Berlin residents want Nationalized Real Estate

In the capital city, where residents have been buffeted by a sudden surge in costs, a movement is gaining momentum for a radical solution: nationalizing big chunks of the housing market. Organizers have started collecting signatures for a referendum to push the city to expropriate apartments from large landlords -- companies that own more than 3,000 units like Deutsche Wohnen SE and Vonovia SE. The activists need to collect 20,000 within six months and another 170,000 by February. While pushing the state to buy apartments won’t increase supply, campaigners argue that the measure would send a signal to landlords that they need to play fair or risk losing their assets. The final straw for the activists came last year, when Deutsche Wohnen -- already one of the largest landlords in the German capital with about 112,000 properties -- agreed to buy 800 residential and commercial units on Karl Marx Allee, an imposing Stalinist boulevard in the former communist east. Residents fearing rent increases mobilized, and the city sought to block the deal in court. The property company -- one of the main winners of Berlin’s housing boom -- has rejected demands to turn over its property.