Senate prepares work on socialization framework bill

The black-red Berlin Senate is planning to start working on a legal framework for the socialization of companies in the near future.

The Senate will come together for a kick-off meeting within the next two weeks, Senator for Building and Housing Christian Gaebler (SPD announced on Monday in the House of Representatives' Committee for Urban Development. The first steps will be to lay out the timetable for the legislative process and the structure of the planned socialization framework law. Several Senate Departments are involved in the process, with the Senate Department for Finance taking the lead.

Expert commission: Socialization legally and constitutionally possible

In a referendum in September 2021, a good 59 percent of voters had voted for the socialization of real estate companies with more than 3,000 apartments in Berlin. After a good year of deliberation, a commission of experts appointed by the Senate came to the conclusion in June that such a socialization - i.e. expropriation in return for compensation - would be legally and constitutionally possible. According to this, the constitution allows for the state of Berlin to regulate the socialization of land in a law.

Law to come into force two years after promulgation

In their coalition agreement from April, the CDU and SPD agreed to draw up a framework law on socialization in the event of such a vote. Among other things, the law will lay out the criteria for the socialization of public utilities and compensation. The law will therefore focus not only on housing, but also on energy and water supply, for example. The idea is that the law will not come into force until two years after it has been promulgated. This is to ensure that the Federal Constitutional Court reviews the law beforehand.