和國會大廈（Reichstag）等歷史景點，還有約80家咖啡館。整個柏林有2,139間酒吧和會所。

資料來源：《華爾街日報》調研；柏林旅遊局

Laura Stevens / Vanessa Fuhrmans

German Office Acquisitions at Highest in Five Years

 

from Bloomberg.com  2012 / 10 / 18

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-18/german-office-acquisitions-at-highest-in-five-years.html

nvestors spent more on office properties in Germany through September than in any initial nine-month period for five years, buying more than twice as much in Berlin and Munich than the same period last year. Office properties valued at 6.27 billion euros ($8.22 billion) were sold in the first nine months of 2012, a 50 percent increase from 2011, according to data compiled by BNP Paribas (BNP) SA’s German real estate unit.

“Safety-oriented investors see good conditions here due to the relatively stable economic and employment situation,” Sven Stricker, head of investment at BNP Paribas Real Estate GmbH, said in a statement today. “Office investments have a good medium-term outlook, assuming the euro crisis doesn’t escalate.”
Demand for German property has jumped this year as investors seek a safe place to put their money amid the risk the euro zone’s sovereign-debt crisis will worsen. Germany’s economy, Europe’s largest, is forecast to grow 0.8 percent this year, according to the government. The economies of the 17 nations that share the euro are together forecast to contract 0.4 percent, according to the European Central Bank.
Office investments rose 172 percent in Berlin and 138 percent in Munich, Germany’s most expensive city for workplace properties. Investments in Hamburg, Cologne and Dusseldorf declined, Paris-based BNP said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dalia Fahmy in Berlin at dfahmy1@bloomberg.net
 
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ross Larsen at rlarsen2@bloomberg.net

歐債危機推動德國房價大漲

鉅亨網新聞中心2012/10/19 星期五 08:00

德國最大的房地產中介公司Engel & Volkers18日發布的最新調查報告表示，歐債危機推動德國房價大幅上漲，已導致該國房地產業出現泡沫。
德國地方法院最新拍賣數據顯示，一套位於柏林郊區102平方米、價值8.6萬歐元的公寓，在買家的競相爭搶下，最終以高於原價3倍的價格成交。據 Engel & Volkers數據顯示，在截至6月的過去12個月內，柏林房價同比上漲20%，德國整體房價同比上漲6%。在近3年間，柏林平均房屋銷售價格累計上漲高 達37.5%。德國赫拉巴銀行分析師米特羅波利斯表示，由於金融機構按揭利率已大幅下降，許多家庭開始有能力購買房產。此外，市場投資品種匱乏及政府債券 的低利率甚至負利率，使投資者認為投資房地產相對保值，並且是對沖通脹的最好選擇，導致長期處於“沉睡”狀態的房地產市場被激活。與歐洲其他國家不同，一 直以來德國民眾的房屋擁有率很低，德國人偏好租房而不習慣自購房產。
Engel & Volkers主管瑞尼表示：“德國以外的買家涌入德國房產市場也助推本土房價進一步上漲，投資者認為，假如歐元區分裂，投資德國將是安全的選擇。”

The Transformation of Berlin From 'Poor but Sexy' to Rich and Unaffordable (Part I)

 By Wiebke Hollersen and Guido Mingels

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/real-estate-boom-threatens-to-end-dream-of-affordable-life-in-berlin-a-859420.html 

Berlin was once an exception to the rule that cool cities have high property and rent prices. But those days are quickly ending. A new wave of private investors has led to skyrocketing prices, forcing low-earners to the city's periphery.

The Danish man who is taking Berlin away from Berliners prefers to be barefoot in his all-white loft office in the city's Kreuzberg neighborhood, though he is wearing flip-flops today. "Hi, I'm Jørn," he says. His last name, Taekker, has become synonymous with real estate speculation in the German capital. But for Katrin Lompscher, a member of the far-left Left Party in Berlin's parliament, it's a "symbol of evil."

Valeria Fiori, a native of Milan, walks up the stairs to Taekker's fifth-floor office on Paul Lincke Ufer, a street running along a canal in Kreuzberg. There is no elevator. Fiori is a little out of breath by the time she reaches the office. She is 61 and arrived in Berlin yesterday from Milan. She already owns three apartments in Berlin, and now she is buying a fourth from Taekker. "I have more confidence in Germany than in Italy," she says, adding that she hasn't spent her entire life saving money just to let the euro crisis destroy her retirement. A few steps away from the street, three of Taekker's tenants are sitting on their rooftop deck. They don't want to see their names in print, so we'll call them Torsten, Henning and Jakob. "We really have nothing to do with all that," says Torsten. Their building has become an investment property, like many others in the area. "We just live here," says Henning.
For a long time, they didn't know that a Danish investor who almost went bankrupt in the financial crisis had purchased their building. They also didn't know that this investor is now selling apartments in the building one by one, often to ordinary private buyers from southern Europe who, prompted by the euro crisis, are seeking to move their savings to a safer place -- and that their apartments could also be on the market.
An Intoxicated Real Estate Market
The way Torsten, Henning and Jakob see the situation, their building has become the scene of multiple global economic crises. The way others see it, what is happening in the German capital in 2012 is, quite simply, a real estate boom.
In this odd environment, two types of people are coming into conflict: On the one hand, there are the foreigners, or new Berliners, who are looking for something to buy. On the other, there are the locals, the old Berliners, who wonder how much longer they'll be able to stay. Those in the first group tend to look up as they walk the streets, checking out buildings and looking for good investments. Those in the second are just trying to get home.
Despite these differences, they are all anxious. The foreigners are anxious about their modest assets, which they hope to convert into valuable real estate before the euro goes bust. Meanwhile, native Berliners are worried about the city they call home. And this anxiety, which affects all of Germany and many other European countries, is being transformed into a euphoria of sorts in the Berlin real estate market.
Torsten, one of Taekker's tenants, says: "They are trying to take our city away from us."
Valeria Fiori, one of Taeker's customers, says: "Prices are still attractive in Berlin, and it's a good investment."
Taekker himself says: "I love Berlin. Things are looking up for Berlin."
The market is in a state of intoxication. Residential real estate prices in Berlin have risen by 32 percent since 2007, which is significantly more than in the rest of Germany. There were about 32,000 real estate transactions in Berlin in 2011 alone, a 20 percent increase over the previous year, and the trend is continuing. In that same period, sales increased by 28 percent, from €8.7 billion ($11.2 billion) to €11.1 billion.
According to the German rent index, average rents have gone up by 4 percent a year since 2009, which translates into higher profits for property owners. In Germany and elsewhere, people are scraping together their equity, taking out loans at historically low interest rates and investing in real estate, preferably in Berlin, where prices are still much lower than they are in Hamburg or Munich even with the current boom. Purchase inquiries have grown by 500 percent since 2007 on Immobilienscout24, a widely used real estate website in Germany.
A Winning Formula
The Graefe Kiez, one of the neighborhoods responsible for the poor-but-sexy image that has turned Berlin into a global brand, is just outside the door of the building housing Taekker's office. The Taekker logo, with the letters a and e combined, appears on many street corners and some construction sites.
While old Berliners pronounce the name like a curse, new Berliners see it as a promise. "Yet another building has fallen into Taekker's hands," says local tenant activist Martin Breger. The entire street has been "Taekker-ed," he adds. There is even a website called Taekkerwatch that bills itself as a "self-help site for renters affected by the privatization of apartments by the Taekker group of companies in Berlin." Potential buyers, however, use the site to stay abreast of properties Taekker is about to put on the market.
"Of course we're intruding into the neighborhood. I understand why people feel anxious," says Taekker, 56, whose company owns 3,500 residential units in the city. In his own estimation, he is one of the largest private investors in the Berlin market. In his trademark jeans and worn T-shirt, he looks no different from the Berliners whose apartments he is buying up. Taekker sees himself as a capitalist with good manners. "We're obviously here to make money," he says, "but we're doing it in an ethically correct way, within the framework of the law."
The company has expanded its Berlin portfolio since the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, generally focusing on buildings built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Friedrichshain, Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg and Kreuzberg neighborhoods.
When asked what brought him to Germany, Taekker says: "I was looking for new investment options in Europe." He is sitting in a glass-enclosed conference room. Hundreds of white ring binders line the walls in the open-plan office, each with an address on the spine: Böckhstrasse 13, Dieffenbachstrasse 38, Maybachufer 47. The addresses, all in good neighborhoods, have a magical sound for new Berliners.
Taekker is a carpenter and building engineer by trade. In Berlin, he discovered what he had found in Copenhagen a decade ago: "A city with a left-led government and not much money, but with a fantastic atmosphere and many beautiful and inexpensive old buildings." After the turn of the millennium, when prices were high, Taekker sold more than 70 buildings in Copenhagen. Then he went looking for a new place to apply the same simple strategy: buy low and sell high when the boom arrives.
For a while, Taekker investigated properties in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, but he felt that Berlin had more potential. "I couldn't understand why prices were so low," he says. "Someone must have overlooked something." When Taekker talks about his job, it sounds like a game of global Monopoly, one in which players aim to occupy the right properties, collect rent, hope for a lucky roll of the dice, sell and move on.
Residential Gold Rush
Marcel Magdeburg, a broker who works for Taekker, is driving to an appointment in a blue Smart. The miniature two-seater is the perfect car for him because his job often requires some creative parking. Magdeburg grew up in Potsdam, outside Berlin, has been working for Taekker for five years, and sells or rents residential real estate throughout the city. His days consist of a lot of driving, climbing stairs and showing empty rooms to prospective buyers or renters.

Magdeburg, speaking the language of brokers, says things like: "Demand in the sales segment has grown tremendously this year." But he occasionally reverts to ordinary conversational German and says things like: "My friends, it's just madness. Sometimes you see people tossing their cash right on the table. It's hard to believe, but it's true. Just think of the euro refugees from southern Europe. There are plenty of them these days." He has just shown a few investment properties to a Berliner with tattoos on one of his biceps. The man buys small apartments and rents them out as vacation apartments, a practice that the Berlin Senate is trying to curb with new laws. Until recently, he was working as a fitness trainer. But now he's become a savvy investor who seems to know the legal ins and outs of owning real estate in Berlin.
The upturn in Berlin -- eagerly anticipated by many since German reunification but feared by others -- seems to have finally arrived. Foreign buyers, who now make up 30 percent of the market, are also increasingly fueling demand. Most of the foreigners now investing in Berlin are Italian, Spanish, Russian, British or French.

The Transformation of Berlin From 'Poor but Sexy' to Rich and Unaffordable (Part II)

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/real-estate-boom-threatens-to-end-dream-of-affordable-life-in-berlin-a-859420-2.html 

By Wiebke Hollersen and Guido Mingels

Carsten Koall/ DER SPIEGEL

Part 2: The Rough Rules of Supply and Demand

Valeria Fiori, the potential buyer from Milan, has brought along her husband, as she always does, as well as one of her grandchildren. "They're at the Lego Museum right now," she says. She is wearing a pink sweater, jeans and comfortable shoes, looking the part of a typical tourist on a sightseeing trip. She's in Berlin to buy another apartment, and this time she is looking at a two-room unit in Friedrichshain. It'll be her fourth investment in the Berlin market. Fiori is retired but says she doesn't receive a pension in Italy.
It's very quite in Taekker's office, even though a dozen people are working at long tables doubling as desks. Fiori wants to reserve the Friedrichshain apartment, but she still has a few questions. When will the contract be ready? How quickly can the brokers find her a tenant? She doesn't like the fact that a lot of people have now discovered that there's money to be made with Berlin real estate. "Prices have really gone up. It's terrible," she says, sounding almost like a native Berliner.
Three years ago, Fiori was online when she discovered an apartment on Leipziger Strasse in the Mitte neighborhood. It was a 100-square-meter (1,076-square-foot) unit on the 20th floor, and she snapped it up at once. The first thing she did was to have eucalyptus parquet flooring installed in the high-rise unit. It has a view of the Mauerpark, a park in the Prenzlauer Berg district that the Berlin Wall once ran through, she says. Fiori owns another small apartment not far from the Mauerpark, as well as a unit near Weinberg Park, in Mitte. Her husband owns an apartment building in the Moabit neighborhood, as well as three other individual apartments.
The real estate is, in a sense, the Fiori family's "Berlin fund," and expansions are always a possibility. Would they consider buying in another German city? "Oh no," she says, "it's much too expensive."
When a new Berliner runs into an old Berliner in this odd period of fear and euphoria, there's usually a moment when the conversation takes a turn for the worse. Is €500 rent for a heated, 60-square-meter apartment with plank flooring and a balcony with a view of the Spree River a ridiculously small amount? Or is it highway robbery?
Soon the old Berliner loses his temper because the new Berliner starts trying to explain the world -- and capitalism. Apartments are a commodity, the new Berliner says, and when demand increases, so do prices.
Cities that are considered cool are expensive. Prices in New York are outrageous, while costs are sky-high in London. Complaints about outrageous rents are part of the narrative of a successful city. But Berlin used to be an exception.
Pushed Out
The narrative of Berlin's transformation from an isolated Cold War island surrounded by a communist sea to a city famous for its artists and nightlife has always revolved around low rents. The eastern part of Berlin used to be a socialist city, while the western part was a frontier city kept alive by subsidies. Old buildings were crumbling in Prenzlauer Berg when it was part of East Berlin and in Kreuzberg in West Berlin. Even after reunification, rents remained low.
Now they are going up. According to GSW Immobilien AG, a major real estate firm in Berlin, rents increased by almost 8 percent in 2011. Some 85 percent of Berliners rent rather than own their homes, and their concerns over rising rents are also a symptom of the boom. The current conflict between renters and owners poses a threat to a way of life in Berlin. It threatens people with few material but high cultural standards, standards they associate with their Kiez, slang for their local living environment. For many Berliners, their Kiez represents a smaller, more manageable part of the big city they call home.
"It just makes you wonder where we're supposed to go," says Torsten, who works in the media industry. Taekker's three tenants, sitting on their roof deck in Kreuzberg, want to remain anonymous because they're afraid of being thrown out. But whether their fears are justified isn't quite clear. Taekker has owned their building since 2006. Last year, residents received a letter informing them that their rental apartments were going to be "converted" or, in other words, sold.
Jakob, who works in the music business, moved to the area 15 years ago "because everything was no nice and non-trendy." Now he's surrounded by hipsters, tourists and stroller-pushing mothers. "We have no problem with trendiness," says Jakob, "as long it doesn't drive us out." Henning, the third member of the trio, works in IT. He pays about €200 for his 35-square-meter apartment -- and that's all he can afford, he says.
When asked what exactly they have against Taekker, the men grow quiet. The Berlin press has recently described harassment of tenants by landlords, but no one in the building has heard anything about such behavior. "Their behavior is generally pretty decent," they say. The tenants in the building were able to prevent Taekker from raising rents by threatening a lawsuit. Some tenants accepted settlements and voluntarily left their apartments when they were sold. So what's so bad about Taekker? "They don't do anything for the building," says Torsten. "All they've done is install bike racks."
Born of Crisis
Meanwhile, Taekker is raving about the quality of old buildings and the beauty of the herringbone parquet flooring and plaster walls in his buildings. He feels that his way of doing things is more sustainable than the methods of many German investors. "They buy a building, strip it from the inside out and turn it into luxury apartments," he says. "It's the most profitable approach." For his part, Taekker leaves the renovation up to the buyers.
Taekker admits that he has done well in Berlin. "We showed up at the right time and bought in the right neighborhoods," he says, with satisfaction in his voice. One could also say that Berlin was Taekker's salvation. In 2008, his Danish parent company got caught up in the global financial crisis and was on the brink of bankruptcy. The company had taken out loans from Danish banks, such as Roskilde Bank and FIH Erhvervsbank. Roskilde declared bankruptcy, and FIH was acquired by the Icelandic bank Kaupthing Bank, which eventually had to be nationalized.
Taekker, as a customer of FIH, was on a list of Kaupthing borrowers published by Wikileaks. His German assets were used as collateral in the restructuring of the company. It was only thanks to his properties in Berlin that the company managed to get back on its feet, says Taekker. The company is now making a profit again.
The three tenants sitting on the roof deck have heard about these deals. The rumors revolve around an unusual geopolitical chain of events that ends in a Berlin apartment building. An investor from the north loses money in the global credit crisis in 2008, and his company only becomes profitable once again when the demand for his Berlin properties increases.
In a roundabout way, the bursting of the real estate bubble in the United States led to a real estate boom in Berlin years later. German investors who would normally put their money in the stock market started buying real estate in Berlin. Countries in southern Europe began to falter in the wake of the European debt crisis, and their citizens, seeking a safer place for their money, also came to Berlin. For Torsten, Jakob and Henning, the story boils down to a cash-strapped investor from the north selling apartments to people from the south trying to escape the crisis.
Getting in the Game
"Do you like the area?" Fiori asks her son, who has also come to Berlin from Italy for a few days. They are standing on a restaurant-lined section of Krossener Strasse in Friedrichshain. Fiori wants to show her son her latest purchase.
It's the first property she has bought in Friedrichshain, which strikes her as a nice neighborhood for young people. The 53-square-meter apartment has a large eat-in kitchen and a full bath. She had actually intended to pay no more than €2,000 per square meter, but she and Taekker eventually agreed on a price of €109,000, or €2,056 per square meter. Fiori is the first buyer in the building. Taekker has just started putting the apartments on the market, and the tenants have reportedly taken the news fairly well.
When Fiori started investing in Berlin five years ago, the average price per square meter for an unfurnished apartment in an older building was just €1,540. By the beginning of last year, it had gone up to €1,715. Fiori, like most buyers in Berlin, prefers older buildings. In Milan, where she lives, a nice apartment "still goes for about €4,000" per square meter, she says -- twice as much as in Friedrichshain.
Fiori is waiting for the sales contract, but the notary public is very busy at the moment and it'll take a few more days, says a Taekker employee. "But you'll receive two bottles of wine from us at the closing, organic wine," he adds. Both Taekker and his company value organic products, says the employee. "Aha," says Fiori. Then she asks when the next apartment will be available for purchase in the building.
The boom has turned many in Berlin into real estate experts and entrepreneurs, and there are many who want to play the game of Berlinopoly. The number of private buyers has gone up by 30 percent in the last five years. Whereas the last boom, between 2004 and 2007, was fueled by a handful of large institutional investors seeking short-term profits, today's investors include thousands of private individuals seeking long-term security in the German capital. Instead of the corporate raiders that were dubbed "locusts," many of today's real estate investors could more aptly be called "ants."
They include people like Micol Singarella. When the 30-year-old from Aprilia, near Rome, moved to Berlin a few years ago, she would never have dreamed that the euro crisis would turn her into a real estate broker. She studied literature and philosophy, and she now lives in a shared apartment in Friedrichshain that she describes as a sort of leftist residential project.
Singarella sells real estate from her room in the apartment or from a table at a local pub, mostly to relatives and acquaintances from her hometown in Italy. Half of Aprilia has already bought "Appartamenti a Berlino," the words she has printed on her business card. She recently sold three units in an apartment building in the Wedding district to the parents of a friend from Aprilia, a childhood friend and a teacher from her old school. "Some of my clients believe that if the euro collapses, they'll eventually get their money back in deutsche marks," Singarella says.
Her services also include finding tenants for the apartments once they've been purchased. It's the easiest part of her job. "Everyone seems to be moving to this city at the moment," she says. According to demographers, Berlin is experiencing a "positive net migration," which amounted to almost 40,000 new residents in 2011. At the same time, more and more people want to live alone, and the fact that one in three Berliners lives in a single household contributes to the boom.
Singarella's roommates sometimes ask her questions about her job. Is it okay to sell condominiums in Berlin, they ask? Or is she partly responsible for rising rents? And is she partly responsible for people losing their apartments? Singarella tells them that she doesn't sell to shady real estate funds, but to people who are worried about their savings. But sometimes she does ask herself whether she and all the others who are flocking to the city, bringing their money and their worries, aren't destroying a utopia.
Migrating Dreams
It's the dream of a big city where things don't work quite the way they do in other big cities, a European capital where retirees, students and families with little money can afford to live in good neighborhoods, where people like Jakob, the Taekker tenant, can make a living in the music business. This unique aspect of the city has been referred to as the "Berlin mix." Urban sociologists predict that this mix will not survive, at least not in downtown Berlin. They suspect that people with lower incomes will be forced out to the periphery, as they are in other cities. Berlin is merely catching up to a wider development, say real estate experts.
A cosmopolitan city with low rents? It would be a nice dream. But Jørn Taekker has a different dream. His latest project is the construction of a small, sustainable city north of Aarhus, his hometown in Denmark, and his company has already designed the master plan. An estimated 15,000 people will start moving to the 220-hectare (544-acre) city in 2015. It will be heated with solar and geothermal energy, there will be rainwater collection systems and there will be car-sharing for everyone. Taekker is investing his German profits in the Danish city. As an era comes to an end in Berlin, a new era is beginning near Aarhus. The new city will be called "Nye," the Danish word for "new."

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

欧债危机德国房地产反升 'Cement Gold' German Property Market Soars Amid Euro Crisis （www.spiegel.de)

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-real-estate-market-soars-amid-euro-crisis-a-838437.html

'Cement Gold' German Property Market Soars Amid Euro Crisis

By Renuka Rayasam

dapd

German real estate market prices have increased sharply over the last two years as investors look for solid returns and safe havens in the midst of the euro crisis. That has some worried about the formation of a bubble that could collapse if the German economy falters.

At first glance the two story office building tucked away in the town of Nordhausen seems unremarkable. The boxy building north of Erfurt, the capital of the eastern German state of Thuringia, is painted yellow and comes with a parking lot. Though part of the first floor already has a reliable renter, another part suffered fire damage earlier this year. Still, it's in a desirable location.

In a catalog for an auction early this month in central Berlin, the property was listed for €48,000 ($60,355). But by the end of an intense 15-minute bidding war between two remote buyers and a gentleman in the back of the airy atrium, it went for almost double the asking price: €90,000 ($113,166). The top bidder turned out to be an investor from western Germany. "It is an example of what real estate can fetch when it's good," says Carsten Wohlers of Plettner & Brecht, the property brokerage that ran the auction. About 90 percent of the 53 properties listed were sold, a 10 percent improvement over last year, he says. Organizers also noticed that more buyers called in bids rather than coming in person, though Wohlers attributes that as much to the good weather as the ongoing European Football Championship.
The auction is just one example of how, even as housing market recovery in the United States, Spain and other struggling countries muddles along, Germany's real estate market has taken off. After years of stagnating, German prices for both residential and commercial real estate began rising again in 2009. Buoyed by trouble in other euro crisis countries, German property has become a safe haven for both German and international investors looking for a secure place to store their money.
Indeed, German real estate prices rose 3.5 percent between September 2010 and the same month the following year, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Meanwhile, the average price for homes rose 5.5 percent in 2011, according to the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank. And major German cities such as Berlin, Hamburg and Munich have seen between 10 and 13 percent increases in prices for existing and new apartments, offsetting flat and declining prices in rural parts of the country.
Safe Haven
Though these price increases sound impressive, they hardly indicate a dreaded housing bubble. By comparison, during the first quarter of 2005, as prices approached their peak ahead of the US housing crisis, they rose 12.5 percent over the previous year, with costs for homes in places like California, Nevada and Florida going up some 20 percent a year. Still, the price increases in Germany have the Bundesbank worried enough that it said recently it was monitoring the situation to keep it from getting out of hand.
But the real estate situation in Germany "is not comparable with the US and Spain," says Steffen Sebastian, chair of real estate finance at the University of Regensburg, in the southern German state of Bavaria. Today's real estate price increases are also nothing like Germany's real estate bubble in the mid-1990's, when Helmut Kohl's government provided tax breaks to support post-reunification investment in the former East German property market. Those tax benefits have since been halved.
Sebastian says that German real estate heated up about a year and a half ago, but that the difference between what happened in other countries hit by a housing crisis is that individuals, and not investment banks, are putting their own money into real estate. And they aren't just Germans, but people from across the Continent. "Much of the demand is from speculation across Europe," says Sebastian.
Sebastian also attributes the price increase to low interest rates, fears of inflation within Germany, general concern over the collapse of the euro and relatively few safe investment alternatives. German bond prices, for example, have become so low that investors are practically paying the German government to take their money. In contrast to the stock market and government bonds, German real estate appears to many investors as a safe bet that can earn rewards. Unlike opening a foreign bank account, buying real estate also comes with few regulations and restrictions.
"Italians don't care where they put their money as long as it is in German real estate," says Ruth Stirati, a real estate consultant who works primarily with Italians looking to buy apartments in Berlin. Stirati says that many of her clients are normal Italians who have a little bit of savings that they are too scared to put in Italian banks for fear the euro will collapse.
Sticker Shock
Even though Berlin lacks the kind of industry or job market that support other parts of the country, as Germany's political and (arguably) cultural capital, it has become a particularly attractive destination for international buyers. Many hundreds of individual Berlin apartments were sold in January 2012. More than half of those purchases were made by Italians, Russians, French, and other international buyers, according to a market report by German real estate market firm Engel & Völkers.
"Before there was steady growth in demand, and now it's become a flood," Stirati says of Berlin real estate. Before, Berlin was an insider tip, she says, but in the last two years the city has become the new trend for Italian investors because it's frequently profiled in the media. "Since the crisis there are so many investors who have come to Berlin that the prices are like waves," she says. "One month they are really high and the next month they go down."
Increases in Berlin real estate values have led to sticker shock for buyers and brokers accustomed to the years of low prices. "It's too expensive," says Rudolf Rude, a German engineer who dabbles in real estate investment. At the Plettner & Brecht auction in early June, Rude bought a 95-square-meter (1,020-square-foot) store-front in Berlin's trendy Prenzlauer Berg district for €178,000, about 40 percent above the listed price.
Rude attributes the price increases to Berlin's recent development, which puts it on par with Paris and Moscow, leading to more attention internationally. He says that even though he thinks he paid too much for the property, other investments are too risky and the stock market is too uncertain. "I like to put my money in the ground, in the earth, as cement gold," says Rude. He plans to open a high-end cheese shop in the space.
In the financial capital Frankfurt, by comparison, demand has mostly been from German investors who have money to spare, says Peter Talkenberger, a broker at AllGrund, a real estate consulting firm. In the city center there are few apartments available these days, he says. If an apartment does crop up, it's gone within a week. Still, he adds, "the market is not nearly as wild as Berlin. Berlin is on another level with so much international demand."
On The Brink Of A Bubble?
Wohlers, Rude, Stirati and others on the front lines of German's real estate market believe it will only continue to grow. But whether their forecasts will come true rests largely on the fate of the German economy. Regardless of a shrinking population, a strong job market and solid economic growth has kept demand for homes strong. More people are also moving into cities and looking for new homes.
The international rating agency Standard & Poor's predicts that German home prices will rise for another two or three years, even as the euro crisis engulfs neighboring countries. The agency points to lower unemployment, sustained low interest rates and the already low price to income ratios as reasons for its optimism.

But some experts have warned recently that as the euro crisis deepens, the Germany economy may not be immune for long. It would only take a spike in unemployment and interest rates to stall the country's brisk real estate market. "You can count on more turbulence in the German real estate market," says the University of Regensburg's real estate finance chair Sebastian. "We are living in uncertain times and what we are experiencing happens once a century. We have seen so much that did not seem possible five years ago."
As a note of caution for would-be investors he adds: "It's not necessarily a bubble, but under no circumstance would I still put all of my savings into real estate."

(德国房地产市场出现投资热潮) 通胀：德国人的梦魇 (

http://www.chinataiwan.org/plzhx/gjshd/201209/t20120924_3119567.htm 

时间:2012-09-24 12:56　　　来源：经济参考报

　　仿佛是一夜间，通货膨胀突然又成为德国人热议的话题。
　　引出这个话题从表面上看当然是德国的通胀率。德国统计局的数据显示，今年8月德国年通胀率上涨到2.1%，而6、7月份德国的通胀率还只有1 .7%。统计局的解释是，今年8月能源价格上涨迅猛，达到7.6%，其中燃油价格上涨了10.3%，明显高于去年同期水平。
　　这个数字其实低于去年全年水平，而且去年9月德国通胀率还曾达到2.6%的三年高点。当时的解释也是由于能源价格的上涨。从欧债危机爆发以来， 德国人对通胀的担忧就日渐抬头。近两年随着德国通胀率超过2%，德国人对通胀的恐惧与日俱增，有经济学家担心德国的通胀预期已经形成。
　　一个佐证是，长期以来以稳定著称、不被机构和个人投资者看好的德国房地产市场出现投资热潮，德国的平均房价在过去一年上涨了5%，是通胀率的两 倍。在大中城市，房价同比上涨10%左右。一度住房租金为欧洲主要大城市最低之一的德国首都柏林，住房租金一年内上涨了9.3%。
　　有经济学家认为，欧债危机以来，欧洲超低的利率环境和欧洲央行释放的巨额流动性激活了长期低迷的德国房地产市场，投资者对通胀的恐惧更助长了房地产市场的投资热潮。这可能会导致德国房地产泡沫，给经济造成下行风险。
　　德国的房地产市场有无泡沫可以存疑，但德国人的通胀恐惧却是真实存在。在德国人看来，重启了购债计划的欧洲央行已经步美联储后尘成为印钱机器，美联储新一轮的量化宽松更加剧了全球通货膨胀的预期。已经有学者直截了当地表示，通胀来了，而且会长期存在。
　　德国人的这种通胀恐惧来自历史的教训。20世纪前半期，同一代德国人先后两次被通货膨胀血洗了财产。第一次是20年代著名的恶性通货膨胀，直接 导致了德国民主共和制度的终结。第二次则在二战后的最初几年，帝国马克几成废纸，美国香烟成为事实货币。这两次通胀，让许多人一生积蓄化为乌有，一夜之间 变成赤贫。这样惨痛的记忆让德国人对通货膨胀有着近乎苛刻的警惕。
　　正是这种警惕让德国央行行长魏德曼即便被孤立也坚决反对欧洲央行的购债计划，也让德国民众会因此成立“要回黄金”的民间组织，督促政府取回存于外国的黄金储备，更让许多德国人一直保留着德国马克，缅怀着怀揣坚挺德国马克的“美好时代”。(丹一)

编辑:陈睿

德國房地產: 用德國柏林房產市場火紅Berlin's Hot Housing Market

 By Dalia Fahmy on September 13, 2012   businessweek.com
 http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-13/berlins-hot-housing-market

On a crisp September morning outside the graffiti-covered former Berlin department store known as Tacheles, Martin Reiter watched his fellow squatters haul their art away. Artists colonized the store shortly after the Berlin Wall fell, and though they had fended off more than a dozen eviction attempts, the 40 current occupants finally lost their studios. The real estate had become too valuable. “There is no point in fighting this any longer,” says Reiter, 50, who once made motorized sculptures from stolen construction equipment. As bailiffs supervised the eviction, Reiter excoriated the private consortium of banks with claims on the property. “These zombies don’t care whether people are evicted or not,” he says. “To them, all that matters is the profit.”
Photograph by Klaus Muenzner/OstkreuzOne of the artists gave this parting shot: “You can’t make good art amidst all these boutiques”
When artists first occupied Tacheles—German for “straight talk”—in 1990, the surrounding East Berlin neighborhood was a grim assembly of barren lots and crumbling facades still scarred from World War II. Today Mitte, as the area is called, is the German capital’s most expensive quarter, lined with upscale restaurants, designer boutiques, and art galleries. “Twenty years ago, nobody knew what a hot spot that area would become,” says Hanns-Joachim Fredrich, head of Berlin real estate at Cushman & Wakefield. Slightly larger than a Manhattan block, Tacheles will likely give way to luxury apartments and high-end shops.
Photograph by Christian Jungeblodt/ReduxSince the artists’ early years, the neighborhood has come up a notch
While Berlin has few large companies and one of the highest unemployment rates in Germany—12 percent compared with the national rate of 6.8 percent—the city of 3.5 million has spent the years since the global financial meltdown transforming itself into Europe’s up-and-coming capital. Two years ago, it overtook Rome as the third-most visited destination in Europe after London and Paris. Unlike the rest of the country, Berlin has seen its population grow in the past eight years, swelling with young creative professionals and technology entrepreneurs, who start more companies in the city each year than in any other in Germany. Now real estate investors are piling in, sending prices for residential properties surging 17 percent in the past 12 months and 31 percent in the five years ended in July, according to broker ImmobilienScout 24. Berlin apartments average about €2,000 ($2,555) per square meter, less than one-third of the going rate in Paris and less than a quarter of the London price.
Rental income from a typical Berlin apartment building provides about a 5 percent annualized return, better than many other assets as the European Central Bank keeps interest rates at record lows. “We’re starting from a weak base, prices are low, and rent has a long way to go,” says Pär Hakeman, the country manager for Akelius Fastigheter, a Swedish property firm that owns about 6,500 apartments in Berlin. Private equity firms Blackstone Group (BX) and Benson Elliott Capital Management have bought thousands of Berlin apartments in the past year. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, U.S. fund managers such as MFS Investment Management and Invesco (IVZ) have bought shares in GSW Immobilien (GIB), a property company that owns 53,000 city apartments. Wealthy families from Spain, Italy, and Greece are buying multifamily buildings to protect their savings, says analyst André Adami of market research and consulting firm BulwienGesa.
Photograph by Jörg Brüggemann/Ostkreuz
Demand is particularly high for new luxury developments, Adami says. Not far from Tacheles, a Swiss developer is building a glass-and-steel pyramid with interior designs by Philippe Starck. “You have a serious danger of a housing bubble developing in Berlin,” billionaire investor George Soros said in a Berlin speech on Sept. 10. “It has a lot to do with the flight of capital and negative real interest rates.” Berlin apartments are overvalued, says Steffen Sebastian, head of the Real Estate Institute at the University of Regensburg, because unlike Paris and London the city has no concentration of banks or other industries. Those companies are scattered fairly evenly across Germany’s seven biggest cities. “All we have here is the government and the lobbyists,” Sebastian says.
Berlin’s government has traditionally been the biggest apartment owner and helped keep housing affordable. The spate of privatizations, often executed to fill budget gaps, has sparked protests. During a June property conference attended by mostly domestic investors and executives, several hundred demonstrators held up traffic in central Berlin for more than an hour, chanting in German, “Don’t make your percent off our rent.” In the past decade the city has sold €2 billion worth of public property to plug budget gaps, and local legislators are attempting to limit further sales.

Photograph by Frank Schirrmeister/Ostkreuz

To the artists at Tacheles, the property boom is one more step in what Reiter calls the “global capitalist coup.” As the artists’ supporters take turns playing mournful songs on a grand piano parked on the sidewalk, he says, “This part of the city doesn’t interest us anymore. You can’t make good art amidst all these boutiques and restaurants.”

The bottom line: With Berlin real estate prices spiking 17 percent in the past year, George Soros and others are concerned about a bubble.

Fahmy is a reporter for Bloomberg News in Berlin.

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ZIEGERT思杰德国柏林房地产拥有超过25 年的德国房地产经验，我们的德籍专业团队都扎根德国柏林, 我们爱柏林。最新柏林房源及资讯请看以下连结:

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最新德国柏林房源，请看以下连结

 最新德国柏林房源，请看以下连结:

http://www.juwai.com/DEproperty

德國房市 下個避險天堂

• 2012-08-15 01:05
• 工商時報
• 【記者林佳誼／綜合外電報導】

    　歐債危機爆發以來，大批資金瘋狂尋找避險港灣，就連殖利率跌到負值的德國公債都有投資人搶抱。但現在德國不動產市場卻以同樣安全、報酬卻預料更高的優勢，迅速躥起成為下一個避險天堂。
    　德國不動產市場具備價格穩定上揚、貸款利率低廉，以及經濟前景穩定等利多因素，在今日的歐洲市場中，是相當難得的投資標的。
    　德國仲量聯行執行長波施克（Frank Porschke）說：「每個人口中都在說避險天堂，而如果投資人自問有哪個區域、哪種投資工具是還可以投資的，就會無可避免地想到不動產。」
    　另據德國仲量聯行研究部門主管舒納曼（Helge Scheunemann）指出，目前的德國房市主要買家包含保險公司、退休基金與開放式基金等，且多半來自德國，熱衷投資漢堡、慕尼黑及法蘭克福等西德城市的成屋。
    　此外，因為德國規定購買不動產最多需要3成自備款，且一般德國人也樂於當無殼蝸牛，不認為非得購買自有住宅不可，因此德國房價目前其實還位於相對低檔，不像之前的美國房市泡沫化。
    　其實德國房價上揚只是近2、3年的事。根據德意志銀行研究資料，2000至2005年間德國名目房價曾下跌10％，且直到2009年都處於停滯狀態。
    　舒納曼指出，近年德國房市走高，除與優質物件供給不多有關外，經濟穩定與失業下降更是主要原因。
    　根據德意志銀行另一份近期報告，儘管2008至2009年全球歷經嚴重衰退，但2005年以來德國始終享有平均2％的實質經濟成長率，而德國房價不但與經濟成長的步伐相當一致，近期增幅也配合民眾的可支配收入攀升。
    　是以該行認為，短期內避險資金潮或將繼續湧入德國房市，其中又以居民在50萬人以上的大城市，房價漲速將最為明顯。

德國大城市房價暴漲致一房難求

德國大城市房價暴漲致一房難求

  2012-08-16 15:07

（德國‧柏林16日訊）歐債危機造成德國許多大城市房價暴漲。該國金融機構新近的一項調查顯示，全德有四分之一的居民無力遷居，大城市中這種情況達到39%。

斯圖加特金融機構W&W於昨日公佈上述調查結果時分析，近一年來，不論是租房還是買 房，房市供求水平極不均衡。德國居民租房人數大於買房，但許多大城市房租的漲價幅度已超出了普通人的承受力。一些新移民較多的城市漲幅更大，例如柏林和法 蘭克福兩座城市中，每平米房租已漲到了平均10歐元以上。

從前較為穩定的購房市場價格也在極度增長。慕尼黑、法蘭克福和漢堡每平米均價已達3000歐元以上，和去年的房價相比漲幅為7.3%，相對較便宜的柏林房價也在一年之間上升了10%左右。

據統計，德國人每月家庭收入中的三分之一用於住房，支付房租或者是償還購房貸款。低收入家庭的 住房支出超出了月收入的40%。對普通居民來說，房租的不斷增高為尋找合適的房源帶來困難。在找房的人群中，32%的人花費了半年、20%的人花費了一年 以上才找到合適的住房，還有24%的找房者最後乾脆放棄搬家。

上述調查還發現了一個耐人尋味的問題：德國人基本不願離開自己目前的生活環境。生活在城市中的 人群願意留在城市中，而習慣了田園風光的人也不願離開自己的村莊。只有12%的“城裡人”願意搬到鄉村，有43%的城市居民表示，在承擔不了房租的情況下 更願意搬到“城鄉結合處”。和世界各地沒有區別的是，大部份30歲以下的年輕人願意遠離家鄉到別處生活。（中新社）

http://www.sinchew-i.com/node/319500?tid=5

（星洲網）

Demand for International Real Estate Still Strong 國際房產市場紅火

http://www.reit.com/Articles/Demand-for-International-Real-Estate-Still-Strong.aspx
9/10/2012 | By Allen Kenney


Jon Cheigh, executive vice president with Cohen & Steers, is a global portfolio manager for the firm’s real estate securities portfolios and oversees the global research process for real estate securities.

REIT.com checked in with Cheigh for his insights on some of the latest developments and trends in internation commercial real estate investment.

REIT.com: How has the eurozone crisis impacted the market for commercial real estate in Europe? Has that spread abroad?
Jon Cheigh: On a broad level, we believe the most significant factors for the real estate investment market are fiscal austerity and the availability of credit.
Most European governments have made significant spending cuts to shrink their budget deficits. In the future, greater emphasis may be placed on fiscal stimulus due to political pressure, but we believe sovereign deleveraging will be a large part of the picture for the foreseeable future, weighing on economic growth, and by extension, on property fundamentals. The effects of austerity are being felt most acutely in lower-quality properties and secondary markets, which tend to be more vulnerable to economic downturns.
In addition, European banks have been shoring up their capital positions by reducing the size of their balance sheets, restructuring non-performing real estate loans and refinancing large debt maturities. This means there’s less capital available for financing real estate. We believe tight credit conditions will have a negative effect on cap rates for less-liquid real estate assets, widening the gap between prime and secondary properties.
On the positive side, investment demand for quality commercial real estate has been strong given the historically low yields offered by today’s bond market, as well as the need for diversification into hard assets.
We believe interest rates in Europe will remain low for an extended period due to the combination of high sovereign debt, struggling economies and moderating inflation. This has prompted many institutional investors—especially pension funds—to increase their allocation to higher-yielding assets such as real estate. We expect continued growth in capital flows into real estate in both the direct-investment and listed markets.
In our view, increased investor interest in real estate has been a factor in the significant outperformance of real estate securities versus the broad equity market so far this year. This trend has not been limited to Europe, as nearly every major market for global real estate securities has outperformed local stocks through July, including in the United States.
In the direct market, institutional demand has been focused almost exclusively on the prime segment of the market. U.S. REITs have also been making new inroads into Europe, using their low cost of capital to acquire European assets at relatively low prices. Historically, U.S. companies have not been able to invest in Europe at positive spreads, so this is a notable situation with respect to pricing of global real estate. For example, Simon Property Group recently acquired a 29% stake in Klépierre, an owner of high-quality shopping centers across Europe. We believe these trends could benefit European real estate companies with prime assets, helping to narrow share price discounts relative to their NAVs due to support for investment yields.
As far as the impact of the Eurozone crisis on other parts of the global real estate markets, it has clearly had an effect on global investment sentiment and trade. Industrial property stocks have generally underperformed, as have U.S. companies with assets in Europe. It has also been a consideration in central bank policy, as the downward pull of Europe on the global economy has been explicitly stated as a contributing factor to monetary easing throughout the world. This has actually helped other property markets given the close relationship of real estate and financing costs.
REIT.com: Do you see any way that problems in the financial markets could actually benefit European REITs?
Cheigh: We believe the current crisis offers a ripe environment for a “Great Restructuring” of the European REIT market, comparable to what happened in the United States following the savings-and-loan crisis in the early 1990s. Deleveraging of the financial system in Europe will require equity, thereby presenting investment opportunities. We believe evolving the REIT structure and improving capital market access would benefit shareholders, while also helping to ease some of the stress in the European financial system. A more-flexible approach to raising equity capital could help in three ways. It could aid the process of recapitalization in the real estate and banking sectors, it would help real estate companies become more competitive, and it would likely help address the large funding gap for private real estate debt maturities.
Some European REITs have already begun to adapt to the new realities of the market, shifting their focus from “high growth” to “low cost of capital” by cutting dividends, simplifying their business models and reducing their leverage. Examples of these companies include Hammerson and Land Securities in the U.K. and Corio in the Netherlands. Some of the better European companies, such as France’s Unibail-Rodamco, have had this approach from the start, and have seen exceptional returns during the current crisis. Others continue to resist reforms. In our view, companies that don’t adapt will be left behind, as we believe their cost of capital will remain relatively high and their shares will continue to trade at a discount to NAV.
REIT.com: Are there any sectors or geographic regions that you’re particularly bullish on?
Cheigh: Hong Kong remains one of our favorite property markets, trading at deep discounts to NAV even when the potential for slower economic growth in the region is taken into account. China homebuilders are also interesting given their current valuations and our view that policy risks have moderated and will be more neutral in the near term. Interestingly, despite Europe’s current troubles, we actually like a number of segments there, including London offices and retail (stable rents, limited supply and strong investment demand), German residential (strong employment trends and a resilient economy) and Scandinavia (relatively wide discounts to NAV and a better economic outlook).
REIT.com: Are there any sectors or geographic regions that you’re not as high on?
Cheigh: We’re generally staying away from secondary markets and lower-quality assets. These properties are seeing meaningful declines in tenant demand, as they tend to cater to smaller, local businesses that are more vulnerable to challenging economic conditions. Eventually, they could represent a buying opportunity, but for now, we believe a challenged economic backdrop combined with modest inflation should favor dominant commercial owners with prime assets.
Also, we think a number of the traditional “safe haven” markets and sectors are overvalued. Take the health care property market in the United States. It’s been one of the best performers year to date, as investors have been attracted to its defensive qualities due to its typically stable cash flows. But when we consider share prices relative to NAVs, many are trading at significant premiums, while price-to-FFO multiples are still well above their historical average. Instead, we like other sectors that have stable growth characteristics, but also offer better relative value, such as self storage and student housing.
Similarly, Switzerland has been a key beneficiary of the safe haven trade. Looking only at property fundamentals, it’s not surprising. Office vacancy remains very low, while the combination of accommodative policies and a relatively stable economy have continued to put downward pressure on cap rates (already the lowest in Europe, below 5% on average). However, we think investors are being asked to pay a high premium for this safety, while the market is likely underestimating the potential downside risks, including an economic slowdown in Germany, the effects of a strengthening currency on the country’s substantial export industry and the impact of new supply that’s expected to come online over the next three years.
REIT.com: In the past the BRIC nations have commanded the attention of investors looking for big growth prospects. What are some of the new emerging/developing markets that are drawing interest?
Cheigh: In general, we think emerging market real estate securities are attractive right now, as policymakers are becoming increasingly comfortable with monetary easing due to recent moderation in inflation (excluding food prices). In particular, we like some of the smaller economies in Southeast Asia, such as the Philippines and Thailand, which feature positive demographics and an emerging middle class. These countries have been able to successfully manage inflation through effective central bank policies, and offer a supportive environment for commercial real estate investment.
The recent emergence of commercial property companies in Mexico has offered some very attractive opportunities in the emerging markets universe. Fibra Uno was the country’s first REIT, with its IPO in March 2011. Since then, it has demonstrated strong execution in acquiring properties and has reported good operating results, enabling it to successfully carry out a secondary offering earlier this year. In July, Mexico’s second income-producing company came public—Vesta, an owner of high-quality industrial properties that are a play on the growing manufacturing relationship between Mexico and the United States.
Within emerging markets, corporate governance, government stability and liquidity are especially important. Because of this, we are generally staying away from property companies in the Middle East and Russia.
REIT.com: What do you think will be the dominant theme in the international property markets in the second half of 2012 and into early 2013?
Cheigh: The most important factor, in our view, is whether or not we see a bottoming in global economic growth based on key developments in each region. In the U.S., we face the uncertainty of a presidential election and the looming fiscal cliff at the end of the year. Europe should offer greater clarity around its sovereign debt crisis. And in Asia Pacific, China’s efforts to navigate a soft landing will likely continue to ripple through the global economy. In addition, we believe slowing European consumption and inventory de-stocking has and will continue to drive slowing growth within the Asian export chain. As such, clarity in Europe may have an equally meaningful impact on the growth trajectory of Asian economies and property stocks.
Another key thing we’ll be watching is inflation. Moderating inflation has been a very helpful tailwind to real estate in 2012, giving central banks the flexibility to ease monetary policy to counter the effects of slowing global growth. However, food prices have climbed recently, and if this spreads to core inflation metrics, it could limit interest rate cuts.
Overall, however, we think listed real estate is in a good position relative to many other sectors considering the trend for greater allocations to real estate and the ease of investing globally through the listed market.

Cohen & Steers recently published two whitepapers on commercial real estate investment, "Introduction to Real Estate Securities" and "The Case for Real Estate Securities."

Tough EU stance? It’s in Germany’s culture

Head to the checkout at an Ikea in Stockholm to pay for your new leather corner sofa and with the swipe of a Visa card it is yours. Do not try that in Berlin — that will be 1,699 euros (NT$64,000) up front please.
It is that financial culture — a deep-seated aversion to debt and an emphasis on responsibility — that makes Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hardline approach to solving the European financial crisis so popular in Germany.
The attitude shows up in all walks of life, from the daily trip to the grocery store to putting a roof over your head.
The economy is so reliant on cash for transactions small and big, a way to ensure you do not spend more than you have, that Germany pushed hard for the 500 euro note to replace its popular 1,000 mark bill when it joined the common currency.
Around the world Merkel has been derided as intransigent in her approach to the financial crisis, demanding budget cuts and fiscal austerity from allegedly profligate EU members. But her hardline stand plays well among the people who elected her.
A new poll for Stern magazine shows 64 percent of Germans think the chancellor should stick to her guns, while only 32 percent think she should reconsider her insistence on austerity.
(AP)

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2012/08/31/2003541568

(AP)

強硬的歐盟立場？ 這都是源於德國文化

到斯德哥爾摩的宜家家居結帳櫃台替你的新角落皮沙發買單，只要刷一下威士卡，沙發就是你的了。在柏林可不能試這招，你得當場掏出一千六百九十九歐元（約新台幣六萬四千元）。
正是這種財務文化，也就是對債務根深柢固的厭惡及對責任的強調，才讓德國總理安潔拉˙梅克爾對解決歐洲金融危機所採取的強硬手段在德國這麼受歡迎。
從到雜貨店進行日常購物，到尋找一個棲身之所，這種態度展現在生活的各個面向中。
由於德國經濟非常仰賴現金來進行大大小小的交易，確保不會超支消費，以致德國在加入歐元區時就極力推動印製面額五百元的歐元紙鈔，來取代原本很受歡迎的千元德國馬克紙鈔。
在全球各地，梅克爾都曾因為在解決歐洲金融危機上採取強硬不妥協立場、要求被指為過度揮霍的歐盟成員國刪減預算並實施財政緊縮政策而遭到譏諷。但她的強硬立場在投票選出她為總理的選民間卻極受歡迎。
根據《Stern》週刊最新民調顯示，有百分之六十四的德國人認為總理應堅守立場，只有百分之三十二的民眾認為她該重新考量堅持撙節政策的做法。

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2012/08/31/2003541568

 （美聯社/翻譯：俞智敏）

New property listings in Germany Berlin for your reference! 德國柏林大量房源

http://www.juwai.com/ziegert

德國房地產成環球紅火投資Ugly No Barrier for Apartment Sales in German Boom: Mortgages

 By Dalia Fahmy - Aug 29, 2012 4:43 PM GMT+0800

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-28/ugly-no-barrier-for-apartment-sales-in-german-boom-mortgages.html 

With small windows, low ceilings and drab facades, the concrete apartment blocks favored by East Germany’s communist regime are known as Plattenbauten for their prefabricated panel construction. Now they are hot properties, caught up in a German real estate boom driven by foreign investors seeking a safe place to put their money.

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Residential apartments on Pfotenhauerstrasse in Dresden, Germany. Buyers of large residential portfolios should have plenty of choice as investors including private-equity firms sell almost 100,000 apartments this year to repay debt taken on before the market peaked in 2008. Source: Gagfah SA via Bloomberg

Enlarge image

Companies that have bought or bid for German homes this year include New York-based Cerberus Capital Management, Whitehall Street Real Estate LP, London-based Benson Elliott Capital Management and pension funds from Switzerland and Sweden. Photographer: Johannes Simon/Getty Images

A sale of 38,000 Dresden apartments owned by Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG), many in the socialist-era estates, may be Germany’s next big residential deal after firms including New York-based Blackstone Group LP (BX) and Cerberus Capital Management LP made purchases that included Plattenbauten this year.
“German apartments are getting ripped out of people’s hands,” said Andre Adami, residential investment analyst at Berlin-based research firm BulwienGesa AG. “For every portfolio on sale there’s plenty of demand.”
Foreign investment in Germany’s housing market surged this year as private-equity firms, insurance companies and pension funds seek better returns than bonds while avoiding countries roiled by Europe’s debt crisis.
Buyers from abroad make up about half the purchases of German residential properties totaling more than 10 units. They spent 3.3 billion euros ($4.2 billion) in the first half, the most since 2008 and more than the 2.4 billion euros invested during all of last year, according to data compiled by broker Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (JLL)

‘Attractive Assets’

“German residential is one of the more attractive asset classes in Europe,” said Roger Orf, Europe head of real estate at Apollo Global Management LLC (APO), the New York-based private- equity firm that owns 15 percent of Deutsche Annington Immobilien AG, Germany’s largest residential landlord.
Buyers of large residential holdings should have plenty of choice as investors including private-equity firms sell almost 100,000 apartments this year to repay debt taken on before the market peaked in 2008. Loans for the deals were typically packaged and sold as commercial mortgage-backed securities. About 8.8 billion euros of German multifamily CMBS is set to mature by the end of 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, putting pressure on owners to sell or refinance their real estate holdings.
Blackstone in March agreed to buy about 8,000 apartments, many of them in eastern German prefabricated apartment blocks, from insolvent investor Level One. In May, Cerberus agreed to buy 22,000 homes from Speymill Deutsche Immobilien Co., another insolvent company, through a 985 million-euro debt restructuring. The properties, mostly located in western Germany, also included some Plattenbauten.

TLG Sale

Other foreign investors that have bought or bid for German apartment portfolios this year include Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)’s Whitehall Street Real Estate LP, London-based Benson Elliot Capital Management LLP and European pension funds.
The government’s sale of its TLG Immobilien GmbH real estate unit is attracting interest from investors including Blackstone and Morgan Stanley (MS), four people with knowledge of the matter said last month. TLG’s commercial and residential properties are valued at 1.86 billion euros, according to the sales prospectus.
“Plattenbauten are very efficient,” said Christian Schulz-Wulkow, a partner at Ernst & Young Real Estate GmbH in Berlin. “You can buy lots of product in one location and you end up with 1,000 apartments that are very similar and can be managed in the same way.”

Underperforming Properties

Gagfah SA (GFJ), a company controlled by Fortress, purchased the Dresden apartments from the city’s government in 2006, near the peak of the market, for about 1.7 billion euros. Like other foreign companies that bought at the height of the transaction boom, New York-based Fortress was left with assets that failed to deliver the rental income and sales proceeds to justify the high prices.
Gagfah now plans to sell the homes for at least their book value of 1.8 billion euros to help pay down 3.1 billion euros of debt due next year, the company said Aug. 13.
The property boom is boosting the shares of Germany’s publicly traded real estate companies. Mutual-fund managers such as Vanguard Group Inc. and Edinburgh-based Scottish Widows Investment Partnership have added to their German residential holdings, helping drive up prices of the five largest companies by market value by an average of 55 percent this year. In that time, Germany’s DAX Index (DAX) has gained about 19 percent, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index (UKX) has risen 3.5 percent.

Favorable Outlook

“Which other sector has growth right now?” said Vicky Watson, an investment director at Scottish Widows, which owns German property stocks TAG Immobilien AG (TEG) and Deutsche Wohnen AG. (DWNI) “A year ago, people were talking about how cheap German stocks are, but now we’re talking about what companies can do about making acquisitions and reducing vacancies.”
German real estate is being lifted by a growing economy and a favorable outlook for the market, according to Paer Hakeman, head of Germany for Stockholm-based Akelius Fastigheter AB. The Swedish property investment firm owns about 1 billion euros of homes in the country and in July it bought 300 Berlin apartments.
German unemployment is at a two-decade low and the economy will probably expand by 1 percent this year, according to the country’s central bank, the Bundesbank. The European Commission estimates the euro-area economy will shrink by 0.3 percent.

Berlin, Munich

Real estate in Germany is cheaper than many other European countries. Apartments cost an average of about 2,000 euros a square meter in Berlin and 3,600 euros in Munich, Germany’s most expensive city, according to data compiled by Jones Lang. That compares with 7,000 euros per square meter in Paris and 9,500 euros per square meter in London.
Price gains have accelerated over the past three years. In Berlin and Munich, where the boom has been the strongest, values have gained 16.8 percent in the last 12 months, according to Berlin-based online broker ImmobilienScout.
More German individuals are also buying homes, adding to the competition for properties, as they shield savings from the European debt crisis, Hakeman said. It’s seen as an inflation hedge, with land and buildings predicted to retain their value even if the crisis causes the euro to depreciate against other currencies, he said.
Germany has one of the lowest homeownership rates in Europe at about 46 percent. That compares with 84 percent in Spain, according to data compiled by the Munich-based Ifo Institute and about 65.5 percent of Americans that own their homes.

Alternative Investments

The German market has become more attractive at a time when investors are facing low investment returns as U.S. and European central banks keep interest rates at record lows. Rental income from a typical apartment building in central Berlin yields about 6 percent a year at current prices, BulwienGesa’s Adami said. Investors earn 1.35 percent with a German 10-year government bond.
Demand for apartments in large urban areas is soaring as Germans move out of the countryside to cities where they can find jobs more easily.
“German residential pans out because, while the population is shrinking, the number of households in urban areas is growing,” said Leonard Geiger, director of European research at Cohen & Steers (CNS) Inc., which owns about 5 percent of Deutsche Wohnen. “There’s limited downside,” he said.
The number of households grew 5.8 percent in Frankfurt and 6.4 percent in Cologne in the past decade as more people chose to live alone. New apartment construction hasn’t kept up with the growth because high building costs reduce the profit generated by rents, Adami said.

Housing Shortage

This is creating a shortage of housing in cities that are popular with buyers, said Niels Nielsen, chief executive officer of Danish investment firm Core Property Management, which has funds with about 1 billion euros in Germany.
“Our model has been to buy in cities where you see a long- term housing deficit,” such as Frankfurt, Hamburg and Cologne, he said. These places build about half the number of apartments they need each year, he said. “It’s just a question of supply and demand: the deficit results in an increase in rental levels.”
Rents are already shooting up in Germany’s largest cities, rising 8.3 percent in Berlin in the past 12 months and 6.4 percent in Hamburg, according to ImmobilienScout.

Foreign Backlash

Rising foreign investment has rekindled a backlash that began during the investment boom that preceded the global financial crisis. In 2005, some Germans began describing private-equity investors as “Heuschrecken,” or locusts, accusing them of buying homes to cut maintenance costs and raise rents with no regard for tenants.
Dresden’s government won a 36 million-euro settlement from Gagfah in March after accusing the company of violating tenants’ rights. In the southern German state of Bavaria, where state- owned bank BayernLB is selling homes valued at 2 billion euros, local politicians including Nuremberg Mayor Ulrich Maly have said they plan to raise funds to compete with bids from financial investors.
The spike in investor interest has raised concern that the flood of foreign capital may lead to more volatility, Piet Eichholtz, professor of real estate finance at Maastricht University, said at a conference in June.
That was the case in 2009, when German real estate transactions crashed following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Foreign investment that year dropped to 600 million euros after reaching a high of 10 billion euros in 2005, according to data compiled by Jones Lang LaSalle. The EPRA/NAREIT German stock index, which reflects trades by foreign and domestic investors, plunged from a peak of 1,470 in February 2007 to 237 in November 2008.

Debt Repayments

Some foreign companies that bought during the boom took large loans that they are now struggling to pay off. German CMBS are among the worst performing in Europe, according to Fitch Ratings. About 47.2 percent of German CMBS loans are fully performing, compared with a European average of 62.5 percent.
Recent price gains might also be the beginning of a bubble, said Steffen Sebastian, head of the Real Estate Institute at the University of Regensburg.
“Investment in the German home market right now has a strongly speculative character to it, and that’s what makes it risky,” he said. Cheap financing, fear of inflation and a dearth of investment options elsewhere are driving home prices to “ludicrous” levels in some parts of the country, Sebastian said.
“Especially foreign investors see Germany as a safe haven, but it’s not like the German real estate market is separate from the rest of Europe,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dalia Fahmy in Berlin at dfahmy1@bloomberg.net