I've heard elsewhere that the reason for that pricing in Berlin (and/or Germany) is there a combination of policy and culture that makes houses unsuitable as investment vehicles. I forget what the exact mechanics are, but basically housing prices don't increase and no one expects them to. So there is almost no speculation in house prices: people buy houses if 1) they want to live there long term, or 2) they want to be landlords.

But this would suggest the opposite of reality - that rents increase faster than house prices.

In this case German house prices are relatively high & rising faster, when compared to rents.

In Berlin in particular purchase prices have increased by 8-10% per year in recent years where as rent prices have only increased by 3-5% per year (both are still cheap compared to Vancouver).