Cheap and decent home. It is probably the number one issue in many European countries. Threateningly acute in Germany as well. But it went almost unnoticed in the pre -election period. Perhaps some references to the Left, which partly explains its successful outcome in the elections. The rest of the parties were sufficient in general assumptions.

In a low -rate country, rents have been pulling uphill for years. In the text with the priorities of the next government there is only one brief and rather literary reference.

“If you look at the texts of the talks about the new government, you find that the problem has literally entered the queue. Report of some spins only. Based on the past of the two partners SPD and CDU/ CSU and what I read I don’t expect and much, ”Peter Cox, a spokesman for the Federation of tenants in the Bonn branch, estimates.

Tenants are looking for a helping hand

The 11 total lawyers, concerned with the organization, are running and not enough to help desperate citizens, against irrational increases and excessive demands for sideways. In a city of 320,000 inhabitants, the federation has 25,000 members who need assistance.

The great peculiarity of Germany listens to the name Vonovia. This company owns about 600,000 homes, after completing the acquisition of Deutsch Wohnen’s once competitor. From such an oligopolistic position of power it is reasonable to largely determine prices. Protests and proposals for its obligation to return to the public sector part of the houses are steadily falling into the void.

“Vonovia could be described as the symbol of real estate problems in Germany. In the 1990s and ’00s many small owners as well as municipalities, communities and smaller companies sold their real estate and all the… vonovia of the planet accumulated huge fortune. This company currently has over 600,000 homes in Germany. “

Market confidence

The situation will probably worsen rather than improve, it is the prediction of the COX since political will seems to be extremely limited and the political responsibilities are huge. Especially in the 1990s the dominant approach was dangerously naive. “We don’t need new houses the governments were saying then. The “neoliberal change” was also dominated, which argued that if we need it, the market would be driven by this, “Cox explains.

The Government of the Fotinian traffic light began very ambitiously, but ultimately did not justify the expectations of a great deal of ways and the different ways that the three government parties saw the issue.

In a country where more than 60% of citizens live in rent, complete market liberalization in combination with other factors such as the long period of low interest rates have therefore created a situation that seems impassable or in any case required a huge political courage to be able to reversed. Something that today seems unlikely.

Lack of political will

Cox is categorical: “I am absolutely convinced that for a very large part of the political system the problem has nothing to do with ignorance, but a lack of political will because there are no such majority for interventions and market regulation.”

There will be no such majority in the next House that will be set up in the coming days. Tenants will hope either in a miracle in the market or in individual interventions like that of the Federation of Rentalists, or in some social initiatives that will be able to cause the necessary pressure on the parties and governments of the coming years.