The real estate group Deutsche Wohnen has sold more than 2000 apartments in Berlin. The units go to the state-owned real estate company Degewo.
The 2175 housing and commercial units were sold at an average selling price of 2276 euros per square meter, said the Berlin housing company. Almost 80 percent of them are subsidized housing. Mathematically, this results in a sales price of 358 million euros.
The apartments are located in the districts Lichterfelde, Spandau and Schöneberg. They were built between 1975 and 1993 and once belonged to the state-owned company GSW. Later they had been privatized. Now they are coming back to municipal property in order to secure long-term socially acceptable rents.
Capital loses its appeal
With about 110,000 apartments in Berlin, Deutsche Wohnen is the largest private landlord in the capital. Critics accuse the group of excessive rents. CEO Michael Zahn has always rejected. The offered apartments are affordable, he said.
The Berlin Senate wants to limit the sharp increase in housing costs in the capital with a rental cover. According to the draft submitted in August, rents are to be frozen for five years. The capital therefore loses its appeal for Deutsche Wohnen.
The Group has therefore recently expanded in other federal states and put in Berlin rehabilitation and new construction investments of around one billion euros to the test.
It was only at the end of September that the municipal company Gewobag announced that it would take over 6000 apartments from the real estate company AdoProperties in Spandau and Reinickendorf.