If you are at Rome live in the Roman style; if you are elsewhere live as they live elsewhere. [Lat., Si fueris Romae, Romano vivito more; Si fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi.]

–Saint Ambrose

Some of the actors in the German real estate scene are capable and experienced working with international investors and English is widely spoken. To rely on this still narrows possible business partners for real estate transactions down. It is useful for he investor to make some investigations and search work independently. In this process investors will obtain information and property offers from different sources sources including newspaper ads and internet portals. To help them to understand the main parts of that information we have provided a German-English Property Glossary which also includes abbreviations commonly used in German property ads and rental ads and performance figures provided by a vendor.

It would not suit the format of an article like this to provide a full list, it will have to be limited to some main items to provide an impression of what can be expected:

Abbrev.–German term–English term

AB — Altbau — Period property

Aufz.– Aufzug — Lift

Kfz. — Autostellplatz — Car parking space

Bd — Bad — Bathroom

Bj. — Baujahr — Year of construction

BeK — Betriebskosten — Operating cost

BEZ — Bezirk — Borough, City District

BKM — Brutto-Kaltmiete — Gross Rent without heating

DG — Dachgeschoss — Penthouse apartment

Language is only one of the obstacles an international investor has to master. Especially with large numbers of private investors from UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Spain and Italy to only name a few buying from one apartment to several apartment blocks the need to bridge the cultural caps is big. It starts at the purchase phase which is accompanied by English speaking agents, lawyers etc., specialised on international investors. Once the investment gets to the operational phase the fees are much smaller and investors will find less multilingual service providers like property managers and most certainly will receive German reporting. There are few professionals providing help at this end of the investment.

The list is at the moment just over 100 items long and growing constantly. To download your own Berlin Portfolio Ltd. - Property Glossary please follow this link.

Getting the free German English Property Glossary will be a useful action for those that have already invested in Germany property and even more for those planning to make this exciting move. You will find the complete Glossary on the authors website.

The author is a Berliner and active in the German property market for more than 25 years. Experienced as project manager, developer and head of the German Business for a UK based property consultancy he now owns and operates Berlin Portfolio Ltd. His international background and local expertise is an ideal combination for an international investor.

He offers “Health Checks” and problem solving for non or not as good performing properties as promised at the outset. This includes “forensic” review of the information provided at the purchase and review of the performance of the property management - all in English!
For Property Search we recommend Properties in Berlin.

…and don’t forget to get you own free copy of the German-English Property Glossary.