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Far-left party wins Berlin election, pledging to nationalise housing

72 points · 152 comments · theanonymousone

  1. soonnow · · focus · HN ↗
    To add a b it of context. They do not want to confiscate housing. They do want to pay landlords, though below current (very high) rates. Also this would only apply to private real-estate companies not individual owners.

    And they can't govern alone, so I think it's unlikely that this plan is actually implemented as originally planned. The likely coalition would contain 3 parties.

    1. aurareturn · · focus · HN ↗

        They do want to pay landlords, though below current (very high) rates.
      In San Francisco, NIMBYs secretly support laws like this. This basically guarantees that many builders will do the math and conclude that it doesn't make sense to build housing in San Francisco.

      New large condo buildings have to sell 30% of the units at below market rate. This causes many viable projects to never get built.

      So laws like this are sold to renter voters as a way to lower housing costs, but NIMBYs secretly love it. Over time, renters pay more in rent because there is less supply due to builders not building. However, a lucky few renters who were here early will get below market rents.

      Perfect examples of voters voting for a short term fix but pay more in long term. And voting for themselves while screwing future renters.

      1. vrganj · · focus · HN ↗
        The fix is for the city to be the builder, like it is in Vienna.

        The City of Vienna is the largest landlord in Europe. It is also the only major European capital without a rent cost crisis.

        1. specproc · · focus · HN ↗
          Similarly UK cities built their own housing, up until Thatcher and Right to Buy. Costs spiralled out of control after that.

          Most urgent intervention required in the UK, IMO. We're choking to death on the cost of housing.

          1. mschuster91 · · focus · HN ↗
            > Most urgent intervention required in the UK, IMO. We're choking to death on the cost of housing.

            Every country in the Western world is. And it seriously hits our economies as well - when companies have to pay wages to match what landlords are asking of their employees, places like China with a massive oversupply of housing are far, far more competitive.

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