Areas near Neuenhagen bei Berlin

It looks as if we might have to move to Berlin soon (this year or next) as my husband has been offered a job in Neuenhagen. We (37, 37,7,9) have lived in Dresden for many years and are now thinking of buying a little house in Berlin, if we can find a cheap one - a Reihenmittelhaus or something. Neuenhagen itself seems a dead end, and I'm looking for a place which has at least as much to offer as Dresden in the way of schools (Grundschule and up), shops, cinemas, swimming pools and travel connections for a quick escape, parks, museums, green spaces - but not too near the centre of Berlin, and preferably not too far from Neuenhagen.

I have no idea what any of these areas of Berlin are like; my husband just told me that Hellersdorf, the nearest lively-looking place to Neuenhagen, is quite rough ...? Looking on the internet, Köpenick seems interesting, but really I have no idea where to start looking. Maybe someone here lives in those areas and could give me some tips on where to begin?

hi.. i can't give you any solid 100% advice, but I can pass on these 2 bits of info: 1. I biked through Koepnick over the summer and sat on the lake, or what ever it is there and found it really really charming. It reminded me of summer homes of my friends in New England, in the States. Being on the outskirts of Berlin, there is more green, more parks, but doesn't lack the benefits of the city like trains and ease to berlin to the airports, or the hauptbahnhof for quick trips.
2. I've been discussing the real estate question a lot recently with friends, and several who live in prenzlauer berg, all mentioned buying houses up in Pankow, near the large park that is there. That it wasn't too expensive, (I don't know first hand), close to lots of green, and within minutes of the center of Berlin.
I'm looking for apartments, not houses, so this is just second-hand knowledge I can pass along.
But in the real estate game, I know that any and all knowledge is useful.
Good luck.

Thanks for the tip - I'm happy to hear anyone's opinion as long as it is good! I have to persuade myself that moving to Berlin will be a wonderful, exciting experience, and that buying a house will not mean chaining ourselves down to one place for the rest of our life, but instead will be a great improvement.

Just to open this out a bit - does anyone have any experience of English-speaking estate agents in the Berlin area? I'm looking to buy a property, though preferably not an apartment unless it's on a ground floor with a garden (four cats to accomodate you see )

neuenhagen is near a s bahn so its not so far to the center anyway or you can always get into the center via the s bahn maybe just a trip once a week to ostbahnhof or better still go to beisdorf as this has a large supermaket there

IMHO you will be chaining yourself more than you would in the UK since buying/selling a house here is significantly
more expensive than in UK (Makler fees are much higher than UK equiv).

Hence a move into a house has to be considered carefully.

The alternative to buying a house will be living in flats for the rest of our lives, though, and that's not exactly tempting either. I would be less worried about getting a house here in Dresden, as we've lived here for ages and know that Dresden has a lot to offer, and where the nicest places are; I'm mainly worried about choosing a place in or near Neuenhagen and then only finding out later that I hated it.

We went up to Neuenhagen yesterday and even in the snow it was nicer than I'd expected, but still extremely quiet with quite a few run-down/boarded-up Altbau buildings; some parts were done up but there were still a few abandoned squares with GDR sculptures and graffiti. I did see several supermarkets, mind! There is an outdoor swimming pool, too. But there's only one Gymnasium (17 in Dresden...) and a couple of other secondary schools, one of which will be run by my husband and is seriously underfunded. It shares a building with one of the two primary schools, which did not look much worse than my kids' school here, but that's not saying much! You can't send your child to other schools just down the road as they are in Berlin and Neuenhagen is in Brandenburg; apparently many people send their kids out the opposite direction on the train every day to another small town to go to school.

We also drove through Köpenick and the Altstadt seemed attractive, but it was more built-up than I'd thought. I think we'll have to wait a while and see how it goes with dh's job, and check the area out whenever we visit.

(Now I realise how lucky I was being able to walk to school as a child to a slightly tatty comprehensive school in Essex with facilities such as a stage, its own small swimming pool, language lab, science labs, a little library - and we thought our school was pretty rubbish! I'd kill to get my children into a place like that here. But that's a little OT...)

Hi there, I am living in Neuenhagen bei Berlin, I am an Englishman and lived and have been coming here for the past 4 years in June and I find that Neuenhagen is very quite and not as hussle and bussle as a main towns and Cities. OK you have 4 schools, out door swimming pool only open summer, tennis club and in the fitness centre here, there is indoor tennis. A football club, riding club, race course (of which also gives concerts), dancing clubs. The fitness club which is about 60 euros a month gives you sauna as much as you want, fitness suite, spinning, squash, badminton and not forgetting bowling which has 13 lanes (also a team). Near the race course there is a woodland which you can take a dog for a walk, run, and collect mushrooms! There are few shops, however very pack with goods and as cheap as the big supermarkets. If you wish to choose a supermarket this is a 10-15 min journey by car either towards A10 (the berliner ring) or towards hellersdorf.

Crime level here, well truthfully I have never heard of anything bad, if there was I would know as my girlfriend would have told me.

There is an S Bahn here which you can get to Beisdorf shopping centre in 15 mins, Berlin Mitte 20 -30 mins, Berlin Zoo 40 - 45 mins.

Neuenhagen has numerous resturants like: Chinese, Indian, 2 x Italians and not forgetting a Greek. There are numerous Doctor, Dentist, Physiotherapie departments, a fire service, and a Chiropractor.

We also have the annual Beer Fest. And even people smile here. IT IS GREEN HERE

If you wish to know anythingelse please email me soonest. Pete