Berlin Left chair concedes rents would still rise after housing takeover

A retreat on lower rents

Ines Schwerdtner, chair of Die Linke, told the 3sat programme 'Bosetti Late Night' that tenants cannot be promised lower rents, even after large housing portfolios are taken into public ownership in Berlin. Moderator Sarah Bosetti asked whether she wanted to lower rents at all, and Schwerdtner said she would like to 'very much'. She called a guarantee for individual households unserious and said her party would not make that kind of promise. The remark stands out because the party won the September election for the Berlin House of Representatives with a campaign built on affordable rents.

“I cannot promise any individual tenant that rents will fall. That would be unserious.”

In an August 2026 podcast with Stern, Schwerdtner had said that part of the flats should be taken out of market logic to lower rents over the long term or at least keep them stable. Asked by Bosetti whether she had ever said that socialisation would lower rents, she answered that she had never said so.

What the coalition paper allows

The Linke, SPD and Greens, which are in coalition talks, wrote in their exploratory paper that rent increases at the state-owned housing companies (LWU) remain possible. Those increases are to be capped at a maximum of 2% a year, and the paper states that the LWU's ability to invest is to be guaranteed. Schwerdtner said the same 2% ceiling would apply to socialised flats, which would then carry the same rent path as state-owned stock. She said the plan proposed by lead candidate Elif Eralp initially concerns about 400,000 state-owned flats in Berlin. Eralp could become governing mayor if the coalition is formed.

Repairs, Vonovia and the cost of takeover

Schwerdtner justified the increases by pointing to repairs, saying 'the seriousness of the calculation' is that flats must be maintained. She said tenants report mould on walls and holes in stairwells, and that the party does not know the condition of every flat. She compared the expected rise with Vonovia, which she said had raised rents by 6% at its last increase, and argued that rents in public hands would not climb as steeply. Media reports cited by the Berliner Zeitung put the cost of taking around 160,000 flats into public hands at about 16 billion euros, financed by loans repaid from rental income.

Average net cold rent (approx.)8

Needed to cover costs10.4

Needed at 5% interest11.6

Average net cold rent (approx.)

8 EUR per sqm

Needed to cover costs

10.4 EUR per sqm

Needed at 5% interest

11.6 EUR per sqm

Data from the article text

Focus, citing earlier reporting by Tagesspiegel, says the three parties calculate compensation of up to 16 billion euros. The Berliner Zeitung calculates that the average net cold rent of roughly 8 euros per square metre would need to rise to 10.40 euros to cover those costs, and to 11.60 euros at 5% interest. Housing spokesman Niklas Schenker has previously pointed to a study by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, which estimated that rents in socialised stock could fall by 16% on average.

Criticism and reader reaction

Focus chief correspondent Ulrich Reitz described Schwerdtner's reframing as a creative handling of what she had said in August, and called the word socialisation a softer term for expropriation that would still need compensation. Readers of Focus's online community were divided. Many accused the Linke of breaking its election promises, while others accepted that rents would have to rise to pay for repairs and maintenance. Whether a two per cent annual increase would be enough, the coalition paper leaves open, since it depends on the condition of the buildings and on how the takeover is financed.