It is the ballot behind the ballot, a local vote, but which has symbolic value for all of Germany: Sunday, September 26, at the same time as the election for the renewal of the Bundestag and the mayor of Berlin, will be held in the capital a popular initiative referendum on the highly sensitive subject of housing policy. Berliners are called upon to answer the question of whether large property owners – those who own more than 3,000 apartments – should be subject to expropriation, in order to communalize housing. In the event of a positive vote, the city could have to devote 30 billion euros to buy more than 240,000 apartments.
Controversial, the initiative has a few chances of succeeding. 359,000 signatures were collected by the organizers of the referendum, a record for a ballot of this kind. According to polls, one in two Berliners could vote yes. A positive result, even if it is not binding for the future town hall, will be a warning on housing policy in the capital, but also in other German metropolises, where high rents have become the third concern of the city. population, just behind the climate and pensions.
Record tenant rate
If the Berlin referendum is unprecedented, it is because the city occupies a special place in Germany. Berlin has gained so much in attractiveness and inhabitants since 2010 that rental prices have doubled, without the average salary increasing at the same rate. The supply of rental accommodation is extremely small. Added to this is a record rate of tenants: 83%, which makes residents particularly sensitive to price changes. In some neighborhoods, the population has completely changed in a decade, as renovations of buildings allowed their owners to charge higher rents. Part of the central areas, the upward pressure is gaining more and more in the outlying areas. Once a very accessible metropolis, refuge for artists and techno enthusiasts, Berlin has become in a decade a place where accommodation is becoming complicated and expensive, even for the middle classes.
The candidate is rather of the opinion that it is necessary to follow the example of the city of Hamburg, which succeeded in stopping the rise in prices by an acceleration of the construction
Little wonder, therefore, that anguish is expressed in the street. The two big real estate companies, Deutsche Wohnen and Vonovia, are at the heart of criticism during regular protests against too high house prices. These two listed groups are among the investors who bought huge housing lots in Berlin in the 2000s. The municipality, heavily in debt and manager of a huge real estate portfolio inherited from the former GDR, had decided to privatize part of it. Since then, Deutsche Wohnen and Vonovia have, rightly or wrongly, become the symbols of real estate speculation in the capital. Cornered, anxious to lower the pressure, the two groups have already surrendered, in mid-September, 14,500 housing units to the municipality, for 2.4 billion euros.
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