Berlin voted to expropriate 240,000 empty apartments

The initiative asked Berliners to decide if the big real estate companies, owners of thousands of houses, were expropriated of them. Some of their homes would be placed under public management, which would affect some 240,000 units, or around 15% of Berlin’s rental stock.

The companies would be financially compensated for an approximate value of 13,700 million euros (approximately $ 16 billion).

But the vote is not legally binding, although it does require the authorities to deal with the matter., and for the moment only the La Izquierda party advanced its support for the initiative.

Sector-related consultants predict that decision will put pressure on berlin lawmakers to tackle the housing problem to a city fighting against rising rents and rising house prices.

The platform that called for the referendum, Deutsche Wohnen & Co, believes on the contrary to be able to stop the rise in rents and ensuring affordable long-term rentals.

Germany’s largest real estate group, Vonovia, has warned years of lockdowns will come after the outcome.“Expropriations do not solve the many problems of the Berlin real estate market ”, said its CEO, Rolf Buch, who asked politicians “Develop more constructive solutions” which address the concern of many people that they cannot continue to pay the rent on their homes.

Some jurists, for their part, warn that if the Berlin Senate passed such a law, it would be the subject of a flood of legal remedies. The German capital has a special status, with institutions typical of a federal state.

At April 2021, the The German Federal Constitutional Court overturned the government’s decision to impose a five-year rent ceiling in the city. In Berlin, the real estate crisis has worsened in recent years.

The city ​​which, five years ago, was projected as the capital of Europe and one of the cheapest to live, it was shaken by the rise in prices. Large companies began to buy space to set up their headquarters and this led to an increase in m2.

Today, four in five Berliners are renting and the city is expected to need at least 200,000 new properties by 2030 to deal with the housing problem.

The vote was held yesterday in parallel with the legislative and regional elections in Germany, where the German Social Democrats of the SPD retained the town hall of the capital, despite the fact that for a few hours it was believed that the Greens could take it from them . .