Berlin buys thousands of apartments from corporate landlords
Associated PressBERLIN — Berlin’s city government said Friday it is buying some 14,750 apartments from two large corporate landlords for 2.46 billion euros — a deal announced a week before local and national elections as the German capital tries to expand the supply of publicly owned accommodation. Rising rents have been a hot-button issue for years in Berlin, where tenants long enjoyed low rents compared with many other capital cities. Purchases of apartments that were once government-owned but over recent decades were sold off to private companies are one way in which the outgoing city government — a left-wing coalition of the Social Democrats, Greens and Left Party — has sought to address the problem. Also that day, Berliners will vote in a non-binding referendum on a call for the local government to expropriate the properties of large corporate landlords.