🇩🇪🏗️ Berlin: Although Die Linke is not yet in power, investors are already refusing to finance housing construction

The plans of the party that won the Berlin election to nationalize large housing companies are already beginning to affect the construction industry, even before the new government has been formed. Olaf Demuth, president of the German Construction Industry Association, said that the consequences of Die Linke’s election promises were already “devastating.” According to him, construction companies in Berlin can no longer obtain new loans for housing construction. Banks are acting cautiously, and international investors are pulling out. Deutschlandfunk reports.

The reason is the party’s intention to transfer the housing stock of private companies with more than 3,000 apartments into public ownership. The party won the election in September and is currently negotiating with the SPD and the Greens on forming a governing coalition. At the same time, the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) warns that nationalization would not create a single new apartment, but could reduce private investment and increase the burden on the city budget. Die Linke nevertheless insists that transferring apartments into public ownership is necessary to counter rising rents.

Berlin faces a contradiction: On the one hand, the authorities want to make housing more affordable; on the other, from the construction industry’s perspective, the proposed methods are already deterring those who are supposed to finance the construction of new homes. A change in ownership of existing apartments does not solve the housing shortage. If investment actually continues to decline, Berliners themselves will feel the consequences of such a policy first and foremost.


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