BERLIN — While the rest of Europe nervously peers at an insecure future, Germans are spending their evenings in long lines, hoping for a chance to buy or rent property before costs rise even more.

Since the euro crisis began, a Berlin housing boom has seen rents rise by 70 percent in posh districts, and 23 percent even in dicey areas. And this newly forming housing bubble is just one of many signs that the fortunes of Germany and the eurozone it leads have taken sharply divergent paths. As the euro crisis deepens, and more and more neighbors slip down the path toward economic perdition, it is increasingly obvious that the German economy is growing healthier. (more)

(Reuters) – Germany’s economy confounded expectations by posting robust growth in the first quarter of the year while France could summon up none at all and Italy slid further into recession, data showed on Tuesday.Gross domestic product in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, rose by 0.5 percent on the quarter, bouncing back from a 0.2 percent slide in the last three months of 2011. France’s economy stagnated, although it grew slightly at the end of last year. (more)

BERLIN and AMSTERDAM, May 13, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — The global market for business services dropped over 20 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2012, but German-speaking markets still grew slightly, according to industry reports. Germany is a key destination for localized service providers seeking well-trained, multilingual staff.

“Germany’s economy is performing well despite uncertainty in Europe. Companies are looking to us as a safe haven for their investments,” said Dr. Josefine Dutschmann, business services expert at Germany Trade & Invest in Berlin.

GSW Immobilien AG (GIB), the German residential landlord that first sold shares to the public last year, will increase the number of homes it owns by as much as 13 percent this year to take advantage of rising rents in Berlin, Chief Executive Officer Thomas Zinnoecker said.

GSW will buy as many as 7,000 homes, raising the total to 60,000, Zinnoecker said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in the German capital. GSW purchased about 5,000 homes last year and plans to own 70,000 in the “medium term.”

“We won’t buy at any price, but there are some good opportunities, especially for portfolios valued at more than 60 million euros,” Zinnoecker said.(more)

(The following statement was released by the rating agency)

Apr 23 – The current rise in German residential real estate prices after two decades in the doldrums could potentially continue for the next two to three years, says Standard & Poor’s today in the report: “Why Germany’s Rising House Prices Are Bucking The European Trend.”

“This is likely to be fueled above all by an excess of demand over supply especially in the Western part of the country, low interest rates, rising employment, and lower household debt than in most other European countries,” said Jean-Michel Six, Standard & Poor’s chief economist for Europe. (more)

Greek capital transfers for the purchase of property abroad, particularly Germany, have acquired a steady pace in recent months.

“We are doing business with people interested in properties that are taxed less and yield higher returns than those at home,” says ImmoConsult’s Konstantin Vollbach. He notes, however, that most prospecting investors find it hard to sell a property they own in Greece in order to buy one abroad because of lack of interest and low prices. (more)

German medium-sized companies, whose business confidence rose to a 20-year high, will create 180,000 new jobs by the end of the year, business information service Creditreform said today, citing a survey.

Creditreform’s spring business sentiment measure for German medium-sized companies rose to 55.4, the highest since reunification in 1990, from 49.2 a year ago, the company said today at a briefing in Berlin. A measure of hiring intentions remained “expansive” even as it fell to 17.2 from 20.4. (more)