Berlin Property Market Overview 2017/18

Berlin Property Market Overview 2017/18

Black Label Properties Expands its Service for Private Clients

BLP Investments GmbH has had a very successful year with its two brands Black Label Properties (BLP) and Black Label Immobilien. In 2017 the international estate agent increased its turnover to over 1.3m euros and sold a total of real estate worth over 22 million euros to its German and international customers. The focus of the global market is China followed by the Middle East and Europe. In 2018 BLP is expanding its service for local property owners in Berlin.

“An interesting development last year was more demand from the US. This trend is becoming even stronger. In addition to the political developments in the US and Germany, the strong dollar and the Berlin brand are also contributing to our growth. This year, Russia and Iran are on the agenda, and we have already hired Russian and Iranian-speaking staff to reinforce our presence in these countries,” says CEO Achim Amann, commenting on the positive developments of 2017.

2017 market trends

In recent years there has been a trend for foreign customers to buy apartments in Berlin for personal use, to start a company or to study. This is why homes between 200-400,000 euros are in high demand. Buyers are also purchasing property in need of renovation so they can modernise it themselves and live close to the city centre on a smaller budget. It is also interesting to note that last year sales with property developers were mainly to international clients, often in packages – new builds, smaller units and refurbished apartments. Of the six million euros’ worth of real estate we sold to China in 2017, most of this was to individual buyers.

2018: Developing our service for local private sellers

 This year, we will be offering private sellers in Berlin the opportunity to contact foreign buyers directly via our Black Label network and database to sell to international clients. This service will be free of cost to the private seller as the buyer pays the full commission.

“We have increased our offline and online marketing to attract private sellers to use our international marketing – something we had previously reserved exclusively for commercial sellers. We have also developed our Chinese website and online marketing for the Chinese market. We continue to offer property owners who wish to sell their apartments in Berlin a flexible form of remuneration. With this model, we have successfully sold paper-based properties for many developers free of commission for buyers in Schöneberg and Tiergarten," explains Achim Amann.

"We are investing intensively in online marketing and the acquisition of international customers who want to buy in Berlin – this is our specialism. In doing so, we constantly question our added value for buyers and sellers and try to improve our services. We give our employees plenty of scope for their own ideas, everyone can contribute with their personal knowledge and the different international influences of our team and the mix of younger and experienced employees give the whole thing a unique dynamic."