In Sunday’s Berlin state elections, the Left Party won with 25.3% of the vote, making them key to forming a new governing coalition. A major campaign promise was expropriating private apartments owned by large real estate companies—about 220,000 units—to implement rent control and alleviate housing shortages. This policy mirrors an advisory referendum approved by 59% of Berlin voters in 2021 but faces skepticism over potential market distortions and investment disincentives.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-23,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
The communists have retaken Berlin.
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communists → retake → Berlin
Now they want to seize private housing as well.
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they → want → housing
On Sunday, the Left Party, led by Elif Eralp, captured 25.3 percent of the vote in state elections and is now in talks with the Social Democrats and Greens to form a governing coalition with them at the helm.
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Party → lead → helm
The rising cost of housing in Berlin was a central issue in the campaign, which the Left proposes to fix with a mix of public housing construction, rent controls, and, most radically, expropriation of 220,000 housing units currently owned by large real estate companies.
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Left → rise → companies
Expropriation "serves the purpose of being able to regulate rents, which we can't currently do with private owners," Eralp told the Russian-German magazine Wir.
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Eralp → serve → magazine
"This takes these apartments out of speculation and out of the possibility of profiting from the housing shortage.
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This → take → shortage
Eralp has framed this plan as implementing the will of Berlin voters, 59 percent of whom approved an advisory referendum in 2021 calling for the seizure of a quarter of a million apartments owned by large landlords.
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percent → frame → landlords
The year before, the city implemented a rent cap that led to actual rent reductions for some 300,000 apartments in the city.
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that → implement → city
In 2021, Germany's Constitutional Court struck down the policy, declaring that the power to cap rents rested with the federal government.
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power → strike → government
Berlin's brief experiment with rent control had all the consequences one would expect.
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one → have → consequences
Rents fell on controlled units, benefiting anyone who already lived in one.
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who → fall → one
But the number of available rent-controlled apartments also plummeted.
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number → control → apartments
Newcomers looking for housing in the growing city had to search on the non-controlled market, where prices skyrocketed.
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prices → look → market
Eralp has decried Berlin's housing shortage as a major cause of high prices.
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Eralp → decry → prices
But one shouldn't expect expropriation to fix that issue.
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expropriation → expect → issue
As German policy wonks explained at the time of the 2021 referendum, state seizures of private property would be a major disincentive to invest in new construction in the city.
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seizures → explain → city
The state government would also have to compensate landlords for their lost property, which would leave fewer funds available for the construction of new social housing that the Left also wants.
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Left → have → that
Internationally, left-wing media outlets are hailing Eralp's victory as an equivalent to democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani's election in New York.
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outlets → hail → York
"First we took Manhattan, then we took Berlin," reads the headline in the socialist Jacobin magazine.
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headline → take → magazine
It's a fitting comparison as Eralp's housing policies suffer from the same contradictions as Mamdani's, who wants to attract private investment to end the city's housing shortage while also using ruinous rent controls to drive more homes off the market.
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who → suffer → market
For all its criticism of a housing shortage, the Left is also opposing a proposal to build 21,000 apartments on the fringes of Berlin's shuttered Tempelhofer Feld airport, reports The Berliner.
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Berliner → oppose → airport
Germany's national government, led by Christian Democrat Chancellor Friedrich Merz, announced a plan in July to ban state governments' expropriation of private housing.
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government → lead → housing
Instead, the government is promising to establish a government-run housing construction firm.
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government → promise → firm
Barring some change in national policy, that will prevent the Left from making good on its plans to municipalize the city's housing stock.
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that → bar → stock
Curing the city's housing shortage will still require private investment.
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Curing → cure → investment
A far-left-led state government dead set on eliminating private housing is hardly an encouragement to provide that investment.
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government → lead → investment
The Aporia
