The rent madness is getting worse and worse
Berlin is home to us all, but it threatens to become a city of the rich. Rents are exploding, we are being displaced, corporate profits are rising and our politicians are watching. We are fed up!
Our homes are too expensive
Affordable housing is a basic right, but more and more people are affected by displacement and have to pay an increasing share of their income for rent. Rents in Berlin have doubled in the last ten years. Wages have barely risen in the same time. Now there are exploding heating and electricity costs on top of that: We can't afford Berlin any more!
The market regulates nothing
The corporations are obliged to maximise profits for their shareholders. Our rent increase today is their profit distribution tomorrow. The real estate corporations use all business practices to increase rents and are not allies in the struggle for a just city. Because of their size, Deutsche Wohnen & Co are particularly able to influence the rental market.
Politics has no other solutions
The rent cap has been overturned and instruments like the Mietpreisbremse, the Milieuschutz and the right of first refusal are not enough against the housing crisis. The senate is empty-handed: there is no other measure more promising in the long term than socialisation.
Profit takes precedence over the common good
The business model of Deutsche Wohnen & Co consists mainly of buying up existing flats and raising rents. Senseless modernisations are followed by more expensive rents - and still your heating fails. We Berliners pay the profits with our rent, while the real estate companies neglect necessary repairs and maintenance or pass them on to tenants as expensive modernisations.
The economy must become more democratic!
Public services and basic rights must not be neglected for the sake of profit maximisation and the individual interests of investors. 80 per cent of Berliners live in rented accommodation. Berlin voted by a large majority for socialisation in order to decide for itself how the city will develop in the future.
What we can do
The people of Berlin have given the government a clear mandate for socialisation. We want to have a say and are not prepared to continue paying corporate profits with our rent. Berlin should remain our home!
Socialisation ensures permanently affordable rents
Large profit-oriented housing companies build almost no new flats, and if they do, they are expensive condominiums. They mainly buy up existing flats and raise rents. Socialisation can reduce rents in over 240,000 flats. This will have a big impact on the rest of the housing market.
We are taking back the city!
Most of the houses owned by Deutsche Wohnen & Co used to belong to the state of Berlin. They were built and paid off with Berliners' money. Then the Senate privatised the houses and sold them off to real estate companies at ridiculous prices. We want to correct this mistake. We want to take back what the corporations have appropriated.
The whole city benefits from socialisation
Public ownership allows not only affordable rents, but also protection for small businesses, space for art and culture, decentralised accommodation for refugees or shelters from domestic violence. Housing can be distributed according to need, not income. Basic needs are not suitable for profit-oriented business. There is no right to profit, but there is a right to housing.
We want to have a say!
The caretaker is gone, the playground is no longer there and nobody asked you? Socialisation makes it possible for the tenants to have a say - because how we live is something that concerns us all. Co-determination and tenant councils are pillars of the new ownership structure - so decisions are made together and housing is democratised.
Socialisation is worth it!
Article 15 of the Basic Law says: Compensation for real estate companies can be below market value. Compensation at market value would reward the speculation of the corporations. The compensation sum can be refinanced entirely from the rents of the socialised flats. Afterwards, the flats continue to generate income, which can be used, for example, to finance new construction.