A referendum due in Berlin next month on expropriating big residential landlords should be a wake-up call. The ballot, prompted by a petition, would activate a never-before-used part of the German constitution that allows the state to take over “land, natural resources and means of production” in exchange for compensation. If it passes, the largest private landlords would be forced to sell their properties to the city government at a “fair” price. This would do little to solve Berliners’ grievances, but it demonstrates the extent of anger about seemingly broken housing markets across the developed world.

A Financial Times series has highlighted the global rise in house prices prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. Despite one of the worst economic slumps in history, the cost of housing has risen in almost every major advanced economy. Accumulated savings, low interest rates and changing preferences — homeowners seeking out more outside space or room to work at home — have helped to propel prices upward. While that may be better than the vicious cycle of mortgage defaults and bank failures that accompanied the 2008 financial crisis, it brings its own problems. 

A particular concern is the ability of the young and low-paid to find good quality housing — whether in Sweden, where disagreements over rent control brought down the government, or Spain, where rental costs led protesters to take to the streets in March. Berliners, who are proud of the city’s countercultural way of life, are justifiably worried that the rise in prices will transform their city. The remorseless logic of economic efficiency, they predict, will transform the German capital from a place that was famously described as “poor but sexy” into yet another urban playground for wealthy yuppies.