Who would not have seen this coming, after all, the Constitutional Court actually overturned the Berlin rent cap in the spring. Although the highest court ruled only formally because the Senate was not responsible, it can be assumed that the experiment might be successful in terms of content. The reactions were to be expected: “Shame”, “Scandal” resounded from the Berlin town halls. The remark of a left-wing district representative that the verdict was expected because the constitutional judges are certainly all property owners is also funny, so bias per se should be assumed. With a gross salary of around € 15.000, it is not entirely out of the question that a judge has bought a multi-party house, but I would tend to bet on Karlsruhe as a location rather than Berlin. Immediately afterwards the announcement came that the verdict had actually been expected, which is why all tenants (this must now be written in Berlin) had been asked to put back the saved rent instead of wasting it pointlessly. Now, of course, squandering is such a thing. The family, who paid just € 70 for 580 months for a 15 m² apartment on Buckower Ring in Marzahn instead of € 569, now has rental debts of € 165. The rent savings during this period amounted to 1,9% per month. The other example: The specialist in a 170 m² apartment in an old building on Motzstrasse in Nollendorfkietz paid € 2.620 basic rent before the lowering, and € 1.475 thereafter. His back payment now amounts to a whopping 17.175 €, the monthly "savings" was an astonishing 44%. Incidentally, both variants are not extreme examples; the drama took place in precisely these dimensions.
What did the Senate think when it came to the rent reduction, whereby "thinking" is the wrong term here? Rather, the question should be asked what basic ideological orientation the law had? Actually, one should expect a Left-Green Senate to act according to the old slogan “Peace to the huts, war to the palaces”, but the exact opposite has happened. The wealthy in chic old apartments were massively relieved, the low-wage earners should look forward to a few euros saved, which they now have to pay back. This is generally referred to as clientele politics, because the red-red-green electorate can be found in left-wing bourgeois milieus, less in the workforce, who in part were also responsible for 14.2% of the AfD votes in the last elections in 2016. But the Senate is at least taking a generous gesture. Over 40.000 low-income tenants are relieved through a fund. If they are able to repay the interest-free loans, that's fine, if not, so is that.
After the Senate even reduced debts for almost eight years, saving on administration, schools and the police, 2020 billion fresh money had to be borrowed again in 6. In this and in the coming years, debt borrowing will grow continuously and it can be assumed that that the consequences of the corona crisis are being put forward as the reason. How nice for Berlin that the companies and taxpayers from Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse will foot the bill through the state financial equalization system.
Anyone who believes that the judgment of the Constitutional Court is a reason to give up fantasies of expropriation is mistaken. Shortly after the decision, the fight was again blown, because at least the referendum "Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co." is still running, which is to take place in a referendum on September 26, the day of the Bundestag election and the election to the Berlin House of Representatives. It would hit around a dozen companies with a portfolio of at least 3.000 apartments, a total of around 240.000 apartments, about 15% of the entire Berlin housing stock. (Still) not even the “left” would like to expropriate without compensation, after all, 8 billion euros are to be paid for it, which is an average of 33.000 euros per apartment, a real bargain. This is to be paid for with loans that are supposed to be easily repaid from future rental income. Maintenance, modernization, renovation and reserves do not play a role in the plans and are therefore not budgeted seriously. After all, the Greens and the SPD Mayor Müller are against the expropriation plans, most recently, and shortly before the election, the Senate was even able to report the success of having bought almost 15.000 apartments from their portfolio from “Deutsche Wohnen” and “Vonovia”, all in one significantly higher price than demanded by the left. The district councils have taken out low-interest loans for this purpose, maintenance is to be financed from the (lower) rents, the repayment modalities of around € 2.5 billion are so far only nebulous.
It is more than questionable whether a possible coalition of red-green-red would lead to a nationwide rent brake based on the Berlin model, since large parts of the SPD and the Greens do not want to scare the bourgeoisie away. It will be exciting to see how things continue in Berlin, the future does not promise anything good.
Bernd Viebach