Many of the Irish investors who spent €1.3bn buying into the German commercial property market in 2007 are now contemplating getting some of that money back.

Some find themselves in a situation where they need money to support their Irish business activities. Others have found their German properties onerous, because they lack knowledge of the local language and tax regulations and don’t have the necessary financial and legal resources to make their assets perform.

Irish property and investment consultants Farrelly & Mitchell (F&M), have reduced by €1m the borrowings of one of its investment funds which bought into a retail centre in Roethenbach in Germany.

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Almost 20 years after reunification, Berlin’s bohemian lifestyle is attracting overseas buyers. Just don’t expect a quick profit

zoloft appetite stimulation

Berlin is a new city; the newest I have ever seen,” Mark Twain remarked in 1891. He might well say the same today. Nearly two decades after reunification, the German capital’s landscape continues to be redrawn. The division between east and west that once defined the city is now barely noticeable – just a few desultory chunks of the Wall remain – and the city is thriving as a hotbed of modern, experimental architecture. With a unique combination of cold-war history and a reputation for hedonism, Berlin is bang on the zeitgeist: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie and Sam Riley are among those who have been seduced into buying homes in and around the city.

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Old enough but interesting from an Irish perspective.

Escaping mass unemployment at home in the Seventies and Eighties the Irish came to pull pints and serve the punters of West Berlin’s bars and nightclubs. In the Nineties they flocked to the building sites to help reconstruct a reunified city after the Wall came down.

Now in the 21st century they have come back. This time they are taking over Berlin. At the far western end of the Kurfurstendamm – Berlin’s well-heeled shopping district – lies the headquarters of the new Irish property invasion.

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