The housing has become one of the main axes of the electoral campaign in Berlin. The increase in rents and the lack of affordable housing occupy a central place in the debate and have positioned Die Linke among the parties that propose greater public intervention in the market.
The party's program proposes to act on different fronts: regulate rents, increase the stock of public housing, and advance towards vergesellschaftung, the German formula for the socialization of large real estate companies.
A new limit on public rents
One of the measures that Die Linke proposes to implement from the regional government is a Mietendeckel for publicly owned housing.
The party proposes to freeze for one year the rents of the housing owned by the state-owned real estate companies and subsequently limit their increases to 1% per year. Berlin has around 380,000 homes belonging to its public companies.
This measure would directly affect the public stock and would not, by itself, establish a maximum price for all private rents in Berlin.
More public housing and limits for large landlords
Die Linke also proposes to increase public intervention in the market. Among its measures is a "Sicher-Wohnen-Gesetz", a law that would require landlords with at least 50 homes to allocate an increasing proportion of their apartments to low- and middle-income individuals who meet the requirements to access protected housing.
The party estimates that its proposal would allow for the addition of 17,000 additional homes at affordable prices each year. It also proposes to strengthen control mechanisms over the market and create a specific regional authority to ensure compliance with tenant protection regulations.
The socialization of large real estate companies
The proposal that generates the most debate is the socialization of large landlords. Die Linke advocates for recovering the mandate of the referendum held in Berlin in 2021, when 59.1% of voters supported the initiative for large real estate companies to come under a formula of public or collective ownership. That referendum was consultative and did not, by itself, result in the expropriation of housing.
The formation now holds that this result must be translated into a law and advocates for the incorporation into the public sector of large residential portfolios from companies like Vonovia or Deutsche Wohnen. Its own program links this measure with the objective of maintaining affordable rents in the long term.
Therefore, it is not that Berlin is going to automatically expropriate housing if Die Linke enters the Government. The implementation of this proposal would require developing the corresponding legal framework and resolving legal, financial, and administrative issues.
What measures could a new Government apply directly?
Not all proposals have the same institutional trajectory.
The regional Government can act on public housing companies, the public stock, subsidies, construction, and certain mechanisms for tenant protection. It can also promote new laws within the competencies of the federal state.
In contrast, measures that generally affect private contracts are conditioned by German federal legislation and by the limits established by the courts. The so-called Mietpreisbremse, which limits initial rents in certain pressured areas, remains in force within the federal framework; in February 2026, the German Constitutional Court rejected a challenge against its regulation.
Housing, at the center of the elections
The debate on rents occurs in a city where the majority of the population lives in rental housing and where access to affordable housing has become one of the main problems of the campaign. Reuters points to housing as one of the central issues of this election and places Die Linke's proposals on rent control, social housing, and regulation of large landlords among its main measures.
The electoral outcome will determine which parties can form a Government and, therefore, which proposals can be incorporated into the agenda of the next Executive. In the case of Die Linke, its measures on public rents could be promoted from the regional Administration, while the socialization of large companies would require a specific process to turn the political mandate of 2021 into an effective measure.