The wrong signal

Viewpoint: Ute Weiland comments on the final report of the expert commission

The housing shortage in Berlin is taking on dramatic proportions, new housing construction is barely getting off the ground - and in this situation, the expert commission set up a year ago under the red-green-red government is paving the way for the socialization of large housing stocks in Berlin. It is the wrong signal.

This assessment in the panel's final report - opinions within the commission differed widely - does a disservice to the attempt to rekindle momentum in housing construction. Who would invest in housing where there is a threat of expropriation?

Especially as the wind has changed. The real estate industry is in a deep crisis: rising interest rates, high material costs, a lack of skilled workers, expensive regulations - construction sites in the capital are largely at a standstill. Private investors are pulling out, large housing companies are completely halting their new construction activities. The imbalance between supply and demand is becoming a landmark of the city, with asking rents for existing properties recently rising by no less than 27 percent - faster than anywhere else in Germany. Instead of the targeted 20,000 completions per year, we are likely to achieve half that figure this year at best.

Instead of philosophizing about socialization, we should provide investors with good arguments for coming to Berlin. We need to breathe life back into the market instead of slowing it down further. In particular, we need a political framework that is geared towards the primary goal of creating living space. In particular, however, we finally need a climate, especially here in Berlin, that creates planning security and does not treat investors with mistrust, but welcomes them as enablers.

We must not continue to tread water on the biggest social issue of our time. Speed is a decisive factor: we need to mobilize all available forces as quickly as possible to create housing. The black-red coalition has already rightly announced that it will not push ahead with legislation to socialize housing companies. A forward-looking, courageous and cooperative housing policy is a central key to a social and prosperous Berlin of tomorrow. Expropriation debates, on the other hand, are poison.