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Scandal in Berlin: Tenants against unscrupulous real estate locusts!
Discussions about expropriation in Berlin shed light on the crisis in the housing market and the effects on tenants and culture.
Scandal in Berlin: Tenants against unscrupulous real estate locusts!
The discussion about the housing market in Berlin shows once again how precarious the situation has become for many residents. The expropriation of large housing companies is being considered as a possible way to effectively address the housing shortage. This is reported by the Daily Mirror.
A concrete example is the building on Habersaatstrasse, which was built in 1984 and originally housed 106 apartments. After it was sold to new owners in 2006 for two million euros, numerous renovations took place. However, what was once a residential complex has increasingly become a hotel and short-term apartments, rather than a home for Berliners. Since the building complex was sold to the company Arcadia Estates in 2017 for an impressive 20 million euros, 86 of the 106 apartments have been empty, while only around 20 have been rented.
Vacancy and destruction of valuable living space
The vacancy means that many apartments are not even accommodated in proper rental contracts as accommodation for homeless people or refugees, for whom some apartments are rented to the Mitte district. Instead, the rental situation is overshadowed by several conflicts and eviction notices. Such a trial, which took place on Wednesday before the Mitte district court, highlighted the difficulties: Arcadia Estates' eviction action against three old tenants only lasted two minutes, but the judge rejected the termination notice and found that the tenancy agreement did not put the investor at a significant disadvantage because the value of the house had increased, as had the taz reported.
Concerns about the property owner, Andreas Pichotta, being more interested in “maximizing profits” than in the “common good” hover over the proceedings. Many fear that such conflicts endanger the social fabric of the city and have a significant impact on the city's culture.
The fight for social housing
And while these discussions about vacancies and profit maximization rage, many Berliners are faced with the almost insoluble problem of finding an affordable apartment. The pressure is enormous; Over a million people could claim a housing entitlement certificate (WBS), but there is simply a lack of social housing. There are currently only 90,654 social housing units left in Berlin, and the trend is pointing downwards rbb24 reported.
Although the income limits for the WBS have been increased, the question remains whether these measures are sufficient to close the gap between those eligible for the WBS and available housing. Tenants like Sandra Biering, who are urgently looking for a larger apartment, feel trapped in the system and often have little hope that their situation will improve in the near future.
More and more voices in the city are calling for a radical change in housing policy in order to continue to create a living environment in the future that offers living space for everyone, not just the financially well-off. In a city that is constantly changing, the question arises: How much will the common good be worth? The discourse has begun, and the coming decisions will be decisive as to whether Berlin succeeds in giving back the air it can breathe.