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The SPD and Die Grünen will decide today whether to pursue coalition negotiations. Die Linke will hold a party conference on October 31 to vote on whether to invite the other two parties to coalition negotiations.
As part of their exploratory talks, the proposed coalition agreed to socialise properties belonging to real estate companies possessing more than 10,000 apartments. The socialisation of companies with 10,000 or more apartments will now be mandated, rather than those with 3,000 or more. Affected companies will be compensated, with total compensation capped at €16 billion.
“We will work on socialisation from day one,” said the Die Linke’s lead candidate, Elif Eralp, on the rbb24 evening news program. She said this was an important step to prevent future speculation in the real estate market. “But that’s certainly not the only tool we’re using,” she continued. Transferring housing stock from private companies to public ownership takes time, she explained. Therefore, a rent cap should be introduced for state-owned housing companies, along with an authority to review rent increases.
This agreement has faced criticism from Wohnen & Co and BBU. Bana Mahmood, spokesperson for Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co, said, “The parties deviate significantly from what Berliners decided in the 2021 referendum. […] This would result in approximately 70,000 fewer apartments being socialised. This clearly contradicts the will of the voters.”
The Berlin-Brandenburg Association of Housing Companies (BBU) continues to believe that socialisation is a mistake. According to BBU spokesperson David Eberhard, it won’t solve the housing problem; that can only be achieved through new construction.