Germany. Good overseas investment

A fair point polish bloke. I took note on one Berlin street of 4 cars out of 18 having polish number plates. They are already there but as you say, Germany has yet to open up like here. I think the germans however will be under no pressure to throw the borders open for workers from Poland as they had (in hindsight) their problems with the Turkish guestworkers. Obviously it would be easier for a german speaking pole from Silesia to integrate, sure there's a Silesian Gate in Berlin on the road leading towards Silesia. I still think very interesting times ahead for Berlin, good or bad.
 
By 2012 Germany will be obliged to open its borders to EU citizens from the 10 Accession states of 2004. The accession treaty restricted their freedom to work in the old EU-15 states for a maximum of 8 years. Ireland, UK and Sweden allowed them to work immediatly, some other countries followed suit in 2007.

The current status is that Accession state citizens can work in Germany as self-employed, but not as standard employees. There are a lot of scams where people are technically self employed, but in practice regular employees. Building and meat trades are the main areas.
 
1. QWERTYUIOP - I dont work for Irish tourist board, however I have a lot of respect for them. Opposite like for the Polish one. Tourists have to learn on their own about highlights of Poland, while Irish tourism copes astonishingly well based on one street in the midle of Dublin, Guinness, a couple of cliffs and Hills of Tara.

2. PERSIUS - perfectly true.

Many Poles already work there as self-employed (note: communist governments teach people how to disregard the law. to survive socialism one has to master their "loophole skills". sounds familiar?).

Each Silesian has a neighbour/friend/family working in GER. Some of them have a double nationality status.

Germany has already opened their market for highly skilled workers from CEE - smart people realized that Ireland/UK robbed them from high quality and reasonably priced Polish workforce. They have no choice.

Working 5 days in Berlin and spending weekends back at home may make sense with no border and travel times below 5 hours. But it gives me an idea to invest in Silesia where the money will be spend rather - but it's another thread.
 
Working 5 days in Berlin and spending weekends back at home may make sense with no border and travel times below 5 hours. But it gives me an idea to invest in Silesia where the money will be spend rather - but it's another thread.

Residential investment in Berlin, commercial in Silesia! You can't lose*. I'd say if this does manifest itself that Berlin as a whole will benefit. All the good shops are there.












*may not be true
 
I have acquired a commercial property in Silesia in January, it seems like a bullseye at present :).

Now, I think I will focus on Silesian Special Economic Zone - namely Gliwice region - a lot of students, a lot of new businesses...

... or on German property - any suggestions welcome.
 
What about the Frankfurt a.d. Oder/Slubice area? It was very run down when I was there a few years ago. If there is to be an increase in cross border traffic/business, one might expect this town(s) to benefit. It would (to my mind) be a lot riskier than Berlin however.
 
murphaph:
I have no experience as for Frankfurt/Oder. I anticipate that Poles would go where good salary is. If it is there then ...

ift:
You don't appreciate much the Britons and so what? It's not about love and hate, it's about money. I think that a mass-emigration doesn't learn any language, it's foremans/supervisors that speak. BTW Silesian dialect incorporated a lot of German words so it's easier to learn German ...
 
When I was in Berlin last week I viewed 3 apartments which had been seized by the courts (due to the owers being bankrupt) and are due to be auctioned (individually) early next month. Has anyone else had any experience with this type of purchase? The agent seemed to believe it was a particularly easy way to buy property and if one didn't feel like actually bidding in person a notary could be arranged to do it for about 200 quid.

They are generally advertised as Versteigerungsobjekte. A Versteigerung is an auction and an Objekt is the property. The agent had documents (which were 40 pages long in some cases with details down to the type of cobblestones used on the street outside!) prepared for the court by independent assessors (not agents) with values stated at what the agent claimed were 30% higher than you'd have to pay in the auction.

The general condition of these flats was no better or worse than private sale ones I saw.
 
murphaph

buying flats in court auctions is not highly to recommend if you don´t have somebody you can really trust and has the right know how in this !
Be aware that there is a reason why they came to court. Every German who is clear in his mind sells his flat before it goes that far. If this was not possible then there is reason.
Find this reason and decide if want to buy.
Its very often the case that the "Hausgeld" (monthly payment to the housfound for running costs and maintenace found) is very high.
You should know that, if the majority of the units or sqm belongs to one person or company, they can decide how high these payments are. And you can not do anything against this.
You should ask for the last report of the owners conference and translate it.
 
Interesting points Baudusch. I see you're in the property business. Would you recommend Berlin as a place to invest ?

Is it like previous posters say, with major differences between the different areas & are all the prices falling or is it just some regions bringing down the overall statistics?

I did notice that the "Hausgeld" is expensive in a lot of properties. Sometimes almost as high as the rental income. They keep the buildings in good shape but are you saying that they make a profit out of it ?
 
Last edited:
I am a land investor and I am looking at something in Wittemberge. unit 2004 was a city about to die but recently there is a lot of infrastructure going on, including new university and three industrial sites. I am positive that is a good investment if you build up 2 semidetached houses.
 
I am a land investor and I am looking at something in Wittemberge. unit 2004 was a city about to die but recently there is a lot of infrastructure going on, including new university and three industrial sites. I am positive that is a good investment if you build up 2 semidetached houses.

do you mean Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg?
 
Back
Top