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Comment by throw4738 | Hacker News Reader

It is unconstitutional because it treats people unequally. New people will not find any rentable properties, and will have to stay in hotels paying 10x more.

It is just another form of xenophobia.

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No, it’s unconstitutional because the Berlin government was passing a law which conflicted with federal law (BGB) which regulates rents in Germany.

Also, the Berlin government was retroactively changing (rent) contracts which normally invalidates any contract as this will always put one contract party at an unprecedented disadvantage.

Berlin with its Red-Red-Green government is hardly a city governed by xenophobia. OTOH, the German left is even more pro-immigration and pro-multiculturalism than an average European leftist party.

This law was probably meant against big housing corporations like Deutsches Wohnen, which bought a lot of the housing stock during previous privatizations, and so have some power on the housing market.

IMHO Berlin (just like Prague) needs to lower bureaucratic hurdles on new construction, but maybe the locals do not want that. There was a chance to turn the former Tempelhof airfield into a new neighbourhood, but a local ballot turned it down.

Tempelhoferfeld is the best park in Berlin. Parks provide value too. They should build up instead of sprawling like the most terrible cities in the world do.

> They should build up instead of sprawling like the most terrible cities in the world do

When I was in Berlin, it seemed to me people in Berlin wanted the impossible combination:

- Continue to afford to live in the city (ergo more housing in the city)

- No sprawl to keep the car traffic down (ergo still more pressure on housing in the city)

- Keeping the green spaces (so no denser housing)

- No higher buildings, or God forbid, high-risers (so no denser housing)

Or better said, you would find people, who are dead set against high-risers and would tolerate building on Tempelhofer Feld, or who are dead set against using spaces within the city (Tempelholfer Feld), but would probably tolerate higher buildings.

It seems now, higher buildings have won: https://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/2...

Yes this is a problem. Berlin is full of people who think it is their duty to be against everything.

That’s why it’s bad but not why it was found unconstitutional

> It is unconstitutional because it treats people unequally.

Wrong, it was declared unconstitutional because only the federal government is allowed to pass such a measure. Our federal construction minister "Voll-Horst" Seehofer is free to regulate rents any time he wants, but unfortunately all he has been doing for the last four years is to deny systemic issues in police all day.

> New people will not find any rentable properties, and will have to stay in hotels paying 10x more.

So what? Without rent control poor people are forced out of the homes they grew up in, this is certainly worse than tech hipsters having to pay for hotels.

> Wrong, it was declared unconstitutional because only the federal government is allowed to pass such a measure.

That's wrong. States may do it, but only if the federal level hasn't acted in that field (here: social protection for renters)

I don't follow you. Why limiting the prices for renting, will be less rentable properties, the point of this is to make rentable properties have a price where people can rent a property to live.

That is a horrible argument, because the same can be said for land ownership. Isn't it unfair that when I move somewhere, I discover that all the land in that area is already owned by someone else. Why should some old history entitle someone to exclusive ownership of any piece of land, and the ability to charge arbitrary rents for it?

The fact of the matter is, first movers have all sorts of unfair advantages over latecomers, many of them from luck, or from circumstances of birth - and I doubt you are seeking to overturn all of them.

No, this system is more like feudalism or serfdom. When I move in, you expect me to work on your land, so protected class does not have to work.

Young people and foreigners have to pay large taxes and rents, to subside older people.

Young people become old people, serfs don't become feudal lords.

Foreigners can naturalize (and most of them have the freedom to weigh the costs of paying into systems they don't benefit from, and consider whether or not immigrating is worth it.)

" I move somewhere, I discover that all the land in that area is already owned by someone else. "

Why do you think that for a moment you have a right to 'go over there' and posses land currently owned by people over there?

Because of the parent poster's thesis that it's unfair that the first people to move somewhere get advantages.

I am just taking that axiom to it's logical, but absurd conclusion, to argue that the axiom itself is absurd.

The Berlin rent cap is different from rent caps elsewhere, say SF. The Berlin rent cap includes new contracts, too.

Not if you stay months in hotel or Airbnb. And that is only available option.

AirBnB is part of the problem btw. There are at least 4 fulltime AirBnB flats on my building floor (that I'm aware of). I'm assuming it's AirBnB because there's a very high "fluctuation" of new people in those flats (few days to 2 or 3 weeks). Imagine if all those AirBnBs would be available for longterm renting ;)

It is like saying refugees are part of the problem, because they are taking flats from the market. People who rent Airbnb also have a right to be in Berlin.

And this policy is pushing more flats from normal market into airbnbs.

Dude, the people booking those AirBnBs are not refugees but well-paid tech-bros and party tourists. Gimme a break.

Since 2014 you need to have an official permission to use a flat for AirBnb. If you suspect these are illegally rented out, you can report them to the Berlin government here:

https://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/wohnen/zweckentfremdu...

Well, it's not like new people will find affordable housing now...

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