More apartments

This week I visited two more apartments. In general looking at real estate is fun, but there is a point where both ice cream and apartment hunting cloy, however much ones loves them. Nonetheless the apartment flavors I had this week were not at all bad.

Altonaerstr. 9
This is not one of the most distinguished of the Hansa Quarter "Interbau" works of architectural art, but it is one of them. The architectual team was Swedish, and the apartments are wonderfully practical, with 4 rooms and 1055 square feet, and a kitchen big enough for a table. It has one and a half baths, a large balcony, and a 5th floor view to the west toward a large park and to the east toward the Hansa Quarter high rise belt. These views are not as spectacular as those from the Bartningalle apartments, but quite respectable nonetheless. In terms of resale value, the apartment has all of the requisite features (balcony, size, light), and the owners did an excellent modernization job recently. The real estate agent showed me another apartment in the same building that just sold for 180,000 €, and I can easily imagine from that that this one is worth something like the 210,000 that they are asking. The building has heated floors, which are a problem since there is nothing that can be done to replace pipes as they are. The building is saving money for a major change where new radiators will substitute for the floor heating. One nice plus is a very pleasant cafe in the ground floor. I had a coffee there on the week-end, and liked the range of people in the building (which includes families with very small children and geriatrics).

Novalisstr 2
This apartment is within a 20 minute walk of the University. It is a 1905 building with very extensive modernizations, but all of the old decorative plaster and French doors. The place is very large (1237 sq ft), though the layout is less practical than Altonaer 9. The two main rooms are big and open and could host a small ball. The bedroom is oddly long and narrow, and the kitchen has not a single appliance or cabinet. Oddly enough this appears to be normal with older buildings and not with new ones. Being able to choose what exactly goes into the kitchen is good, but having to select everything and get it installed seems like a pain. The assessments are quite low, which also makes me wonder how all the improvements to the basic building, like adding an elevator, will be financed.