Berliners just voted to seize housing from big corporate landlords

Berliners just voted to seize housing from big corporate landlords

Berlin voters sent a clear message to corporate landlords: public housing matters more than corporate shareholders. A city-wide referendum to expropriate rental properties belonging to large landlords and turn them into public housing passed with 56% of the vote on Sept. 26. The referendum is non-binding, but if the government chooses to act, as it’s now being pressed to do, it could mean the city government purchasing more than 240,000 apartments for billions of euros, and turning them into socialized housing run by the city as a public entity.