Justice
Berlin Wants to Freeze Rents for 5 Years. Can It Really Do That?
The German capital is about to begin a groundbreaking rental law, but looming legal challenges and new revelations cast doubt on whether it’s possible at all.
Berlin’s planned five-year rent freeze might be popular among locals, but the city may have trouble navigating a legal minefield to protect the law when it takes effect in January.
That much was confirmed Saturday when newspaper Berliner Morgenpost dropped a bombshell by publishing emails from Germany’s interior ministry to the Berlin head of Angela Merkel’s CDU party. In those emails, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer expressed his belief that the rent freeze is illegal, as it would “distort” national laws.