Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

Attention, here comes the kicker: The operator is from Hong Kong, where I was born. That's globalization for you!

Unfortunately, that doesn't exist in Brandenburg

Cottbus is supposed to be still quite okay, but I only know it from passing by, where the traffic already stresses me out more...

Either you have big and expensive cities like Potsdam or villages with a few supermarkets.

The village of Grünheide is now really taking off, a train station is even being built in the industrial area

Oh God, and to waste my valuable time searching around stores, listening to snappy answers ("we don’t have that item in that size here, but I can order it, it will take 2 weeks and you have to pay in advance. I won’t call you when it arrives, you just have to come by on a hunch") and annoying wandering around? And on top of that paying exorbitant prices because the store owner thinks he has a natural right to 50 €/sqm rent?

No, thanks. Retail lost me completely and forever years ago.

On a current note, a little anecdote: last week my wife was wandering through the "small town" (6K inhabitants) during the candlelight shopping. Prosecco here, tiramisu there, and somewhere shoes she had "always been looking for" – unfortunately not in the right size. Just now the doorbell rang, the saleswoman had gotten the right size and is bringing them over. Simply because she is nice. Of course, without obligation and no prepayment.

The village of Grünheide is now really taking off, they are even building a train station in the industrial area

In Beelitz-Heilstätten, 5,000 apartments/houses are being built. In addition, there will be a daycare center and probably a school and possibly a university. And much of it near the train station. From there, trains (starting next year they will run every 30 minutes) take about 40 minutes to Berlin Central Station. What do you think, how many Berliners are now "moving" to Beelitz-Heilstätten :cool:. These foreigners, tztztz :)

That's why 25-year-old prospective homeowners come to me, planning their lives in an "age-appropriate" bungalow. Built once and planned to stay in the same house and the same place for the next 50 years... how dreary. How much freer and more interesting do, for example, Americans, English, Swedes, Dutch, etc., live. They buy and sell houses/apartments as it fits their life plans. I have lived in Hamburg, Berlin, Freiburg, Saarbrücken, and now here. I would die if I knew I had to stay in one place forever. How many interesting experiences and phases of life would I probably miss.

How many interesting experiences and phases of life would I probably miss if I lived far from friends, children, and grandchildren. If I want to experience something different, I just go there. But after a few weeks, I am always drawn back home, where friends and family are waiting for me. Not one bit dreary.

I don't have to move 1000 times. But I also don't have to compulsively put down roots. I could well imagine moving to the Harz. Isn't it nice there?

Hmm... a matter of taste. Definitely worth going there for a vacation. But I wouldn't want to live there. What bothers me is this monoculture in large parts. We've been there on vacation twice and hiked a lot, but we hardly saw any animals. Here I go for a small round in 15 minutes and always see wild animals. Besides (warning... I really don't mean this badly) we got the impression that the tone in the eastern part was very, very unusual up to unfriendly. There were encounters we observed that probably would have gotten at least a warning here. So overall rather a dissatisfied bunch (says the Schleswig-Holstein native...)