Great turmoil in the German real estate market, shaken a few days ago by the outcome of the referendum for the confiscation of apartments from the real estate giants who own thousands of buildings, especially in Berlin, many of which are vacant. The consultation, promoted by the committee Deutsche Wohnen & Co enteignen and which has seen the “Yes” prevail, therefore asks that the State expropriate the vacant houses owned by the companies who own more than 3 properties, indemnifying them with a fee based on the market value. The housing emergency was also at the center of the last electoral campaign, which not surprisingly saw an affirmation by the Social Democrats: in Berlin, for example, most of the inhabitants live in rented apartments and a few large companies own hundreds of thousands of apartments, which has meant that rental costs have risen considerably in the city, despite the fact that many apartments are vacant.
In this context, the news of an important operation arrived: the big groups relaunch their ambitions to the point that the first German group, Deutsche Annington Immobilien Gruppe, launched a takeover bid on the second, German living, to create a real estate giant with 570.000 apartments across Germany. This is the third bid attempt by Vonovia, after the last one failed during the summer: the stakes are not only financial, given that the total value of the new giant's real estate assets will be worth around 80 billion euros , but also political and strategic, at a time when large property is challenged in favor of social housing. 85% of Vonovia's real estate portfolio (which also has shareholdings in Austria, France and Sweden) is concentrated in around fifteen large German cities and the transaction involves the acquisition of 51% of the shares of Deutsche Wohnen, a former Deutsche Bank group. The new group will cannibalize the German market (the second player, LEG Immobilien, will be far behind with only 144.000 homes), effectively creating the first player at European level.
