Professionelle Wohnungsunternehmen und soziales Engagement

Things are constantly changing on the housing markets in Germany. So far it has been a market with a strong public housing sector with its social housing politics. In the last few years, however, many flats have been bought by international investors, mostly private-equity-fonds. On the Berlin housing market 30 percent of all houses in public property were sold, most of them en bloc to these international investors. This shows that the combination of flat providers has changed remarkably. The rise of new investors on German housing markets leads to the question, what transfigurations have and will continue to occur. Will these new investors act like public owners using their own social housing politics? Will they be strong partners for urban development? And will they consider residents with varied social backgrounds for stable housing areas? This work compares forms of social engagement of public housing owners with international investors and with residential building co-operatives.