Deutsche Wohnen & Co enteignen!

Our referendum demands that the Berlin Senate pass a law that would socialize the housing stock of profit-seeking housing companies that own more than 3000 apartments in Berlin. The apartments would be transferred to the control of a public-law institution where they would be democratically administered. Socialization of housing need not be expensive, since the constitution allows for a compensation below the market value. We’ve done the calculations: the cost of expropriation can be paid by rental income. This means it will not be a burden on the state of Berlin’s budget.

We want to make permanently affordable rents in Berlin a reality again. Rental income from the apartments we socialize would no longer bankroll profit-seeking housing companies. Instead, they would pay for the usual costs of the apartments. If we are successful, it would reduce the rents of hundreds of thousands of apartments in Berlin. This would also take a huge amount of pressure off the Berlin housing market, which in the end would benefit all tenants. People would no longer have to live in constant fear of eviction. Berlin needs its housing back!

Numerous legal surveys attest to the viability of our project. We already gathered 350,000 signatures between February and June 2021. Now, the next phase of the petition process is on the agenda: mobilising for the referendum on 26.09.21. All Berliners who are eligible to vote can, in parallel with the federal and state elections, vote in our referendum. Together we’ll get our houses back!

We’ll use it to finance the third phase of our referendum, up until the end of August 2021. We need money for: posters, flyers, stickers, animated videos, billboard and cinema adverts, advertising on Social Media and the Berliner Fenster (BVG), renting out spaces for events, office costs, website costs.