Housing Policy

The Far-Left Wins Berlin's Election on the Promise of Seizing Private Apartments

The Left wants to cure the city's high housing costs by expropriating 225,000 apartments owned by large real estate corporations.

Christian Britschgi | 9.23.2026 1:55 PM

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The communists have retaken Berlin. Now they want to seize private housing as well.  

On Sunday, the Left Party, led by Elif Eralp, captured 25.3 percent of the vote in state elections and is now in talks with the Social Democrats and Greens to form a governing coalition with them at the helm. 

The rising cost of housing in Berlin was a central issue in the campaign, which the Left proposes to fix with a mix of public housing construction, rent controls, and, most radically, expropriation of 220,000 housing units currently owned by large real estate companies. 

Expropriation "serves the purpose of being able to regulate rents, which we can't currently do with private owners," Eralp told the........

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