Merz says anti-expropriation bill is ready and defends building on Tempelhof Field

Draft law nearly finished

Chancellor Friedrich Merz told an Industry and Commerce Chamber (IHK) event in Berlin that the federal government's bill against expropriating housing companies is ready. The only open point, he said, is whether compensation in an expropriation should be 100 or 80 percent of market value. Merz said he favours full market value and did not think that needed explaining. The bill responds to plans by a possible future Berlin coalition of Die Linke, the Greens and the SPD to socialise housing companies, a process German reporting calls Vergesellschaftung. Merz said socialisation creates neither jobs nor homes and that it severely damages the economic location. He warned that open talk of expropriation in the capital would reach capital markets in London, Paris and New York.

On the bill itself, Merz was brief:

“The draft law is finished.”

Tempelhof Field and housing supply

Merz also defended building on Tempelhof Field, land that a possible new government led by Die Linke does not want built on. He argued that inner-city sites of this quality must be open to construction and that lawmakers alone cannot solve the housing shortage. He pointed to the Bauturbo and the Gebäudetyp E rules as first decisions to expand building. He cited a homeownership rate of 50 percent in Germany, which he said is lower than in any other EU country, and said young people must again be able to build. On the referendum question he said:

“If an area like Tempelhof Field is withdrawn from development through a referendum, then we naturally have a problem that is more than just legal regulation by the legislature.”

Pushback from Berlin's left

Elif Eralp, described in the coverage as the possible future mayor of Berlin, criticised the bill about a week before Merz spoke. She said the federal law would make impossible what the Basic Law provides and what Berliners voted for, and called it a law against Berlin's tenants. Her core objection was put this way:

“This law, in my view, has nothing to do with investment protection.”

She added that Berlin's tenants would not accept it. Pantisano, co-chair of Die Linke, said the federal government values the shareholders of Vonovia more than tenants in Berlin, and argued that such a law would not survive before the Federal Constitutional Court.

Expo bid and open questions

Merz also said he would support a bid by the Berlin capital region to host a world exhibition in 2035, under certain conditions. The compensation question, 100 or 80 percent of market value, is still open in the bill. Merz framed the debate as a matter of property protection and investor confidence, while Eralp and Pantisano framed the bill as a threat to tenants. The governing coalition in Berlin has not yet been formed, so the positions on Tempelhof Field and expropriation are not yet government policy.