Berlin is not a normal European capital in almost every way. Look at Frankfurt (financial capital of Germany/EU) or Munich (capital of Bavaria) if you want to see how Berlin would be if it were "normal". Then you will find stuff like this [0].

[0]: https://www.ubs.com/global/en/media/display-page-ndp/en-2020...

10 years ago was the peak of the housing bubble collapse (or just after), so the price of houses was depressed for a while.

That said, housing prices have gone up by ridiculous amounts since then, in part thanks to economic recovery, in part due to low mortgage interest rates, and in part (linked) due to low savings account rates. Better to put that money in real estate (and more risky investments on the stock market) than let it wither in a savings account.

But hey, for a while a few people made a lot of money.

Berlin isn't representative. It has comparatively and surprisingly low prices on housing.

Don't know if prices doubled, but it is increasingly difficult for younger people to acquire a home.

People said the Euro helped Germany, and maybe that is correct, but that would be restricted to exporters. For almost everyone else it was a net loss.

Electronics got pretty cheap I guess...

German housing is a litle different, as many prefer to rent, so less demand for beeing an owner.

True, if I have no chance to finance it, you prefer renting compared to homelessness.

But workplace mobility, yeah!

Why do they prefer to rent?

After WWII the German government created strict renter protection laws and the state invested heavily in relatively high quality public housing. You can compare the results to the UK, which cities were also bombed, but invested in private housing instead. Germany also famously had been "the sick man of Europe" before the current boom, were real wages did not rise for a long time.