Where is THE current living hotspot?

[engelchen 13,041]

Considering the OP is thinking of moving here, I think it would be helpful if posters also include info on the job and housing markets for newcomers. Although I know people with old really cheap rental contracts in Berlin, these types of contracts are now pretty much impossible to find for newcomers.

[sarabyrd 18,767]

 

Considering the OP is thinking of moving here, I think it would be helpful if posters also include info on the job and housing markets for newcomers.

 

That's what the search function is for.

[optimista 5,925]

Wonder if TT is also approaching its own critical mass now all possible questions have been asked and the system is getting clogged up with repeats?

[Guest]

My block too close to Sternschanze and near Uni Hamburg is waaaay too in.

[angelbeast 748]

 

That's silly. Flat is perfect for cycling. If it's hilly landscape, you're talking about self-torture on a bike.

 

I think he meant a flat tyre / tire.

[Gambatte 972]

 

Flat is perfect for cycling. If it's hilly landscape, you're talking about self-torture on a bike.

 

Flat is boring. Hilly is fun.

[Biglaa 147]

 

Leipzig - beautiful old city, fantastic suburbs where old factories are being turned into lofts, canals and parks...friendly, open people...emphasis on cultural traditions (particularly music and literature)...and a feeling that there are new ideas being put into practice regularly.

 

Feels a but like Berlin before the govt decided to move there

 

I'm looking to move there and buy a loft.

 

Job market is a bit stinky, unfortunately. I will likely have to work somewhere else and combine it with home office.

 

edit: although I completely agree with el Jeffo, too...what works for one person isn't necessarily right for someone else.

 

Shhhhhhhhh ruapehu. Don't tell everyone, or we'll end up with the Berlin hispters when they land following the Berlin critical mass! Listen to the (West) Germans. Leipzig is full of old, ugly concrete buildings and everyone lives in abject poverty.... ;-)

[polexa 34]

It's too late for that, if the NY Times has already written about it, Hypezig is doomed: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/travel/new-berlin-or-not-leipzig-has-new-life.html?_r=0

 

 

Shhhhhhhhh ruapehu. Don't tell everyone, or we'll end up with the Berlin hispters when they land following the Berlin critical mass! Listen to the (West) Germans. Leipzig is full of old, ugly concrete buildings and everyone lives in abject poverty.... ;-)

 

 

[Biglaa 147]

 

It's too late for that, if the NY Times has already written about it, Hypezig is doomed: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/travel/new-berlin-or-not-leipzig-has-new-life.html?_r=0

 

With a pic of my usual boozer to boot. (On the rare occasions I leave my bunker!)

[Guest]

Leipzig is about to hit "Peak beard" very soon.

[BayrischDude 2,080]

 

Berlin, Munich & Frankfurt are all regular favorites

 

 

 

Leipzig - beautiful old city,

 

 

 

Although I think that Berlin is still the current hotspot

 

 

 

If I could live anywhere here? Heidelberg or Garmisch.

 

 

 

Berlin is THE place.

 

You mean it's not the Oberallgäu? Damn! I'll let the cows know in the morning and I'm sure they'll be rather depressive all day.

[steve101 20]

Braunschweig is a great city! quaint but has that city feel without the overcrowding, industry is thriving thus plenty of jobs. It's close to Hannover and only a couple of hours from Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen, the Harz national park is also close. House prices have shot up recently, ours has seen an 18% anual increase in value in the last 2 years! All in all no complaints. I lived in Dusseldorf when i first moved here, i loved it there too but not a place i wanted to bring up children. Too bustling noisy and.... well i'll leave it at that :-P

[Derek 1,027]

This article from businessinsider polled 200,000 people in 189 countries where they'd like to move to live and work. Top 3 were London, New York, and Paris. Germany only managed two entries in the top 30, with Berlin at #6, and Munich at #14. Having worked in London and New York, I'm sure glad to leave those rat-races behind, although glad I did it, otherwise I'd have always wondered if that was where I was meant to be. Spending 2-3 hours per day travelling to/from work is no fun, nor is spending over a million so you can live near work and avoid those 2-3 hour commutes.

[matthewsmith 54]

Sorry but if you want to meet open minded people when you are in Germany, Leipzig is crap. It might have some nice buildings, parks and cheap apartments and it has a good music scene but apart from that it doesn't have much to commend it really. I worked there for several years before leaving, and I went back a few months ago and it still hasn't changed much. The first thing that happened after I got off the train after spending a weekend chilling in cosmopolitan, relaxed, friendly Berlin was that I crossed the road to the tram stops opposite the station and went to get a ticket at the ticket machine. I was fumbling for change and taking a few seconds longer. I heard some bloke saying something behind me, and suddenly the same bloke behind me just barged me right out of the way because he wanted to use the machine. After that friendly welcome, I looked around me and the station was full of very rough looking people, of whom about 90% were smoking. It reminded me of Doncaster. I had forgotten how rough and rude the people in Leipzig were. The entire city also has an extreme anti-foreigner attitude problem, in almost every shop, as soon as I opened my mouth and spoke and the person serving me realised I was foreign the service suddently turned abysmal. This applied to everyone and everywhere, whether the miserable old bags who work in the shops in the station who grew up in the communist era or the young students doing part time jobs in bars. So unless you are prepared to put up with that sort of stuff I can't recommend it.

[Krieg 15,073]

Berlin is much more than Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg, Neukoelln and Friedrichshain, so if you live in any other non-hip district you will be living in a plain normal place. But then you will have people telling you: WHAT??? Who wants to live in Steglitz or Charlottenburg??? (which are very fine districts). Sometimes people want to have the cake and eat the cake. You either want to be in hipsterland or not.

[Sumarokov-Elston 10]

I would certainly second Steglitz and Charlottenburg. C'burg has always been the home of immigrant communities in Berlin and there are actually famous writers living there who work in bookshops, in plain sight (the sort of secrets you keep to yourself). You also have the very pleasant Schlosspark and the Lietzenseepark, the Zoo and the Tiergarten, and handy transport for getting out to Potsdam. I wish I could move to somewhere like Kantstrasse. I think the really cool places are those that were cool 70-100 years ago and not just part of some current trend. I swear I would throw myself off a building after about a week in Prenzlauer Berg.

[Gwaptiva 7,116]

Interesting that the German city ranked highest in the EIU's Global Liveability Ranking August 2014 doesn't appear on these pages more often :P

[RickMunich 3,901]

On both Monocle and Mercer's Quality of life surveys, Munich is Germany's highest rated city, with 8th and 4th place respectively.

 

Can't say I disagree. :-)

[Keefy 3,577]

 

C'burg has always been the home of immigrant communities in Berlin

 

True enough - some people now call it Charlottengrad

 

I live in the very south of Schöneberg, almost in Friedenau - lots of trees and very quiet. Hipster-free zone, too.

[Boots 1,930]

You know when you go on holiday somewhere and you think "but living here wouldn't feel like being on holiday all the time".

 

Well, living in Heidelberg does.