Relocating to Berlin: Mietwohnungen in Berlin

For years now, my wife and I have been religious viewers of House Hunters International on HGTV.  For those unfamiliar with the premise, each episode profiles an individual or a family as they search for housing somewhere in the world.  It is cheaply made "reality" TV, and each episode is formatted exactly the same, all the way down to how one home out of a selection of three is ultimately chosen ("...let's eliminate one, and then chose from the remaining two. . . ").  But despite all of this, we try to never miss an episode.  And when they profile somebody moving to Berlin, all work stops, the DVR is set, the family and neighbors are called in from the fields, and we sit glued to the TV.  Other than its tendency to mangle the city's geography when describing neighborhoods, and other than its well-known habit of just making stuff up in the interest of making the "stories" more compelling, the show does help to offer some insights into what apartments in Berlin are like - and to a lesser extent, what you can expect to pay for them.

Ever since deciding to move to Berlin, my family has been conducting its own version of House Hunters International, although admittedly it has been more of a "virtual" version conducted via the Internet.  Fortunately, in this modern age, it is a relatively simple task to look for real estate anywhere in the world.

However, Berlin is a city of 3.3 million people covering 344 square miles, so it helps to narrow one's search somewhat.

My wife and I have visited Berlin several times over the past few years, and we have evolved somewhat on where we have wanted to live.  When we first visited back in 2001, we could not help but fall in love with Charlottenburg.  With its stately homes, vibrant shopping on Kurfürstendamm, beautiful parks, and relative convenience to downtown, we thought this might be the place for us - assuming that we would be able to afford it.  In addition to the fantastic department store KaDeWe and its mind-blowing food floor, Charlottenburg is also home to an awesome military book store that I make a point of visiting every time I am in the city.

But as one writer put it, Berlin never truly "is", it is always "becoming".  On every subsequent trip back to the city, my wife and I explored more neighborhoods.  Back in 2001, Berlin was still essentially two cities.  The Berlin Wall had fallen a scant 12 years previously, and while it was filling in remarkably quickly, you could still easily track the path of the Wall, and you could still easily see the difference between the bright and relatively affluent western half of the city and the somewhat dingier eastern half of the city.

The most recent time we visited Berlin, the changes could not be more obvious.  This time, we rented an apartment in Mitte.  This former East Berlin neighborhood - adjacent to the Brandenburg Gate, the Fernsehturm, and Friedrichstraße - was incredibly lively.  Older buildings were either renovated, or were being renovated.  Shops and restaurants filled every street.  Parks were filled with young families.  It was thrilling to see the transformation.

As we walked up Bernauerstraße toward the Mauerpark for its massive weekly flea market, we also became familiar with Prenzlauer Berg - quite possibly the hottest neighborhood in the entire city for young professionals with families.  As we later discovered, Prenzlauer Berg is home to a growing array of technology companies and software development firms, increasingly earning it the reputation of being the Silicon Valley of Germany.

I don't know whether it is because everything in Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg is so new, or whether it is because these neighborhoods are siphoning off money, investment, and attention from Charlottenburg - rendering this more established neighborhood more drab in comparison, but my wife and I determined that these two former East Berlin neighborhoods were where we wanted to start our new life.

With a new school selected for our daughter, the race is now on to find an apartment.  With our savings and any income that we can make from consulting until we find more permanent employment, we have been pleasantly surprised at what we will be able to afford.  At least at the moment, Berlin is a remarkably inexpensive city in which to live.

With all of this in mind, it will be incredibly exciting to start visiting apartments.  Almost exciting enough for House Hunters International.