It’s fucking nuts that this is happening all over the damn place.

Almost every big city in the world faces a similar problem -

Same thing in Geneva, one of several reasons why I plan on moving out. There's empty apartment buildings all over, they keep them empty on purpose to Jack up the prices. One day it will all blow up in their faces, hopefully soon

The exact same thing is happening here in Montreal, there is a huge housing crisis, nobody can rent or buy anymore, it is becoming more and more like Vancouver

West Europe has been dealing with a housing crisis for at least the last 10 years, I'm happy it's finally getting attention.

50% of most people’s salaries goes to their rent

This is what happened in Toronto, Canada. The government isn't doing much here. It's a good thing Berliners are fighting for their rights, I hope they succeed.

Vice failed in this video for the fact they only spoke with a small landlord in this interview. This is pathetic given the fact that all the pro-tenant advocates were entirely decrying the big foreign companies the entire time. I don't think that couple owned a shareholder company with their one retirement investment.

In Canada some rent has over doubled in less then 7 years. Out of control.

Can't move up in society if you can barely afford a box to live in.

" If i don't steal your house someone else will "... . . Your friendly neighbour Yakob - 2021........

unemployment is on the rise, and increasing housing/rent prices was a reasonable idea? Yes, let's perpetuate the wealth gap.

Singapore solved its housing crisis. They just built a bunch of high-rise flats. Who knew that increasing supply can solve the housing crisis?

People in East Asia: Hold my beer.

Vice needs to look at vienna, they're doing a great job with public housing

Watching vice on a Saturday so I can have a grim outlook on the world.

Also worth noting is that how difficult it is to create new housing in Berlin. Some requests to build have taken 30 years before being granted by the Berlin city bureaucracy. But it's not only about the overly complicated bureaucracy (German bureaucracy is already a sad reality). I assume many involved in that process are also benefiting from raising prices as they themselves are property owners particularly in the higher City echelon. There's also push back from those who are opposed to building high rises as that would also decrease the value of their property. Overall there are very influential forces at play, silently acting behind the scenes. While the vast majority of Germans are renters (consequence of WW2) the situation won't be solved by simply demanding more affordable housing. Unfortunately, that's not how it works.

In the end, greed will cause the extinction of humanity.

As a Berliner I have to say that the best solution to our problem is building more apartments. If the demand is high we need to work with the supply. With the Mietendeckel we would have just fought the symptoms not the problem. Our politics in Berlin are not practical enough. Our senate has the money to build new infrastructure but our tax money goes to bad managed airports or other tax wastes instead. We need to incentivize real estate projects for the middle class and help people with home ownership. I work as a financial consultant and see at first hand that alot of my fellow countrymen have no idea on how to finance a home or how to invest money properly. We german people are usually scared of anything that is „risky“ which is why we are one of the countries with the least home ownership. As a matter of fact there are alot of people who actually could afford an apartment but still decide to pay rent because of ignorance. I love my city as I was born here but I have to admit that our city is neither efficient nor making the right decisions for the future. I really hope for the best.

Similar is happening here in Australia too. Rentals are even becoming impossible to get.

It’s happening in Manchester in the UK. Prices are going up due to a lot of people from london moving here leaving a lot more demand for property from elsewhere.

Greed of human beings has no end

"with a movement like this I don't see how it can fail." well, that shortsightedness will lead to failure, trust.

I would call myself a progressive, but disagree with expropriation. It's just so clear what needs to happen, we need to build more apartments and dwellings in cities. City living is also better for the environment since you don't need a car. We need to get over these onerous regulations that prevent builders from building all but the most luxurious apartments (as that's the only profitable action for them). Why would we expect to put up crazy barriers to building and yet have cheap housing? Or put up rent control and expect others to carry the cost/load of housing people (landlords). It just doesn't make any fucking sense. As much as I side with the moral arguments of affordable housing and maintaining historical buildings, we need to follow the science. I guess that's the problem, we have dogmatic politicians who find it easier to say they can give you something for free rather than looking at the root causes of these issues. Much rather have non-articulate scientists and economists leading the way as even if they disagree, at least they can run tests/experiments to find the best path forward.

Sad to see Berlin became another London where renting has become an extortion and living wages for part of the population isn't enough to cover all the cost of living there.

At least Yacob is not gonna steal Berlin’s homes

We move to cities to get work, but with the price of rent we can never afford to buy, which makes it difficult to ever leave the city. Personally I think it’s a mixture of foreign investors, the very rich and unsustainable immigration levels.

I heard refrigerator boxes are nice this time of year.

The fact that there exists a group in society who believe they are entitled to a large percentage other people's wage, simply because they were able to purchase a commodity necessary for survival is despicable.To all the morons who think that being a landlord is a job, I can safely say in every rental property I have lived in (and I'm going to guess that many people have the same lived experience), Landlords/real estate agents will do almost anything in their power to circumnavigate paying for repairs and maintenance (as such things cut their profits) - the only thing which can reliably bend their will is the Law (ie. heating systems needing to be repaired within a certain time frame etc), and thus greater regulation of the industry needs to exist. We in Berlin tried this already with the Mietendeckel, but as we can see with the repealing of it during a worldwide pandemic (and asking for 6 months+ backpayment during a time when many residents are un- or underemployed), such companies and systems do not operate for the good of society and ultimately should not be in possession of real estate.

It’s called greed. Don’t call it a “housing shortage” there are plenty vacant houses and apartments.

DW show Poor in New York,Vice show house crises in Berlin.What a coincidence?

"It is fair to the companies to take away the housing they bought" hmm, is it fair for people to go homeless because the cost of housing has become too high for the average citizen to afford? 🤔

rent control always ends bad

Berlin has to be one of the strangest cities i've ever visited. It's not even German, it's just a city of a ton of young left wing people from around the world with a very dark history. Great place to be if you're a history buff, but not a place i'd pick to call home.

"Even Progressive Berlin" as if progressive policies ever lead to upward mobility.

It’s shocking to see the disparity in berlin. Look at pilot Patrick and the way he is flaunting his wealth in KZfaq and on Instagram. And there you have people walking on the streets with no money to pay for rent

The problem is capitalism! Not a pandemic that in other non capitalist countries, has already stopped.

0:51 why its even a problem? If you are living in the same city why its wrong to live with your parents? Not only its sustainable but you also get a chance to spend a lot time with your family

who is living day by day right now?

At least we can always build the day labor housing next door, and prices in smaller towns are usually cheaper at least, although I think Vice did a story about the city run housing eventually falling into disrepair with time and lack of oversight and funding, with things falling from the ceiling in New York until private ownership took responsibility for the effects of all their efforts.

meanwhile social housing estates get knocked down and luxery housing is built in there place

They need to build more houses especially skycrappers, utilise the sky wisely, it makes no sense Berlin or Germany as a whole dislike skycrappers, in a relatively tiny country with a very dense population...

I support them in saying that there is a huge need for affordable housing in Berlin. BUT they are demanding the wrong thing. The problem is that there is to much demand for the existing number of aparments as Berlin is rapidly growing. This is simple economics. If you freeze the rents this will solve the problems in the very short term. But in the medium term it will be impossible to find a new apartment because for every free apartment there will be a hundred people waiting (as it is already the case). To solve this the state has to build a LOT of new aparments and offer them to renters for no profit.

I can’t imagine that threats of expropriation will increase investment into new affordable housing developments

Its almost like being progressive doesnt create more houses

Is it fair to take away land from Feudal lords? That is the system of land ownership we are talking. The nobles are just called shareholders now.

This is really interesting, can't wait to see how it all unfolds.

In London 1 bedroom £1600per month and rent is very expensive than paying a mortgage..and very hard for younger people to buying your own home but UK ' a Government to allow the first time buyers to put down 5% that is nice..and good luck every one and staying safely..

I love how these activists have shamelessly given up on capitalism.

Pandemic is making hard to live everywhere...

3:42 “Won’t somebody PLEASE think of the companies?!”

I live in a town that prices their studio apartments, as if we were living by the coast.

Rents go up, average income stays the same Well.. I guess landlords skipped a lot of math classes

Everyone wants to live in the big cities nowadays, thats why the rent is going up. If there would be no demand the rent would be much lower. These people just want to keep their privilege to live in a place where many people want to live without doing much for it and denying others the access to these privileges even if they work a lot for their dream to live there someday. With the strong building regulations in Germany the building of new houses just can't keep up with the huge amount of people that want to live in the city.

remember whenever one weight on the scale is too heavily weighed towards it, violence balances it back out

In India. My appartment would cost 125,000 usd and if I give on rent I would get $350 per month. Bank mortgage would be $1000 per month. Rent is cheaper and super abundant in the town I live. People invest in real estste cause appreciation can be steep. I bought mine in 2017 and it has more than doubled in value

Ireland has the same problem. We need to stand up!

Ultra low interest rates and unorthodox monetary policies, speculators who get mortgage moratorium, immigration policies that have no regard to the working poor, lack of opportunities and upward mobility, houses as commodity, the not in my backyard mentality of those who own houses, archaic/ restrictive land use policies, monopoly by a few builders etc. To sum it up, ENDLESS GREED and CORRUPTION at the HIGHEST LEVELS!

Let's take a moment to thank Vice for always airing both sides of argument by interviewing a variety of parties involved. Hey Washington Post/CNN/FOX/NYTimes/Twitter you can learn from VICE!

That middle finger banner 😂😂

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Buying housing in America is hard too. I stand with how these people feel. My family have been searching for a house but it's almost impossible now

My region has gotten like +1€ per m² this year. Still only about (slightly less then) 225 people per km².

I bet these people would feel different if they were the ones that owned these apartment buildings. Pay your fking rent

Same is happening in Canada. The average home price doubled. Rich get richer as they say...

WOW! "Progressivism" doesn't solve the housing crisis, who would have thought!

Have they tried to, I don't know, build more housing? Many expensive cities have either ran out of room aka Manhattan but many simply have many rules and anti development policies put into place that make housing really expensive.

That lady is dead wrong. The build, build, build lady. I watched it happen in New York. These developers promise subsidized housing and low income units but use legal loopholes to get out of it once approved. They want a 80% slave class like they have here in America. Socialism and Communism are not the same thing. How come the older generation can’t separate the two.

Same issue in Bologna. So damn impossible to live there if you're not a student. All rents go to students cause they can divide the price. How can I afford alone, as a worker, 1300€ rent per month? Fu*king crazy...

It's not happening just in Berlin but also Hamburg and other german cities. The same all over Europe, America (continent), East Asia and probably the rest of the world. What'll happen in the next 10 years? Today's really hard even to rent a room (WG)!

Love it how they interviewed a reactionary landlord

When I couldn't pay my rent anymore, I just googled "places where a minimum wage worker can afford an apartment" and moved to one of them.

Maybe, we should have stopped Mario Draghi's money printing press in time to prevent real estate inflation and higher RENTS. (Now we also have crap spaghetti bonds in our ECB as a reward for NW EU taxpayers dragging out Italy's black workers' insolvency.)

seriously i'm from Pennsylvania witch is like germany 2.0 and you used to be able to get a nice 2br for 400-600 a month now its like 900 to 1300 and there is no reason taxes weren't even raised its because people don't want to pay their own property taxes.

also they failed to mention that these corporations will get compensation, its not like the city is stealing the buildings. they are just taking ownership of the properties because the corporations affected are known to be neglecting the maintainance of their buildings and using awful measures to force people out of their homes. (like covering windows with brick walls) either to transform them into luxury apartments or re-rent it for a higher price...

Housing is healthcare.

Progressivism is the reason there's a shortage. Do you think rent caps encourage new development to meet increased demand?

Need affordable housing built not luxury condos

According to Article 14 and 15 of the Grundgesetz (the german constitution pretty much) it is required that a compensation is given to those being expropriated. It would be more like a forced sale. So it really wouldn't be "completly unfair" for those companies and investors. If such a expropriation would actually happen they couldn't be legally left empty handed.

It cost 1.5m usd to buy an apartment in Macau, it’s damn nuts

What happened?? Is Jacob also taking over house in Berlin?

owning a personal property is fine but the land must be shared to all who need housing.

Same in Seoul

It seems that this is the problem in every big city around the world. So if you are not that lucky to be living in Vienna for example which government of the city decided hundred years ago to started build subsidize housing (long-term effect) how do you solve the problem ? Is there any other option than Expropriation ? I think most of the people are not willing to give that much power to its governemnt (Local government, public administration.. whatever)..

So many properties are owned by one dude who rents them out for money. This happens in so many cities. If you get bad luck and are born into a family in the city with no ownership to inherit, good luck in the future when things only get worse.( that's me btw too).

Rent protection will only protect existing renters. That meant new comers will have a tough time finding apartments even if they can and able to pay more. How is it fair?

Rent control is no solution for a housing supply problem. The country needs to deregulate and lower taxes for home builders.

Imagine thinking rent controls wont lead to shortages

i am proud that so many of these people were so well educated! there's hope for our country yet

Housing Activist: "Of COURSE stealing the real estate from the people who own it is fine. It's morally commendable in fact. They shouldn't even be allowed to buy these properties in the first place."

Too many empty houses, too many homeless while landlords own multiple houses and get richer.

This is happening in all of Canada too

"Even" progressive Berlin? Wouldn't you expect progressive places to be disproportionately more likely to have housing crises?

Ja build, build, build is the solution! if the government can do that then people can chose!

there is a good question tied up in "is it fare" ie. how can you get rid of the market system that provides stability for business and could be helping with investment in the city? Obviously it is not a functioning market, that is why people are in the streets... but the question "is it fare" is such a suck up to the rich idea. Im very disappointed.

Funny enough to hear that the rentcap is unconstitutional, then you hear that it is constitutional to disown companies if it is for the benefit of the people. So ... someone wanna explain to me WHY exactly the rentcap is unconstitutional? Because I don't get it.

I never understand how people are never satisfied. They always want more. If you can afford a great lifestyle already, why do you need more money then? Our landlord lives in Paris, probably never visited Berlin and just informed us about a 115€ tax raise / month. That's the maximum raise they could have done, and of course they did. They own 33 apartments in Berlin already.. isn't that enough money ? xD

If there’s a shortage on affordable housing wouldnt you want to incentivize more development? Seems like threatening expropriation would have the opposite effect

The funniest part is progressive berlin. Since when?

Denver became five times more expensive in ten years time! Hipsters