As property prices in London, Paris and quite a few other destinations on the Continent (with the possible exception of the Spanish Costas) continue to motor ahead, what are the prospects for the German city of Berlin? A big investment theme going around the City presently highlights the seemingly vast disparity in property prices between Berlin and other major European capitals. For example, in the exclusive Charlottenburg area of west Berlin a square metre of residential property costs around 1,800 (1,220). This is approximately one ninth of the price of the equivalent size in west London. Property prices are significantly below the level of 1990, the first post-unification year. A crude conclusion is that either London is absurd, or Berlin is absurd. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle...
