Berlin's far-left 'Germany's Mamdani' vows to seize 200,000 apartments from corporate landlords despite £17bn cost warning

From the Newshound archive · first published 29 September 2026 · last updated 30 September 2026.

Elif Eralp, the Die Linke leader dubbed 'Germany's Mamdani', has pledged to expropriate more than 200,000 housing units from corporate giants including Deutsche Wohnen and Vonovia after her party secured its best-ever Berlin result. Eralp, who looks set to lead a city coalition for the first time, insists the seizures are needed to restore affordable rents to a city once famous for being cheap to live in. Business leaders have fired back, with one CEO warning the plan will unleash 'huge chaos' in the housing market. The centre-left Social Democrats estimate the programme would cost around €20 billion — roughly £17 billion.

Eralp's party, rooted in the former East German communist movement, made gains in central and western Berlin as well as its traditional eastern strongholds.

She said she aims to end the influence of large corporate landlords, insisting Berlin has 'clearly voted for an affordable city where everyone can live with dignity'.

Berlin was once famously described as 'poor but sexy' by a former mayor — its once-cheap rents are now, according to the article, a thing of the past.