Campaign to expropriate large Berlin landlords enters second phase

The campaign in Berlin to drive a stake through the heart of large German residential landlords moved into its second phase last week, when the "Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co." movement began collecting signatures in its petition to cut large housing owners down to size. 

The goal is to expropriate the holdings of landlords owning and managing more than 3,000 apartments in the city in return for compensation, and transfer the apartments into common ownership. At least 12 companies fall into this category, but Deutsche Wohnen, as the second-largest housing company in Germany and the owner of more than 120,000 apartments in its stronghold of Berlin, is the prime and most visible target of the protesters' ire.

The initiative requires the support and signatures of 170,000 Berliners, or at least 7% of local inhabitants who are eligible to vote in Berlin state election - which effectively means German citizens registered in Berlin. The activists have until June 25th to collect enough signatures to demand a referendum, which would then be added to the ballot on September 26th this year, when both Berlin state elections and the German national elections take place. 

In the first phase of the campaign last year, the initiative did manage to gather the required 77,000 signatures to get their campaign ball rolling, with Berlin's Interior Ministry validating the legitimacy of the petition, after months of deliberation.

The highly controversial campaign envisages expropriating - and then compensating the owners for - some 230,000 apartment units. However, the campaign puts the cost of compensation at somewhere below €13bn, while the Senate estimates compensation costs at well more than double that, at €29bn.

Of the red-red-green ruling coalition in Berlin, only the hard-left Die Linke party are throwing their weight behind the campaign. Their three cabinet ministers in the Berlin government will be prominently signing the petition, they say. The left-of-centre coalition partner SPD rejects the move totally, while the Greens have held back from endorsing what it sees as a move too radical for its taste. 

Nonetheless, the Greens have described the petition as a "wake-up call to politicians to enforce the guiding principle of 'property comes with obligations' as laid down in the constitution. While we support the goals of the petition, we are critical of the general quantitative hurdles - such as the expropriation proposed by the initiative for a certain number of apartments", according to party leader Werner Graf.

On the opposition benches, the CDU recently presented an opinion poll which showed that 51% of Berliners are against the expropriation move, while 36% were in favour, 11% were unsure and 2% gave no response. This demonstrated clearly, said CDU leader Kai Wegner, that Berliners were against ideology and class warfare, but DID want a fair deal in a well-regulated market.

The opposition FDP is against the move, on the grounds that it doesn't lead to the building of a single new dwelling to help ease the affordable housing shortage in the city. Likewise, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) calls the movement "economic madness" and the debt burden the city would have to take on to compensate the owners would be so heavy it would hamstring the city in any attempts to launch a new building programme to bridge the housing deficit.