Berlin’s Socialisation Act Delayed

Berlin’s centre-right CDU and centre-left SPD coalition government has delayed the introduction of the Vergesellschaftungsrahmengesetz (Framework Socialisation Act) announced in the two parties’ 2023 coalition agreement. The latest delay was indirectly confirmed by the city’s fiscal authorities in response to a written enquiry from the Green Party’s councillor Katrin Schmidberger in March. The legal assessment for the proposed legislation, initially promised in September 2023, has yet to be commissioned. The final text of the call for tenders was reportedly still being finalised and would be published “in late April, early May”. According to the taz newspaper, the tender was finally published on April 17, 2025. The Senate says it expects the final draft bill “in the last year of the current legislative period”, before the next elections for Berlin’s House of Representatives in autumn 2026. The Framework Socialisation Act is the Senate’s response to the “Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen” initiative, which successfully campaigned for a referendum in support of the expropriation of major real estate companies in 2021. Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) has adopted an ambivalent position towards the initiative. While he sees the draft law as an opportunity to finally establish legal clarity, he personally rejects expropriations and socialisations, as they would do nothing to create a single new apartment. The proposed Framework Socialisation Act would impact over 240,000 rental apartments across Berlin owned by approximately a dozen real estate companies.