Commission-free Apartments to buy in Langen (Hessen)

From a small farming and mill village to a well-known technology park in 200 years

Thanks to its favorable geographical location near Frankfurt am Main and Darmstadt, today's town of 37,000 inhabitants on the Sterzbach in the eastern district of Offenbach in southern Hesse has attracted numerous companies. In the Middle Ages, the town, which was first mentioned in the 9th century, was once home only to agriculture and the typical water mills, but after it was elevated to the status of a market town in 1813, connected to the Main-Neckar railroad in 1846 and granted town charter in 1883, more and more manufacturers, traders and factories settled here. On the eve of the First World War around 1907, only 10% of the then population of about 5,000 worked in agriculture and animal husbandry; the majority already earned their money in industry. This trend continued until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1993, when already more than 9,000 people lived in Langen (Hesse). After its end in 1945, the city grew again due to the influx of numerous refugees, whose housing needs were met by large social housing projects, especially in today's Nordend district. The stationing of many U.S. soldiers at the nearby Rhein-Main Air Base also led to the construction of the "Lange Terrace Family Housing Area" in the Neurott district in the northwest from 1958 onward, the buildings and grounds of which were returned to the city in 2008. Some of the apartments, which range in size from about 90 to 180 square meters and have three to six rooms, have already been extensively renovated and modernized and made accessible.

Well-known large employers and Frankfurt's neighborhood drive up prices

The other districts of Langen (Hesse) include the old town within the former city wall with its many half-timbered houses in the east, the center in the middle and the already mentioned Neurott commercial area in the northwest, where many of the more than 100 local companies from the communications and information technology sectors, such as Borland and Oracle, as well as German Air Traffic Control and the Paul Ehrlich Institute, are based. The Nordend neighborhood, also mentioned above, is characterized by numerous older apartment blocks and high-rise apartment buildings, just like Linden and Oberlinden in the west, while the Steinberg neighborhood in the southeast is characterized by newly built row houses, one-, two- and three-family houses with gardens, mainly from the 1990s. Due to its location between the major cities of Darmstadt and Frankfurt am Main, which are quite expensive for real estate of all kinds, prices for condominiums in Langen (Hesse) have also seen a considerable increase, especially in the last three years. They are currently at almost 3,000 euros/m² there. Smaller units around 60 m² currently cost around 2,700 euros/m², and over 100 m² are already over 3,100 euros/m². Compared with the current average property purchase price of over 4,000 euros/m² in Frankfurt am Main, for example, this is still relatively inexpensive, however, which is why more and more commuters are flirting with an apartment in the city, which is only about 18 kilometers away and well connected.

Science prize and fair trade, competitions and new residential areas

The city is particularly open to new settlements of future-oriented companies, and the new 50,000 m² technology park, including broadband supply, hotel, parking garage and office buildings on Pittlerstrasse directly next to the railroad tracks, is intended to keep Langen's traditional high-tech location in step with the times. The city has also enjoyed a good reputation among researchers for a good two decades. The Langen Science Prize, which has been awarded every two years since 1993 and carries a prize money of 10,000 euros, is awarded by the joint benefactors Paul Ehrlich Institute, Stadtwerke Langen GmbH and the city of Langen for outstanding scientific work in the field of infectious medicine (virology, bacteriology, immunology, hematology, allergology, medical biotechnology). Since 2013, Langen (Hesse) has also been allowed to officially call itself a "Fairtrade City", thus recognizing the exemplary municipal educational work and civic engagement in matters of world trade as well as the increasing sales of corresponding products by local retail stores and restaurateurs. In general, the municipal retail trade is strongly supported; since its inclusion in the urban development support program "Stadtumbau in Hessen" (Urban Redevelopment in Hesse) in 2005, the urban redevelopment area "Stadtmitte/ Geschäftszone Bahnstraße" (City Center/Business Zone Bahnstrasse) is primarily intended to strengthen Langen as a retail location. In addition, local politics in Langen (Hesse) has also been cooperating for a long time with the "Hessian Initiative for Energy Consulting in Small and Medium-Sized Businesses" and the "Offenbach Start-up Region Initiative", and has also applied for the title of "Hesse Champion 2014" in the three categories of world market leader, job engine and innovation. Langen (Hesse) was also able to underpin its reputation as a business-friendly city by becoming the first city in the Offenbach district to receive the "Excellent place to live for specialists and managers" certificate in 2014. Such as other new residents are also the reason for further ambitious housing projects, such as currently the 5.4 hectare development site "Nördlich Elisabeth-Selbert-Allee" just over a kilometer from the S-Bahn and regional train station and the neighboring 22 hectare development site "Wohngebiet Liebigstraße".

Shorts facts apartments buy in Langen (Hesse):

• Over the course of about 100 years, the city's population has increased about sevenfold

• Langen's location between the major cities of southern Hesse ensures a high influx of residents

• Areas formerly used for military purposes have been converted into residential areas.

• The short distance to Frankfurt am Main creates demand from commuters

• As a result, housing prices have also risen sharply in recent years

• Langen (Hessen) is traditionally considered to be very cooperative when it comes to company settlements

• Numerous urban redevelopment measures and new housing construction projects on site