Rent madness | Berlin: Large majority for socialization

Elif Eralp, top candidate of the Die Linke party, at a demo by Deutsche Wohnen and Co. The left speaks out in favor of socialization. Photo: dpa/Soeren Stache Berlin wants to continue to combine large housing companies. This emerges from a representative survey by the think tank Dpart and the market research institute Sago. The “Tagesspiegel” first reported. Accordingly, 63 percent of Berliners surveyed are in favor of expropriating “very large companies that own thousands of apartments in Germany” in return for compensation “so that rents can fall across the board.” According to the survey, 52 percent nationwide are in favor of a corresponding measure.

Already in 2021, in the referendum initiated by the Deutsche Wohnen und Co expropriate initiative, a majority of 59.1 percent voted in favor of socializing large housing groups with more than 3,000 apartments in Berlin. However, the successful referendum was not implemented by the Berlin state government.

Rent policy is the dominant issue in the election campaign for the House of Representatives on September 20th. There have already been heated debates about whether a future state government should implement the referendum or not. A possible coalition of the Left, the Greens and the SPD would be divided on this issue. While the Left speaks out in favor of socialization and the Greens see themselves bound to the implementation of the referendum, SPD leading candidate Steffen Krach is a vehement opponent of expropriation. He had said he would not join a coalition that made expropriation a prerequisite.

»The people in Germany want socialization!«

The positive attitude of the Berlin population towards socialization is causing considerable concern in the real estate lobby and those associated with it. Business associations, the Berlin Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Association of Berlin-Brandenburg Housing Companies are trying to raise awareness against the implementation of the referendum with a broad campaign. Berlin banks also went public in June with a warning about "unforeseeable additional costs for compensation, falling tax revenues due to relocations and non-implementation of investments, as well as higher risk premiums to be paid on state-owned bonds." And the black-red federal government announced that it would prepare a federal law that would regulate "that the nationalization of private rental housing stock through socialization laws at the state level is no longer possible."

»The people in Germany want socialization! Not only in Berlin, but across the country, it is clear to us tenants: the rent crisis can only be ended when profiteering at our expense finally ends," says DWE spokeswoman Ida Mühlhaus, commenting on the new survey. A ban on socialization is clearly directed against the majority in Germany and against the interests of tenants, the spokeswoman continued. “If you want to govern Berlin in the future, you have to socialize.”

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