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Archived Articles
Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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Germany: Another wasted yearIt's sometimes better to have a poor or at least not very rich country than a very affluent one in times of economic troubles. You feel you have to go new way, to apply different policy, to live different way of life and that you have no other choice than to do it. The very rich countries like Germany or Japan can afford not making abrupt changes are least for some time. They look for answers without urgent need to take painful pills. Their ideological, political and economic superiority over the rest of the world don't force them to make changes that will go beyond the borders of their presumed national values. Instead of rational answers, they are caught into the irrational world of their past glory. The last year in Germany was yet another one wasted on doctrinal political discussions about the need of more or less radical economic and social reforms. On the one hand stands the common economic sense, the need of radical pro-market reforms, the need to change the economic model that has made Germany what it's now, i.e. prosperous, affluent and respected European economic powerhouse. On the other hand is the nostalgia for the time of full employment, coupled with almost complete social security and ever-growing disposable incomes. During the 1980's and even until the mid-1990's Germany looked overconfident in its ability to solve all its economic structural problems without applying drastic and painful measures like those taken in the USA. Mike Moore's documentaries from 1980's showed dying American industrial cities but there were no dying German industrial cities. When millions of jobs were cut in America and Britain in order to gain in competitiveness, Germany proudly demonstrated its model, meaning economic effectiveness plus social security. When the Christian Democrats rang the bell of reckoning in late 1990's, the easiest way of dealing with the growing problems was to shoot at the messengers and to change the government. Since then the Social Democrats have tried, so far without major successes, to reconcile the need for economic changes with dismantling the least of the welfare state. To make changes without making changes, so to say. If only Germany was not so rich a country... One example best illustrates how far the ideological bureaucratization has taken over the economic common sense. At the end of the 1990's most developed countries experienced shortages of qualified software engineers. The level of economic and social openness determined the number of new guest workers that were allowed to come and work in different countries. My personal impression is that even the most liberal among these countries failed to get enough engineers before the collapse of the New Economy in early 2000. What was a loss for some was a benefit for another. If today many western politicians are concerned about the capital and technological outsourcing, they should look for causes in their dogmatic policy in late 1990's. The fact that many Third World countries succeeded in developing IT parks, calling centers and attracted millions of New Economy jobs is partly due to the fact that these millions of skillful workers remained unwanted by the rich countries some 4-5 years ago. The case of Germany in this respect is obvious. It didn't even attain the modest figures of specialists reached by some other developed countries. The bureaucracy was so slow that the first guest workers arrived too late even to find jobs and as media have reported since, most of them have left the country looking for better options. During the last years Germany looked like an ill person, cheering for any news that the illness although very serious isn't fatal. Such situation can't go unnoticed on the real estate market, especially on its residential section. The former East Germany isn't a good deal even after EURO 60 billion annual transfers, perhaps because of these transfers. The initial idea was to make former communist state catch quickly with the western economic level, thus discouraging the workforce of migrating westward. The result was that state intervention of such magnitude replaced the normal market forces and made private initiative unprofitable in many areas. For example the state directly or indirectly financed building and rejuvenating of hundreds of thousands apartments. Supplying the market with more residences than actually were needed resulted in thousands of empty apartments. In the western parts of Germany the picture isn't so gloomy, but this too is caused more by accidental facts like the low interest rates than by sound market demand. The prices gain modestly in some urban areas, but the average price levels are so high* that it doesn't make sense to buy except for the big investors or for deep-pocketed businesspersons. To make life more difficult instead of easier for investors, the federal government has changed the tax system. Instead of 1.5% sales tax the sellers are paying 15% profit tax. The forecasts are that in the coming years the new residential developments will shrink in number and value. The rental properties, especially in the western lands, will represent interest for both tenants and investors. * - Average detached house in Frankfurt costs EURO 1.3 million, in the surrounding area EURO 600,000.
Germany country profile --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Germany.
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