Berlin’s Plan to Take Back Homes Will Cost Europe’s Biggest Landlord £7bn
Europe’s largest residential landlord is set to lose €8.4bn (£7bn) as a result of plans by leftwing political party Die Linke to bring more than 140,000 Berlin flats into public ownership.
The real estate company Vonovia, which owns roughly 130,000 apartments in the city and 528,000 across Europe, would be the most affected by the plans, with 120,000 of its apartments set to be put into public ownership.
Die Linke, which won Berlin’s state elections in September, has agreed to talks with the city’s Greens and Social Democrats as part of plans to transfer ownership of flats from companies that own more than 10,000 apartments, with the legislation scheduled to be brought forward in 2028.
Excuse me, but why do we allow companies to own flats at all? Let alone a staggering 10 000 of them? What a joke.
Tbh I doubt this legislation will go through. These firms havevtoo much money to not squash it in some way. Still, it's good they are trying.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/10/23/berlins-plan-to-take-back-homes-will-cost-europes-biggest-landlord-7bn/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
8 replies
Housing is not an investment. You can not allow making profit out of it. It is not sustainable. It does not add value to your economy and creates an unproductive leech class of people.
Ordinary people are completely willing to "manage" their own property if they are allowed to own and control it. Property management is a fake job for the lazy.
Keep in mind that they bought those very flats from the city government for small change a few years ago. The "loss" is based on their evaluation of the flats and how much money they could squeeze out of their tenants.
I notice recently a lot of articles spreading FUD about any even slightly left or social-democrat government.
The phrasing of the above blurb makes it sound like Berlin is just one step away from a Communist revolution. And it does not make me want to click the article. Others have reported on the situation in much better ways. And not uncritically either I might add.
... I'm sure the impossibly high rents in Berlin are preferable to for-profit real estate companies ...
Hey, you spelled "half a million" wrong, thought you'd like to know.
Let alone let alone half a million. 10 000 is still way too much.
geil dikka