Can Berlin Buy Its Way Out of a Housing Crisis?

Many urban areas worry about how rising rents might force out long-time residents. Few, however, have gone as far to battle displacement as the Berlin borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.

This fast-gentrifying corner of inner Berlin has developed a new way to protect lower-income tenants who face steep rent increases when the buildings they live in are sold. A long-standing—but long unused—regulation gives municipalities the right of first refusal when a building goes up for sale. Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg simply buys the buildings itself, maintaining them as affordable rental homes via a state-owned company. While all Berlin boroughs have this option, only Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg is using it with any frequency. Since last autumn, it has bought up 11 multi-apartment buildings, and now stands on the cusp of buying another.