Buying and renting a home in Schöneberg

Schöneberg brings together very different corners. Around Nollendorfplatz and Motzstraße is the historic heart of Berlin’s LGBTQ+ community, with bars and the Saturday market on Winterfeldtplatz; further south, Akazienkiez and Goltzstraße have independent shops and cafés; the Bavarian Quarter (Bayerisches Viertel) is quiet, leafy and residential. Schöneberg town hall, where John F. Kennedy spoke in 1963, anchors the southern part.

Most of the housing is early-20th-century period buildings (Altbau) with well-proportioned flats and decorated façades. The Bavarian Quarter was heavily damaged in the war, so 1950s and 1960s buildings stand among the historic ones; towards the Ring the buildings become plainer.

It suits people who want to live centrally without the tourist pressure of Mitte: couples, professionals and families looking for schools and small parks such as Stadtpark Schöneberg and Rudolph-Wilde-Park. The Kurfürstendamm, Potsdamer Platz and Kreuzberg are all close.

For investors Schöneberg offers prices below Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg with solid, stable rental demand. The Gutachterausschuss average also includes Friedenau, which prices similarly; period streets in the Bavarian Quarter and around Viktoria-Luise-Platz sit above it.