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As I probably mentioned already, I've been looking for an apartment since the beginning of December, and seriously looking since February or March. I've filled out contact forms for probably 150 apartments at this point, and I got a grand total of 6 showings between March and this past week.
All of them were in GDR Plattenbauten in either Neu-Hohenschönhausen or Marzahn. Plattenbau is prefab concrete block construction, basically, and it was pretty much how the entire Soviet Bloc dealt with the housing crisis. All but one of them was basically the same general construction plan: the apartment is approximately square, 32.6 sq m (350 square feet). You enter into a 3 sqm foyer. In front of you is a 3 sqm bathroom. To your right is the main room, 21 sqm. The main room is rectangular, with a window on the opposite side from where you stand. At the other end of the room, on the left, behind the bathroom, is the kitchen with a window. (The oddball had a larger entryway, bathroom, and kitchen, with a mostly square main room and a balcony.)
There were some minor differences in the floor plans, mostly in how the fixtures in the bathroom were arranged or where the radiator is in the kitchen, but they were all built on the same plan in the 1980s. Any differences probably stem from renovations in the meantime.
Four of them were through the Landeseigenen, owned by the state of Berlin (Berlin is a city-state and has both a city government and a state government, in addition to being the nation's capital) and operated by basically nonprofit companies. The rent is strictly controlled, and they have a required fraction of social housing (or social-priced housing that doesn't require filling out the fucking paperwork). Getting a Landeseigenen is tough, because everybody wants them.
One of them was through Deutsche Wohnen, one of the largest landlord companies in Germany (and one of the big targets of the expropriation movement, which wants to, as best as I understand it, turn their properties into Landeseigenen).
The sixth was through a Genossenschaft, which translates roughly to co-operative, but it's a very specific legal framework. Genossenschaften are also extremely sought-after, because they also have low rents (at least ones that aren't new construction) and, like with the Landeseigenen, the owner can't claim they need it and kick you out. You're technically one of the owners.
(long-time readers may recall back in 2019 I took my divorce settlement and bought shares of a new-construction Genossenschaft. I can't afford the rent there, so the company took over my shares until a new person is found. I need to call them again, because they told me in February that they had a replacement and no money has been forthcoming.)
I heard about this Genossenschaft in a very convoluted way, which seems to be pretty much the only way to get a home in this fucking city. A guy I know from 2010 soccer twitter who I follow on insta now shared a story from a former student of his who was looking for someone to take over his lease. I messaged him, but the timing of the showing was inconvenient (I was out of town). He sent me a list of Genossenschaften he'd compiled for his search and also told me that he'd heard that a few more people would be moving out soon, so I should check the apartment listings on their website every day.
One feature of a Genossenschaft is that, when an apartment frees up because the occupant moves out, they have to offer it first to members of the Genossenschaft, and then if they all refuse, they can open it to the general public. This is the only way to become a member of a Genossenschaft (right now in Berlin; other jurisdictions may be easier).
I checked the site every day, and then one day there were three listings. I filled out the contact form for the one I was most interested in and waited, expecting nothing. Then I received an invitation to a showing. They show an apartment to up to 7 people (in a group showing, because that's how it works now). So of course I confirmed that I'd be there and then dragged my ass out there for a 10 am appointment. I was already familiar with the area from previous showings, and when it was done, I went over to the big shopping center basically across the street and got the best simit I've had in Berlin and some spreads to put on it.
I filled out the self-information form and supplied the necessary paperwork (pay stubs/invoices, tax return (because I'm freelance), IDs and residence permit, statement that I don't owe back rent) before the May 2 deadline. They said we'd know "pretty quickly" after the deadline, because they'd start processing the paperwork once everybody's was in (and that could be before the deadline if everyone is quick).
There's a lot going on in my life right now (work, derby, board meetings, etc.) and I didn't do a great job of using my planner every day, so I don't have a lot of structure right now, and it feels like the deadline was a month ago, but it was only 2 weeks. Huh. I guess having about 9635986 things to do every day and no time to sit down and make lists fucks me up pretty bad.
So anyway, I started looking at larger apartments where a friend and I could move in together, and I'd found some nice ones, but she wants to live in a different part of the city than I do, though we found a compromise area, and our options were pretty limited because she needs either ground floor or an elevator because of joint issues, with a max total rent around 1800 a month, divided according to ability. (communism!)
Then Friday, I went to look at the oddball apartment and confirmed my interest to continue with the process. And then I sent out the final epub of Filling Your Worlds to Kickstarter backers, which went just fine, and then I tried to upload it to tolino media for sale, fixed the validation errors it threw at me, and tried again ... and then it told me hahaha lol! It has to be in epub2, and this is in epub3! So then I searched the web a bit and learned that calibre can convert 2<>3, so I did that, and now it has 260 validation errors because none of the formatting for the footnotes was in the epub2 standard and ... ugh. So I asked my friend who formatted it for me the first time if she could fix it if she had time (I owe her so many dinners now, Christ).
Rough day, basically given up hope that I'll ever find a place of my own, so I drank the little airplane bottle of Berlin Distillery's Sundown Gin that's been on my shelf for a couple years. (It's really good; citrus and gin taste. Tastes like watching a sunset.) I put on this 5-hour YouTube video about Disco Elysium I'd been watching for over a week while I crocheted. I had about 90 minutes left I think? When it ended, I checked my phone, and there was a message from the Genossenschaft, sent at like 8 pm.
I opened it with trepidation, but it said "wir freuen uns" (we are pleased to) and I read it closer, and they picked me. Of the six people who they showed it to, I'm the one they chose. Me! I have no idea what their criteria are, but I guess I fit them.
I haven't received the contract yet; it's the weekend. The rate quoted in the ad was (this is insane) 314 € a month warm (incl. heat, water/sewer, trash) (230 cold). I'm currently paying 550 a month for 20 sqm in a shared flat in a much more convenient location (tradeoffs! I would love to stay in this area, but when you get a lease for somewhere you don't hate AND it's a Genossenschaft, you take it).
The start date is June 1, which is timing-wise EXTREMELY inconvenient, because I have to give (legally) a full calendar-month's notice that I'm moving out (double rent, fuck) and I'm going to the US on June 10. So I put in my acceptance that July 1 works better, but I can make June 1 work. We'll see which month they give me when I get the paperwork; I assume June because the previous tenant was already out by the end of April. So I'll be spending the first week of June sorting out a kitchen and getting at least a bed and desk for the new place and starting to put things in boxes so I can start taking things over the weekend of the 7th and get everything finally out by July 15.
I have no idea what kind of furniture I'm going to get for the space. I have 2 Billys and 1 1x2 Kallax, a side table, a printer stand, a shoe rack I'll probably have to sell (too big), and a wardrobe I'll probably also sell once I figure out how things will fit. I definitely need something where I can hang clothes, which the wardrobe I have is adequate at, but I also need drawers, which the wardrobe is bad at.
I'm hoping I can make an appointment with the Hausmeister to get in and take measurements and pictures in the next week or two, so I can start looking for kitchens on Kleinanzeigen. (Because most apartments are BYO kitchen, people often sell theirs when they move or renovate.) I would love to be able to mount a microwave over the stove; I wonder if there's an outlet for one.
The problem with having looked at 5 nearly identical apartments is that they've all kinda merged together in my memory, and I don't seem to have photographed this one. Or I deleted them because I decided they picked someone else.
The only major downside is that it's in a part of the city that's served by only one S-Bahn, though there are two tram lines and some buses. No U-bahn at all, because East Berlin. It's also about 45 minutes away from roller derby and board meetings (every 2 weeks). It could be a lot worse; I focused my search on the east side for a reason. Spandau is over an hour to roller derby. I'll also have to change which branch of my gym I go to, because my current one is ~45 minutes from the new place (incl. 15 minutes walking) and the one in Marzahn is about 20 on the express bus.
tl;dr: I'm moving into a commie block and am pretty pleased actually.
All of them were in GDR Plattenbauten in either Neu-Hohenschönhausen or Marzahn. Plattenbau is prefab concrete block construction, basically, and it was pretty much how the entire Soviet Bloc dealt with the housing crisis. All but one of them was basically the same general construction plan: the apartment is approximately square, 32.6 sq m (350 square feet). You enter into a 3 sqm foyer. In front of you is a 3 sqm bathroom. To your right is the main room, 21 sqm. The main room is rectangular, with a window on the opposite side from where you stand. At the other end of the room, on the left, behind the bathroom, is the kitchen with a window. (The oddball had a larger entryway, bathroom, and kitchen, with a mostly square main room and a balcony.)
There were some minor differences in the floor plans, mostly in how the fixtures in the bathroom were arranged or where the radiator is in the kitchen, but they were all built on the same plan in the 1980s. Any differences probably stem from renovations in the meantime.
Four of them were through the Landeseigenen, owned by the state of Berlin (Berlin is a city-state and has both a city government and a state government, in addition to being the nation's capital) and operated by basically nonprofit companies. The rent is strictly controlled, and they have a required fraction of social housing (or social-priced housing that doesn't require filling out the fucking paperwork). Getting a Landeseigenen is tough, because everybody wants them.
One of them was through Deutsche Wohnen, one of the largest landlord companies in Germany (and one of the big targets of the expropriation movement, which wants to, as best as I understand it, turn their properties into Landeseigenen).
The sixth was through a Genossenschaft, which translates roughly to co-operative, but it's a very specific legal framework. Genossenschaften are also extremely sought-after, because they also have low rents (at least ones that aren't new construction) and, like with the Landeseigenen, the owner can't claim they need it and kick you out. You're technically one of the owners.
(long-time readers may recall back in 2019 I took my divorce settlement and bought shares of a new-construction Genossenschaft. I can't afford the rent there, so the company took over my shares until a new person is found. I need to call them again, because they told me in February that they had a replacement and no money has been forthcoming.)
I heard about this Genossenschaft in a very convoluted way, which seems to be pretty much the only way to get a home in this fucking city. A guy I know from 2010 soccer twitter who I follow on insta now shared a story from a former student of his who was looking for someone to take over his lease. I messaged him, but the timing of the showing was inconvenient (I was out of town). He sent me a list of Genossenschaften he'd compiled for his search and also told me that he'd heard that a few more people would be moving out soon, so I should check the apartment listings on their website every day.
One feature of a Genossenschaft is that, when an apartment frees up because the occupant moves out, they have to offer it first to members of the Genossenschaft, and then if they all refuse, they can open it to the general public. This is the only way to become a member of a Genossenschaft (right now in Berlin; other jurisdictions may be easier).
I checked the site every day, and then one day there were three listings. I filled out the contact form for the one I was most interested in and waited, expecting nothing. Then I received an invitation to a showing. They show an apartment to up to 7 people (in a group showing, because that's how it works now). So of course I confirmed that I'd be there and then dragged my ass out there for a 10 am appointment. I was already familiar with the area from previous showings, and when it was done, I went over to the big shopping center basically across the street and got the best simit I've had in Berlin and some spreads to put on it.
I filled out the self-information form and supplied the necessary paperwork (pay stubs/invoices, tax return (because I'm freelance), IDs and residence permit, statement that I don't owe back rent) before the May 2 deadline. They said we'd know "pretty quickly" after the deadline, because they'd start processing the paperwork once everybody's was in (and that could be before the deadline if everyone is quick).
There's a lot going on in my life right now (work, derby, board meetings, etc.) and I didn't do a great job of using my planner every day, so I don't have a lot of structure right now, and it feels like the deadline was a month ago, but it was only 2 weeks. Huh. I guess having about 9635986 things to do every day and no time to sit down and make lists fucks me up pretty bad.
So anyway, I started looking at larger apartments where a friend and I could move in together, and I'd found some nice ones, but she wants to live in a different part of the city than I do, though we found a compromise area, and our options were pretty limited because she needs either ground floor or an elevator because of joint issues, with a max total rent around 1800 a month, divided according to ability. (communism!)
Then Friday, I went to look at the oddball apartment and confirmed my interest to continue with the process. And then I sent out the final epub of Filling Your Worlds to Kickstarter backers, which went just fine, and then I tried to upload it to tolino media for sale, fixed the validation errors it threw at me, and tried again ... and then it told me hahaha lol! It has to be in epub2, and this is in epub3! So then I searched the web a bit and learned that calibre can convert 2<>3, so I did that, and now it has 260 validation errors because none of the formatting for the footnotes was in the epub2 standard and ... ugh. So I asked my friend who formatted it for me the first time if she could fix it if she had time (I owe her so many dinners now, Christ).
Rough day, basically given up hope that I'll ever find a place of my own, so I drank the little airplane bottle of Berlin Distillery's Sundown Gin that's been on my shelf for a couple years. (It's really good; citrus and gin taste. Tastes like watching a sunset.) I put on this 5-hour YouTube video about Disco Elysium I'd been watching for over a week while I crocheted. I had about 90 minutes left I think? When it ended, I checked my phone, and there was a message from the Genossenschaft, sent at like 8 pm.
I opened it with trepidation, but it said "wir freuen uns" (we are pleased to) and I read it closer, and they picked me. Of the six people who they showed it to, I'm the one they chose. Me! I have no idea what their criteria are, but I guess I fit them.
I haven't received the contract yet; it's the weekend. The rate quoted in the ad was (this is insane) 314 € a month warm (incl. heat, water/sewer, trash) (230 cold). I'm currently paying 550 a month for 20 sqm in a shared flat in a much more convenient location (tradeoffs! I would love to stay in this area, but when you get a lease for somewhere you don't hate AND it's a Genossenschaft, you take it).
The start date is June 1, which is timing-wise EXTREMELY inconvenient, because I have to give (legally) a full calendar-month's notice that I'm moving out (double rent, fuck) and I'm going to the US on June 10. So I put in my acceptance that July 1 works better, but I can make June 1 work. We'll see which month they give me when I get the paperwork; I assume June because the previous tenant was already out by the end of April. So I'll be spending the first week of June sorting out a kitchen and getting at least a bed and desk for the new place and starting to put things in boxes so I can start taking things over the weekend of the 7th and get everything finally out by July 15.
I have no idea what kind of furniture I'm going to get for the space. I have 2 Billys and 1 1x2 Kallax, a side table, a printer stand, a shoe rack I'll probably have to sell (too big), and a wardrobe I'll probably also sell once I figure out how things will fit. I definitely need something where I can hang clothes, which the wardrobe I have is adequate at, but I also need drawers, which the wardrobe is bad at.
I'm hoping I can make an appointment with the Hausmeister to get in and take measurements and pictures in the next week or two, so I can start looking for kitchens on Kleinanzeigen. (Because most apartments are BYO kitchen, people often sell theirs when they move or renovate.) I would love to be able to mount a microwave over the stove; I wonder if there's an outlet for one.
The problem with having looked at 5 nearly identical apartments is that they've all kinda merged together in my memory, and I don't seem to have photographed this one. Or I deleted them because I decided they picked someone else.
The only major downside is that it's in a part of the city that's served by only one S-Bahn, though there are two tram lines and some buses. No U-bahn at all, because East Berlin. It's also about 45 minutes away from roller derby and board meetings (every 2 weeks). It could be a lot worse; I focused my search on the east side for a reason. Spandau is over an hour to roller derby. I'll also have to change which branch of my gym I go to, because my current one is ~45 minutes from the new place (incl. 15 minutes walking) and the one in Marzahn is about 20 on the express bus.
tl;dr: I'm moving into a commie block and am pretty pleased actually.
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