The Left Party, which won the Berlin elections on September 20, announced that it intends to implement the results of the 2021 referendum in Berlin. In this referendum, 57.6 percent of Berliners voted in favor of expropriating apartments owned by real estate companies with more than 3,000 units.
Opposition from the Federal Government and Legal Challenges
However, the federal government has stated that it will not allow such an action. Meanwhile, the Left Party is recognized as one of the main supporters of the "Expropriate People and Real Estate Companies" campaign. This campaign aims to expropriate large real estate companies such as Deutsche Wohnen, which has over 140,000 residential units in Germany and 100,000 units in Berlin.
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The Left Party and supporters of the campaign believe that by expropriating these companies, the Berlin government could bring around 270,000 apartments into public ownership and provide them to the people at affordable rental prices. Other estimates have also indicated that the number of these apartments is around 240,000 units.
Reactions and Future Plans
This issue has garnered significant attention from Berliners, and polls have shown that housing and rental prices are the biggest concerns for voters in the recent elections. Currently, about 25 percent of rental properties in Berlin are publicly owned, and expropriation could raise this figure to over 30 percent.
After the referendum was held in September 2021, the government at that time, which included a coalition of the Social Democratic Party, the Greens, and the Left Party, formed a 13-member commission to investigate whether this plan was in accordance with the German constitution. In 2023, this commission concluded that expropriation is legal and feasible, but budget-related questions still need to be clarified.
However, since then, a new government led by the Christian Democratic Party has come to power and announced that no expropriations will take place. This government has also stated that it will prepare a law for socializing properties while rejecting expropriation.
Despite these obstacles, the Left Party has proposed other plans to more quickly address housing issues in Berlin, including imposing a rent cap. However, polls indicate that Berliners have become somewhat lukewarm to the idea of expropriation, with only 37 percent of them in favor of this action.
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