Savills : Postcard from Berlin

It's been nearly a year since we were able to travel freely - if at all. But there is light at the end of the tunnel and some day we really will be able to pack our bags and reach for our passports again. While we wait, our local agents remind us of what we're missing.

After the coldest winter for a decade, spring has brought welcome bursts of colourful blossom back to the streets of Berlin. This is one of Europe's greenest cities with around 2,500 parks and over 100 lakes and, in normal times, Berliners love to be outside meeting friends by the River Spree and strolling through the Tiergarten.

Everything is rather different this May of course due to our latest Covid-19 restrictions. Like all Berliners, I am missing our usual sociable and affordable lifestyle based around restaurants and world-class culture. Many first-time visitors are genuinely surprised to discover this laid-back lifestyle but most are aware that compared with other capital cities, Berlin is one of Western Europe's best-value property markets.

I moved to Berlin from western Germany in 2000 and have seen the property market change significantly over the past two decades. Initially Berlin was not on the radar for international buyers but that changed around 2005, a hugely exciting time as investors saw the potential in the city.

Berlin, like most of Germany, has a very low level of owner-occupiers and for some years it was foreigners who were eager to invest, not locals. For the first time, sales brochures were produced in English and estate agents and notaries had to learn to cater for buyers from around the world.

Berlin is the capital of Europe's strongest economy with highly successful tech and media sectors and a global reputation as an affordable favourite for tech start-ups.

Each year around 40,000 to 60,000 people relocate to the city and today Berlin is truly cosmopolitan: in many city-centre cafes and shops you'll hear English spoken before German. Yet with only 20,000 properties added annually, there's a real shortage of stock.

Taken together, these factors explain why professional services company PwC gave Berlin top billing in Europe for 'overall real estate prospects' in its 2021 Emerging Trends in Global Real Estate, placing it above London, Paris and Madrid. Savills World Cities Prime Residential Index 2021 backed this up, forecasting that Berlin will see Europe's strongest price growth this year, between 6 and 7.9 per cent

After a few months of total lockdown last year, interest in Berlin property has continued, helped by virtual viewings, and the key locations remain the same. Sophisticated Charlottenburg includes Ku'damm, Berlin's affluent shopping boulevard.

Most sought-after of all is the former eastern Berlin neighbourhood of Mitte, home to embassies, the Brandenburg Gate and The Reichstag, the Federal German Parliament with its dramatic glass dome designed by starchitect Sir Norman Foster.

This is where we are selling Am Tacheles, one of Berlin's most exciting projects. The mixed-use development with a masterplan by starchitects Herzog & de Meuron will create a new cultural and business quarter in Mitte.

The recent promise to make vaccines available for all adults by the end of June means we are hopeful of a return to something more normal in late summer. We Berliners are famously low-key but we are all ready to see a return to our vibrant urban life.

• Thomas Zabel is Managing Director, Residential Agency, Germany.

Read our guide to buying property in Berlin