Christian Gäbler (SPD), State Secretary for Building and Housing, Andreas Geisel (SPD), Senator for Urban Development, and Herta Däubler-Gmelin (SPD), Chairwoman of the Commission, before the start of the expert commission meeting.
© dpa
Seven months after the successful referendum on the expropriation of large housing companies, a commission of experts has begun its work.
The committee, headed by former German Justice Minister Herta Däubler-Gmelin (SPD), met for the first time on Friday (April 29, 2022) and is expected to look into whether an expropriation law would be constitutional in the coming months. The commission is also to shed light on housing, corporate law and financial policy issues.
The panel includes 13 experts, most of them legal scholars. Ten of them were nominated by different Senate administrations, three by the "Deutsche Wohnen & Co. enteignen" initiative. After one year, the committee is to submit a recommendation to the Senate on how to proceed.
In a referendum initiated by the initiative on September 26 last year, a good 59 percent of voters had voted for the expropriation of real estate companies with more than 3,000 apartments in Berlin. The hope of the initiative is that such a socialization against compensation can stop or at least slow down the rise in rents.