![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I still like my current living situation, and my roommate and I are still getting along, so I'm not in the "must get out now" situation like a year ago. It's just ... I want a second room to sleep in and a kitchen big enough that I don't have to store all my small appliances, spices, and canned goods in my (bed)room.
I had been going to move into a newly built 2-room apartment in a co-op(ish), but because of reasons, mostly involving a lack of steady income, I had to back out of that. On the plus side, I guess, I'll have another 5 years' worth of living expenses once I get my money back. (On the minus side, I'll have to figure out how to prove that it wasn't income, but a refund of monies paid, and that it was money I had before I came to Germany. So that's going to be fucking annoying.)
The housing market here (renting OR buying) is insane. I don't qualify for a lease (see: no steady income), and the public-assistance apartments are ALSO impossible to get and, aside from that, inhumane. The rule is that if you are one person, you can get a one-room apartment. Most of these apartments are 30-35 qm (350ish sqft) including the bathroom and kitchen, and fucking no. I have a friend who lives in one on the other side of the city, and I couldn't do it. There's no open floor space (so no yoga at home), and the kitchen is MAYBE 1.5 qm (20 sqft) tops.
So one thing I'd love to do is buy a little house or a bigger apartment with some friends, but none of us have any money lol, so that's out of the question.
I talked to some derby folks, though, and there's this group, the Mietshäusersyndikat (rental-house syndicate), that finances community-focused housing purchases. A lot of them are, like, "our landlord was going to sell our building, so we all got together and talked about it, and now we own the place," but there are a couple smaller ones where a handful of families buy a house together. The trick is that there has to be some sort of community orientation for it. Added bonus is that, because the MHS lends the money, they own the building, too, so it's permanently out of the commercial real estate market. (GOOD. Fucking real estate investors will be among the first against the wall.)
SO. My big (impossible) dream is to get a few other people (queer/women+ artists/writers, ideally) together and go through the MHS to buy a building and turn it into 3 apartments and a community space. The community space could have 2 "bedrooms" to rent to people who need studio space and an open plan living room/kitchen for book clubs, knitting circles, yoga lessons, whatever (on a pay-what-you-can basis). If there's a back yard, that could be used for events, too. But a) the housing market here is insane, b) I don't know anyone who wants to join me in this, and c) anywhere in Berlin where there are structures suitable for this type of project is way outside the cool part of the city, so no one would want to voluntarily move out there. Also d) half the time when I filter my search for not-rented-out houses, the description talks about having reliable tenants. I'm not going to fucking evict people.
(The building would need to have at least 7 or 8 rooms and the ability to subdivide into 4 separate apartments and add bathrooms and kitchens if needed. I've been dream-hunting on ImmoScout, as you do, and there are some houses that might work, and others that could work if it was like a couple shared apartments. I'm also being picky and trying to stay on the east side near where I currently live, because I like it over here. It would also have to be adaptable to barrier-free living and an elevator.)
A couple people have suggested joining some alternative living facebook groups and searching there, or trying to join an existing Wohnprojekt (which is impossible, because they're all full), but I also would rather live with people I know and not a bunch of strangers. Like, I think my friend in the social apartment would love to live in a bigger place (and she's a queer woman artist), but she has no money (she's disabled/unable to work) and NEEDS an elevator. We couldn't live in the same apartment because she's allergic to cats, so there would have to be separate ones. I know some people from roller derby who fit the bill, but see above re artists and fucking broke.
I don't know if it's worth contacting the MHS for one of their advising sessions, because I don't have anything more than a concept right now. I just want to live alone but also in a community/with friends, and maybe support my local queers.
I had been going to move into a newly built 2-room apartment in a co-op(ish), but because of reasons, mostly involving a lack of steady income, I had to back out of that. On the plus side, I guess, I'll have another 5 years' worth of living expenses once I get my money back. (On the minus side, I'll have to figure out how to prove that it wasn't income, but a refund of monies paid, and that it was money I had before I came to Germany. So that's going to be fucking annoying.)
The housing market here (renting OR buying) is insane. I don't qualify for a lease (see: no steady income), and the public-assistance apartments are ALSO impossible to get and, aside from that, inhumane. The rule is that if you are one person, you can get a one-room apartment. Most of these apartments are 30-35 qm (350ish sqft) including the bathroom and kitchen, and fucking no. I have a friend who lives in one on the other side of the city, and I couldn't do it. There's no open floor space (so no yoga at home), and the kitchen is MAYBE 1.5 qm (20 sqft) tops.
So one thing I'd love to do is buy a little house or a bigger apartment with some friends, but none of us have any money lol, so that's out of the question.
I talked to some derby folks, though, and there's this group, the Mietshäusersyndikat (rental-house syndicate), that finances community-focused housing purchases. A lot of them are, like, "our landlord was going to sell our building, so we all got together and talked about it, and now we own the place," but there are a couple smaller ones where a handful of families buy a house together. The trick is that there has to be some sort of community orientation for it. Added bonus is that, because the MHS lends the money, they own the building, too, so it's permanently out of the commercial real estate market. (GOOD. Fucking real estate investors will be among the first against the wall.)
SO. My big (impossible) dream is to get a few other people (queer/women+ artists/writers, ideally) together and go through the MHS to buy a building and turn it into 3 apartments and a community space. The community space could have 2 "bedrooms" to rent to people who need studio space and an open plan living room/kitchen for book clubs, knitting circles, yoga lessons, whatever (on a pay-what-you-can basis). If there's a back yard, that could be used for events, too. But a) the housing market here is insane, b) I don't know anyone who wants to join me in this, and c) anywhere in Berlin where there are structures suitable for this type of project is way outside the cool part of the city, so no one would want to voluntarily move out there. Also d) half the time when I filter my search for not-rented-out houses, the description talks about having reliable tenants. I'm not going to fucking evict people.
(The building would need to have at least 7 or 8 rooms and the ability to subdivide into 4 separate apartments and add bathrooms and kitchens if needed. I've been dream-hunting on ImmoScout, as you do, and there are some houses that might work, and others that could work if it was like a couple shared apartments. I'm also being picky and trying to stay on the east side near where I currently live, because I like it over here. It would also have to be adaptable to barrier-free living and an elevator.)
A couple people have suggested joining some alternative living facebook groups and searching there, or trying to join an existing Wohnprojekt (which is impossible, because they're all full), but I also would rather live with people I know and not a bunch of strangers. Like, I think my friend in the social apartment would love to live in a bigger place (and she's a queer woman artist), but she has no money (she's disabled/unable to work) and NEEDS an elevator. We couldn't live in the same apartment because she's allergic to cats, so there would have to be separate ones. I know some people from roller derby who fit the bill, but see above re artists and fucking broke.
I don't know if it's worth contacting the MHS for one of their advising sessions, because I don't have anything more than a concept right now. I just want to live alone but also in a community/with friends, and maybe support my local queers.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-02 03:28 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-10-02 06:27 pm (UTC)From:I have a friend here who thinks it's a cool plan but is more interested in a tiny house settlement at the moment (leaving aside that Germany doesn't know what to do with tiny houses and they may not even be legal for dwelling purposes), but I'm hoping to convince her that an existing house divided into several apartments is just as good.