Berlin's rental revolution: activists push for properties to be nationalised | Hacker News Reader

Berlin's rental revolution: activists push for properties to be nationalised

theguardian.com

19 pointspseudolus12 comments

At the moment it seems Berliners aren’t too keen on newcomers and instead of ensuring cheap rents by ensuring there are enough units, they’re agitating and regulating in a way that will ensure continued scarcity, and then to fix costs they’re pushing ideas like rent control and nationalization. Which will in effect result in a kind of rationing of units, so newcomers be damned.

It’s also remarkable given the history of nationalization and land reform to which Berlin had a front row seat.

Surely it's possible to build more houses and nationalize them?

Landlords are parasites, full stop. You can't claim something is as cheap as it can be when they're still in the picture.

Definitely not helpful. Housing will only get more expensive, the only solution is to build more.

Berlin still has comparative low rents for a city its size. On the other hand real estate speculation remains a huge problem, even if new land is claimed.

A possibly better law that allows some free market aspects to continue is allowing only those who work, attend school or have lived in the area X amount of years with the ability to purchase or rent. This way people who need housing in the area are prioritized over rent seekers who have no connection to the area except for the fact that they have cash to purchase in the area. This would also reduce commute times and overall shift around the city population so everyone is closer to where they work or attend school.

* Allowing free market aspects does not make a law better.

* Virtually everyone who lives in Berlin also works there or attends school there. I cant imagine many people commute from Berlin to Brandenburg.

If Berlin can figure out how to have long term affordable rents, for residents and newcomers alike, similar to Singapore, Vienna or how Sweden used to be, it will be the most successful city in Europe.

If activists genuinely believe that Berlin can come up with expropriation funds between €18.1bn (low end) and €36.6bn (high end) then their efforts would probably be better directed towards obtaining those funds and directing them towards building new housing and infrastructure as opposed to fomenting populism.

This is what happens when greed takes over and people don’t put up with it. We need the same revolution in the Bay Area.

If you’re aspiring to be a landlord: don’t. It’s not noble, it’s not useful, and it’s quite literally rent seeking.

If you live in the bay and own, refuse to sell to faceless Chinese investors, real estate trusts, etc. Sell to families and individuals who need to live.

Do you actually know what rent seeking means? Hint: it involves the government.

This is a moronic statement. Housing shortages are not about “greed taking over”, they are about not having enough housing.

Edit: sorry for being rude, but attitudes like yours make things worse because they get people fired up about about useless actions that appeal to their base emotions. For example, Berlin wants to spend 36 billion dollars changing the ownership of some housing instead of spending 36 billion dollars building enough for everyone. Landlords cannot charge high rents if there is enough housing to go around.

Simply increasing supply only temporarily ameliorates the problem. Eliminating landlords addresses a fundamental inefficiency in housing.

This is wrong of course. Public housing does nothing to suppress the problem of growing demand while having limited supply.

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