Germany: Berliners comment on upcoming housing expropriation referendum

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Berlin residents shared their views on the upcoming housing expropriation referendum in the German capital on Monday.
On Sunday, as Berliners will vote in state and federal elections, voters will also face the choice of expropriating the properties of private real-estate companies with 3,000 units or more in the city.
“I voted for it because I think Berlin can really make a public statement to other cities that it is important to put a certain cap on the agency of big private actors in this very essential need for those who live in the city,” said one local.
The initiative was started out of growing concern in the city about spiralling rent prices, with the Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen organisation (named after the largest real-estate company Deutsche Wohnen) launching the campaign in 2018.
One elderly resident highlighted the burden of rising rents on the poorest.
“The rising rents are unbearable for the bottom third or even up to the bottom half of the population, they need to put great restrictions on their living standards,” she said, adding that the rent for her flat had nearly doubled during her residence.
The result will reportedly impact around 12 large real-estate companies and almost a quarter of the 1.5 million flats in the city.
Werner, a local resident as well, expressed reservations saying “I am against it because I am not sure how it is financed.”
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) have come out against the initiative, while the Greens have voiced their support. The Berlin state government recently bought 14,750 units from said real-estate companies worth billions in attempt to reduce the skyrocketing rents in the city-state.

SOT, Alfredo Thielman, Local resident: “I think this is an important public debate now in Berlin and I think, and I voted for it because I think Berlin can really make a public statement to other cities that it is important to put a certain cap on the agency of big private actors in this very essential need for those who live in the city.”

SOT, Alfredo Thielman, Local resident: “When we look at other cities in Europe, for example like Switzerland where there is this tradition of the genossenschaft (association) where another form of organising has a real agency in the market, one can really see the differences, so I hope this is a real possibility that Berlin has to show to the other European cities and even beyond Europe that this is possible and therefore needed.”

SOT, Werner, Local resident (German): “I am against it because I am not sure how it is financed, I don’t know, but I don’t see how new apartments will arise out of this, and I think there are better opportunities and ways to use money to build new apartments and relax the real estate market.”

SOT, Werner, Local resident (German): “But I think the right way, this is my opinion I don’t know but its more of a feeling, that we need to simply build new apartments, and when new apartments are there, that the regulations, for example, include that a portion of them must also include social housing, and that this is strictly adhered to.”

SOT, Joy, Local resident: “We are definitely for it because I just moved here to Berlin and just seeing the prices for example what my friends in Vienna, they are living there for so cheap and here in Berlin it is just crazy, and I really do hope that something will be changed, so yeah.”

SOT, Joy, Local resident: “I wouldn’t mind a smaller apartment or an apartment that is more outside of Berlin as long as it’s not that expensive.”

SOT, Local resident (German): “Berlin is a renting city, and I think that the rising rents are unbearable for the bottom third or even up to the bottom half of the population, they need to put great restrictions on their living standards.”

SOT, Local resident (German): “I started with a rent of 334 [Euros] and then it is now almost 700 with a parking spot, but my pension has not doubled accordingly.”

SOT, Local resident (German): “I think this is a signal of ‘not like this with Berliners’.”

SOT, Local resident (German): “The question is now whether the repurchase will be worth it for the state of Berlin, and of course that it won’t be burdened by the taking of credit, and that the costs for the next, I think, over 40 years can be settled through the payment of rents, in so far I think that yes, this is a signal that the Berlin real estate market is not free game for the rental sharks.”
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