Berlin, September 26th, 2026 (The Berlin Spectator) – A planned effort by Berlin’s Left Party to expropriate large housing companies and place their properties under public or common-good ownership could be both socially useful and economically viable, according to a new study by the Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research (IMK), a body affiliated with the union-aligned Hans Böckler Foundation.
According to German-language media, the study concludes that socializing large housing portfolios would not by itself resolve the shortage of housing in Germany’s major cities. Solving that problem, the researchers say, requires new construction on a large scale.
Still, the foundation stated in Düsseldorf that the measure “can be a useful complementary element to reduce the affordability problem in the rental market,” pointing to its potential as one tool among several.
Affordable Units
According to the study, large private housing corporations in Berlin control extensive portfolios that include many units in the lower and middle rent segments. If these properties were converted into public or common-good ownership, the researchers argue, the public sector could quickly expand its influence over the rental market.
Slower rent increases within that portfolio would, through their effect on the local rent index, also dampen citywide rent growth, the study found. Public ownership could additionally support social diversity and community-oriented renovation more effectively than large private housing firms currently do, the foundation said in a statement.
The researchers estimate that compensating private housing companies for the transfer of roughly 210,000 apartments into public ownership would cost around 13.5 billion Euro. With a well-designed approach to socialization, the foundation said, this sum “would be financeable without cuts to Berlin’s state budget.”
Calculation Method
Estimates of the required compensation vary widely depending on the calculation method used. During the election campaign, SPD lead candidate Steffen Krach spoke out clearly against socialization, citing estimated compensation costs of between 20 and 30 billion Euro. The IMK study puts the overall range of estimates between roughly 10 billion and 36 billion Euro.
The IMK researchers recommend using Berlin’s existing public housing infrastructure if socialization moves forward. The properties, they say, could be transferred either directly or through a temporary public-law institution to the city’s six existing state-owned housing companies.
These companies already manage several hundred thousand apartments and have the necessary capacity, “which of course would need to be expanded,” the study notes. The compensation payments, the researchers add, could be financed through additional equity provided by the state along with loans taken on by the housing companies themselves.
Die Linke won Berlin’s state elections a week ago. The party wants to go ahead with expropriations, while its potential coalition partner SPD rejects this approach. Because of several antisemitism scandals within Die Linke, and contacts of a party member to an infamous Lebanese family clan in Berlin, the SPD and the Greens might choose to form a coalition with the conservative CDU instead.
