RE: My Experience Moving to Berlin, to Work in Tech...Awesome! Full of Links and References...
Great for the people moving there, terrible for the people currently living there that are getting priced out. Landlords are refusing to renew contracts because they know they can get some of that fat startup worker cash (ok, it's not 100% driven by people coming to work at start ups, I know that's an over simplification). Or they're doing stuff like kicking out the renters with the excuse that they urgently need to renovate.... so they can rent out the apartment for twice the price.
I see it as sort of trickle down gentrification. Paying twice the normal Berlin rent is still only say a third of San Francisco rent, so people from that scene see Berlin as a great, cheap place to set up. Meanwhile, the people already living in Berlin not fortunate enough to get a job at one of these hip start ups are squeezed out.
Here's a snapshot of the problem from a couple years ago. And it's only gotten worse since then.
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/gentrifizierung-in-berlin-hip-hipper-neukoelln/9152496.html
Don't shoot! I'm just going where the work is. haha.
Yeah, I understand. :) It's really hard for people coming into a place to even realize how much they're getting ripped off compared to the people that were already there. I personally have the dilemma of living in a totally crap apartment, but if I move I'll be forced to pay at least 30% more and push up the rents in the area while I'm at it. And when I moved here a few years ago I was already contributing to the rent price jump because I didn't have any local connections to tell me I was getting ripped off.
I totally have empathy for the squatters currently battling the cops in Friedrichshain... not that it's going to solve the problem but....
A translated excerpt:
Four friends, all mid-30's, speak about the rent in Berlin. "In the 90's I switched apartments every year, just to try out something new. The rent was so cheap, it was no problem," recounts one. Another says: "When I moved to Neukölln in 2009, I lived the first seven months rent-free. The owner wanted his house, all the way on the end of Weserstraße, not to stand completely empty." The first continued, "Today I wouldn't leave my apartment unless I had to. The neighbors that moved in directly below me pay 200 Euro more than me -- for the same apartment."
...
Somewhat further south, in Schillerkiez, sit Michaela, 32, and Christopher, 27, in their 90-square-meter apartment and look at the newest apartment ads in the area. A three room apartment costs more than 1000 Euro, plus commission for the agent. "My salary would go completely to rent," says Christopher, who works as a construction worker. Michaela, saleswoman, shakes her head. Currently they pay 456 Euro with utilities. The two have lived in the apartment for seven years, their five-year-old son was born here. But in spring they have to leave. The apartment was sold, the new owner claimed owner's use rights. The two decide now to move to Hellersdorf, where Micheala was raised and her mother lives. "There a 80-square-meter apartment still costs under 600 Euro with utilities -- without commission," says Michaela.
Yeah, OK. My heart is breaking. I'm not an Ogar. I'm leaving soon anyway.
:-p
But the market realities mean I will surely be replaced by a dozen more.
Anyway, like I said, I think you're focusing on the wrong, core, underlying economic factors, which stem from banking and capital flows.
But the point is moot I guess. People will blame tech. startups and guys/gals working in them. It's just what will happen.
(Note that Hellersdorf is way out in the middle of nowhere to the east, about 50 minutes by public transit to the center of Berlin. I think it's almost in zone C.)