European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread - Page 1266

On February 05 2020 06:51 GreenHorizons wrote:
Any Germans have insight on the people in Berlins efforts to kick large landlords out of the city altogether?

On February 05 2020 07:18 mahrgell wrote:


Not sure what "efforts to kick large landlords out of the city" you are talking about... But that sounds like wonderful framing.

But maybe you are refering to the city government of Berlin passing a new law to limit the rent of appartments to between 4 and 10€/m² depending on build date (but regardless of where in Berlin)

Which certainly managed to create a large uncertainity for all owners of houses and appartments in Berlin, regardless if it is a single appartment owner or some large corporation owning entire quarters of the city.
It is also a great gift to all those above average earners in the more expensive districts of the city, who now get their rent cut in half, while the low earners living in the cheaper districts still pay the same as before. Or how my 6 figure earning uncle put it: "Finally we can look into renting or buying a 200+ m² loft in the central city."

Berlin looks set to hold a referendum on banning big landlords and expropriating their homes into social housing, as part of a response to growing complaints in the German capital about the cost of living.

The proposed law would bar landlords with more than 3,000 homes in their portfolio from operating in the city – including the city’s biggest property company, Deutsche Wohnen AG.

On February 05 2020 07:29 GreenHorizons wrote:


Just saw this and was looking for some context from 'locals'



www.independent.co.uk

On February 05 2020 07:58 arbiter_md wrote:
Well, if they make it happen that will be one more step towards communism. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

On February 05 2020 06:51 GreenHorizons wrote:
Any Germans have insight on the people in Berlins efforts to kick large landlords out of the city altogether?

On February 06 2020 17:40 Broetchenholer wrote:
So, who wants to take bets whether Thüringens FDP will allow new elections after being voted into office by höcke?

On February 06 2020 12:24 ggrrg wrote:


There have been a lot of ideas for curbing exorbitant rents floating around. They normally go under pretty quickly. I do not recall what exactly sunk the proposal you linked (my best guess is that it would have been anti-constitutional), but there was a more recent iteration of getting rid of large landlords, which called for the city to buy out their property. This iteration went under because Berlin is operating deeply in the red as it is and there simply is no money to buy back any significant amount of housing.

While the overwhelming amount of ideas to curb exploding rent levels have been discarded, there is actually a new law in Berlin that has already been passed but has not entered into force yet (pending judicial review). It freezes rent levels in the city for 5 years and sets an upper boundary for rent cost depending on location, condition, build year, and some more. The upper boundary also means that rent which is currently above it must be lowered as soon as the law enters into force (the upper boundary is kind of flexible, though, if some conditions are met). Personally, I am skeptical how much of an effect this law will have even if it were not stricken down by the judicial system. One of the reasons is a great introduction to why Deutsche Wohnen (mentioned in your link) and other large scale property owners are scum and for all I care can have all their property seized tomorrow:

A large portion of the money paid by a person towards living in a rented place does not go towards the rent itself but towards utilities and this is how large scale property owners make a killing. There is a common trend called insourcing meaning that as much as possible of the utility services (e.g. janitors, gardeners, electricians, administration) is provided by the property owner itself (not by hired third party companies) or by companies owned by the property owner. This means that there is zero accountability for the bills they provide and there is zero interest in searching for the most cost-efficient provider of said service. Statistics show that utility bills go through the roof as soon as a large scale property owner buys a building. We are talking about overall increases of utility bills of 20-100% over the span of the first year the building has been acquired by an owner like Deutsche Wohnen. Some positions mark an increase of several hundred to several thousand percent in a single year. Additionally, there are plenty of records of outright ridiculous (false) bills provided by these neo-capitalist locusts showing that the only idea is to rip off the common people – tens of thousands of Euros of utility bills for a single building for:
- inspection of the basement windows (the building does not have such windows)
- inspection of roof windows (the building does not have such windows once again…)
- a janitor inspecting in a single day on a monthly basis:
a) all light switches in 6 buildings (reproduced and timed by the residents at 11 hours 42 minutes)
b) the pumping system of the building (located 9 feet under the water level of the building plumbing, inaccessible without diving gear)
c) 20 additional services
- building liability insurance cost (which in court turned out to be for an administration building of the property owner located in a different city)

Sources+ Show Spoiler +


The Berlin law freezing rent levels will obviously have no effect on the utility cost rip-off scheme…

Additionally, the modus operandi of the large scale property owners upon acquiring a new building always includes an instant price increase if you are lucky… If you are not lucky, your building will be instantly modernized which translates into slapping Styrofoam on the outside making it a prime candidate to become the next Grenfell Tower + Show Spoiler + and painting over the stairwell for the lovely cost of doubling your rent.

Lastly, there has to be a shout out to certain politicians who enable this kind of rip-off to thrive. I guess it is up to debate why they do it, but for all practical purposes it does not really matter if they are absolutely incompetent idiots or simply sellouts. The bulk of the property owned by the large scale enterprises stems from buying out communal property built with the tax-payers’ money. Why local politicians would agree to selling profitable communal property is anyone’s guess, but a good hint at why this is probably plain corruption is the modern saying: “paying property acquisition tax is for suckers”. If you or I would buy a house we would have to pay 3.5% to 6.5% tax for the acquisition. Large scale property owners generally do not pay this tax - especially when buying communal property. The short version is that they “only” acquire 99.x% of the property which exempts them from this tax.

Ultimately, for all I care Deutsche Wohnen and other similar enterprises can go choke on a male reproductive organ preferably with everyone who gifted them communal property.

On February 08 2020 06:23 Artisreal wrote:
Fuck.

It's not even a lifetime since the end of WW2 and again we have a fascist and extreme right wing party in a parliament crowning a regional leader by duping the conservatives who are afraid of left wing "extremists".

Fuck fuck fuck