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The longing for a new beginning in the country - four city dwellers, four different ways to get there.
Sabrina Bensch, curative teacher
"You are all waiting very diligently together ..."
Sabrina Bensch and Nino Lafuente turned their lives completely upside down this summer.
The shared apartment in Berlin: abandoned, the jobs: terminated.
The couple moved to the country in June.
Now the two of them live with a dog, chickens and rabbits in a tiny village around 100 kilometers north of the capital.
Sabrina Bensch, curative teacher
»
So an absolute feeling of freedom.
We just sit out in the morning with a coffee.
We no longer sit in the apartment, in the kitchen and we sit outside.
We watch the chickens.
That's kind of, yeah, that's life.
Freedom.
Exactly what we actually wanted
. "
After half a year of searching, they found the half of the house in the Feldberger Seenlandschaft in southern Mecklenburg, purchase price: 150,000 euros.
"What is good for us is also good for animals ..."
The small garden farm is an important part of the new life.
The previous owner left the small animal stalls to the two of them, the chickens were gifts from the village.
The small farm could start immediately.
But in keeping with village tradition, the newcomers did not want to tackle the matter; the townspeople bring new perspectives with them.
Sabrina Bensch, curative educator
»When you see these kind of free running around here, to be honest, my heart bleeds a little when I think about the fact that they end up on my plate one day, because somehow they all have that character.
We're not really a village there.
We just somehow really see character in every living being. "
Nino Lafuente, mechanical engineer
»That's why they should feel as good as possible until their last breath. So many in the village only have the rabbits in small bays. I wanted them to have a run too. They already have a land of milk and honey here. You have to say. "
A good life close to nature, without stress and with the promise of freedom, that is what many people have been wanting since the corona pandemic at the latest.
According to a survey carried out on behalf of the “Kommunal” magazine in 2020, 61 percent of Germans would prefer to live in a village or a small town in the countryside.
The search for a suitable house or plot of land comes before the rural open spaces and projects.
Even with Ute Harder.
The media consultant from Berlin visits a completely renovated house in Rutenberg, in the far north of the Uckermark.
“Well, you can see pretty well up here, the stairs have been completely renewed. This is also really carpentry. "
The 60-year-old already knows the area from holidays - and many excursions during the Corona period.
Ute Harder,
media consultant »Of course, I also had a home office and was out here a lot more than in the years before.
I longed to get out of the city.
I get lonely in the city, in an apartment.
The fact that I was out here a lot, of course, is true, then of course the longing became greater. "
"Then let's go upstairs ..."
For more than a year, Ute Harder has been looking for a holiday home and weekend home for herself, her children and grandchildren - but which could also become her main residence in a few years.
"Here upstairs ..."
The 102 square meters of living space are for sale for 329,000 euros, which would just fit into your budget.
Ute Harder, media consultant
»Now you get a little annoyed because I had actually seen my dream house before and we all thought about it until it was too late.
And today, I think the house is worth twice as much, or at least a third more expensive. "
A trend that can be observed throughout Germany: In sparsely populated rural districts, houses have risen by 11.8 percent compared to last year, and apartments by 9.2 percent.
For interested parties like Ute Harder, it is important that their new house is easy to care for and ready to move into quickly, and ideally a lake is nearby.
Both are given in Rutenberg.
Ute Harder, media consultant
»It's an idyll.
That's great.
You can get out of the city on a weekend.
There is always something going on here.
So in the spring the birds come, then the birds leave.
So it's just always walking, moving.
It is great."
Bedrana Kowalke moved from Berlin to the Feldberg lake landscape twelve years ago.
Since then, the real estate agent has earned well from the townspeople's longing for country life - and thus finances her own dream of living in the country, on two hectares of land the 45-year-old keeps horses, pigs and goats, among other things.
However, in all these years she has not experienced a boom in demand from potential home buyers like in the Corona times.
Bedrana Kowalke, Broker
»To put it in numbers, it has certainly increased three or fourfold in the extreme Corona period that everything has now flattened a bit and become a bit more decent again, I have to say.
And a little more realistic too. "
"Hello Mr. Schröder, I greet you!"
With the constantly high demand, there are no longer any bargains.
Even properties in great need of renovation, which would have been unsaleable a few years ago, find their buyers today.
Bedrana Kowalke, broker
» Field
stone foundation, brick facade.
So there is this romantic idea of a farmhouse.
And often the financial possibilities are also given, so that they really turn such an almost ruin into a really great property again.
And that’s what’s going on at the moment - the city dweller wants the rural and the ecological and arable and cattle breeding again;
and the local is actually exactly the opposite. "
Back with Sabrina Bensch and Nino Lafuente.
The two have not bought a ruin, but so far only two rooms of the new house are habitable.
So far, the mechanical engineer and curative teacher have invested around 12,000 euros and several months of work in the interior work.
Nino Lafuente, mechanical engineer
»For us that was that we could live below.
Absolutely normal.
Now we have a two-room apartment, so to speak.
This up here is then the freestyle. "
The project always has surprises in store for the experienced do-it-yourselfer.
“So these are woodworm shavings, I'd say. He can still sit in here anywhere. You can already see holes. It is not heavily infested, but you definitely have to work against it again with woodworm. "
Work doesn't stop in the garden either.
The first apple harvest is coming up.
"I can't get any more in"
As it quickly turned out, the newcomers are by no means the only newcomers in the village.
Sabrina Bensch, curative educator
»I posted this on Instagram, wrote bye bye Berlin, Hallo Warbende, so hashtag.
And then someone had reported.
At that time they still lived in Neubrandenburg and she said it was funny.
We're almost neighbors.
She moves into number 9 in front.
Yes, and somehow we got in touch straight away, wrote and now we always go for a walk or we are over there.
So yes, super personable, totally lucky. "
Around 60 percent of Germans would like to live in the country - these four have already arrived there and can compare their dreams of village romance and freedom with reality.
