Housing Chatter

Last night, a public forum debate ran on German public TV (ZDF) with the Maybrit Illner Show. The topic?  Public housing, and the idea of seizing apartment buildings owned by commercial companies, thus forcing relaxed rent. 

This whole affordable housing discussion has reached the stage where it is a top ten item, and may well influence state elections in Germany, and perhaps even be the driving wedge of the next national election.  So this debate became a highly heated discussion with the members of the panel.

The pieces of this whole discussion? 

First, there's no doubt that land speculation within city limits is part of the issue.  Just in Frankfurt alone, I would take a guess that a couple hundred lots are being held....some maybe for decades (plural), in hopes of a massive rise of pricing.  The same situation holds for Berlin, Hamburg, Koln, etc.  In terms of taking a property and building affordable housing....there's typically a limited amount of profit attached, and the property holder isn't going to appreciate the situation.

Second, even if you seize the apartment properties (as being discussed), there's going to be another debate after that on improvements to the properties, who will end up paying the improvements (bluntly pointing toward the city government), and just how the rental prices will be staged.  Some people have it in their head that this 800-Euro 'unfair' rent for a 2-bedroom will be cut to a drastic sense (to maybe 400-Euro).  There's no substance to that chat, and it may well come to a point that the rent is tied to your income level....meaning you live on a floor with three other renters, and each pays a different amount for their 88-square meter apartment. 

Third, if seizures take place....a compensation package (payment) has to occur.  In the case of Berlin....just seizing 40 properties (say of 1960s/1970s construction), then you might be talking of a billion Euro of value.  Where does the billion come from?  The city can't really make up a tax out of thin air, and attempting to use the property tax bucket would make sense....except you'd take away from infrastructure projects (roads and bridges).

Fourth, is this all an attempt to hurt both the CDU and SPD numbers in big cities, and pave the way for the Greens in 2021?  Some people have awaken in the past couple of months and started to realize the political implications at work here.  Even the suggestion of massive socialism returning in DDR-style (old East Germany) is openly discussed now.  But the other side of this coin is that affordable housing has reached a crisis level in at least twenty of Germany's big cities.

Fifth and final....is this a national problem....or is this a state/local problem?  This question has started to rise on a number of occasions now.  Did the cities themselves help to create the problem, over the past three or four decades?  This logical question has arisen as well, and is part of the stage for discussion. 

I would easily put this as one of the top five issues in Germany today, and any solution....will simply lay a path for more problems in the future.