BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Building Senator Christian Gaebler wants to continue working on the preparations for the Senate's planned framework law on the socialization of large housing companies in Berlin. In his view, it is necessary to start before the results of the legal opinion announced by the tax authorities are available. "We will look internally at the assessment criteria for our area. Above all: What are the actual criteria that justify socialization?" the SPD politician told the German Press Agency.

Gaebler: Framework law must specify criteria

Opinions differ on this: "There is a dispute as to whether implementation issues should already be addressed in the framework law," said Gaebler. "In my view, the criteria for this must already be an issue, otherwise the framework law makes no sense. If it only says that you can implement section 15 of the Basic Law, then you can leave it alone."

However, Gaebler does not consider the controversial expert opinion on the framework law, which has been sharply criticized by the Left Party in Berlin and the "Deutsche Wohnen & Co. expropriate" initiative, among others, to be superfluous. "I understand that this causes irritation," he conceded. "On the other hand, the expert commission has not dealt with the framework law at all - so it is wise to clarify this in advance," said Gaebler. "That's why we will think in good time about what points of contact there might be for the housing sector."

"I am of the opinion that, if possible, all responsible specialist administrations should already be looking at what preparatory work they can do now and not wait until the report is available," said the SPD politician. "The time until then must be used to prepare technical issues that are not directly related to the report." The report is to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2024 and the results are not expected before the fall.

The discussion about the socialization of housing companies was initiated by the "Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co." initiative. In a referendum on 26 September 2021, a good 59% of voters voted in favor of the socialization of real estate companies with more than 3,000 apartments in Berlin.

The then red-green-red senate then appointed a commission of experts. In its final report presented in June, it came to the conclusion that the socialization of large housing companies in Berlin was possible. The vote has not yet been implemented by politicians.

Gaebler does not see socialization as a solution

Gaebler disagreed with the accusation that the SPD is delaying the implementation of the referendum on socialization: "We have no delaying strategy in mind - that would only lead to further uncertainty. Our goal should be clarity as quickly as possible."

However, socialization is not a solution to the problems on the housing market. "We're talking about around 200,000 apartments out of a total of two million. I would be delighted if we could get 200,000 more state-owned apartments, but I would like to know more about the risks and side effects."

Much is still unclear. One risk is the unclear costs for taxpayers. "The expert commission has not given a clear answer to this. It has presented six different calculation models, but without saying which is the right one."/ah/DP/zb