If expropriation is not carried out: CDU Economic Council: More than 200,000 new apartments possible in Berlin

With 16 billion euros, the Left wants to bring around 160,000 apartments back into the municipal inventory in Berlin. The CDU Economic Council presents the counter-calculation: With the sum, even more new buildings could be built.

The CDU Economic Council believes it is possible to build tens of thousands of new apartments if Berlin uses the billions earmarked for the socialization of large housing groups to promote housing construction. This emerges from a model calculation by the Economic Council, which is available to the “Rheinische Post”. It shows that if the state of Berlin invested the compensation amount of 16 billion euros in the new building, around 51,000 apartments could be built using conventional construction methods, and even around 68,000 if simplified building standards were applied. If Berlin were to support new construction at just a third of the cost, the same funds could be used to create up to 205,000 additional apartments. That would be more than should be expropriated.

Meanwhile, the Economic Council sharply criticized the socialization plans. “It has been clear since last weekend: The Left, flanked by the Greens and the SPD, is daring to break the system in the capital: In Germany, a good 40 years after the failure of real socialism, serious work is being done on expropriations again,” said General Secretary Wolfgang Steiger to the newspaper. In doing so, the potential coalition partners “blatantly laid the ax to the foundation of our economic and social order: property,” criticized Steiger.

Construction industry: No new construction, no renovation

The main association of the German construction industry also sharply criticized the planned mergers. Managing director Tim-Oliver Müller told the newspaper: "Overall, we look at the exploratory results in Berlin with almost bewilderment. Although the exploratory results suggest to the outside world a strong appeal for building in the capital, on closer inspection the opposite is achieved." Müller warned: "Nationalization of housing stock is counterproductive and harmful for construction activity. Because neither new apartments are created nor are they renovated."

Müller explained: “The signal effect is already devastating for Germany as a business location.” Berlin stands as the capital for the entire country. “Investors who operate internationally build where they have legal certainty and the projects are profitable,” he said. "Instead of debating nationalization, we need a construction turbo II that goes far beyond a simplification of approval and planning law."

The Left, the Greens and the SPD reached an agreement in their exploratory talks on Saturday. A central agreement is a corporatization of real estate groups with more than 10,000 apartments. A total of 160,000 additional apartments are to come into municipal ownership.