fear of 87 families from the neukölln housing estates New home (Buckow), and At Bird Park (Rudow), the displacement from their homes. Their homes are on municipal land, and are leased for decades about the hereditary building right to the residents. The fear, however, that you could be deprived in the literal sense of the ground under the feet. Because the land to be leased on the same terms, which correspond to the current market conditions – or by the residents be directly purchased. Both is for many families not financially affordable.
“people moved here in the consciousness, must for ever remain,” says the 69-year-old Dieter Herrmann. For 25 years, he lives with his family in the settlement of a New home.
The two settlements were in the 50s with a social concept. The catchment condition: A certificate of eligibility, and at least two children. The houses were built as a training project for apprentices and were often little more than barracks. The settlers leased the land from the city and were for the Rest.
settlements are almost self-sufficient
“This is almost self-sufficient,” says Herrmann. When lines are newly installed, the street being renovated or the house had to be connected to the sewer system, paid by the settlers. Many have invested, such as the family Herrmann, the whole of their savings into the homes and took out additional loans. Herrmann renovated the house and built it. “Here is a lot of work and heart blood in addition to a lot of money, and it’s scary in there,” he says. If he would have been stressed to non-verbally that the lease would contracts “renewed”, he would have never done that, he says.
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Many local residents consider their homes as their life’s work. Some of them live since the infancy of the settlement, have inherited the houses from their parents. The current lease contracts run until 2031 (New home) or 2033 (At bird’s grove).
in 2006, the district of Neukölln, came up to the settlers to buy If you could imagine their plots of land. About half of the settlers signalled interest, knew the framework, however. “A lot of thought, we get the plots for an Appel and an Egg”, says Herrmann. The actual purchase prices were first announced three years later – and were a shock for many.
In the coming years, half of the settlers bought just the land. Many, however, would have only acted out of panic, says stakeholders Martin Herrmann – you would have feared to lose the plot. New lease contracts were not in the conversation. The old contracts do not provide for a purchase option.
purchase prices increased massively
After a sudden stop of sales in 2013, the purchase prices rose massively: After a change in the law, they have been adjusted to the actual ground values. In 2017, the district offered the settlers a lease extension, but also coupled values of the soil.
a Total of 87 families can afford neither the increased lease fees, the prices for the purchase of the land. Although the current lease agreements are not in danger – but the expiry of the settlers fear the expropriation of their land. The district office refers to the fact that it had in the dot not have their own sovereignty. The power lies with the Senate and the house of representatives.
The Senate administration for finances, in turn, explains that due to the country’s financial regulations, a procurement of the land at below market value allowed. “The state of Berlin no longer sold Leaseholds in principle, even to the leasehold borrowers,” says spokeswoman Eva Henkel. In the case of the two settlements of “New home” and “bird grove,” started the sale, however, already in 2008, was then suspended and is now resumed. This was in the Land of Berlin of an exceptional nature, says Henkel.
district mayor shows understanding
Gaby Gottwald, who sits for the left party in the Committee for city development in the house of representatives, sees the case a little differently. In the Senate administration for Housing the “Kuddelmuddel had not been” so well-known, she told the daily mirror. The operations would be against the current policy of the red-red-green Senate failed, the wool prevent the privatization of state-owned land. “There’s an old process is running, apparently, and no one has noticed it,” she says.
Currently, your information was according to the investigation of the territory of new “clusters” – i.e. the land on their present and future use perspective. At the neukölln settlements, this didn’t happen, obviously, yet – or not been neatly made, Gottwald. Currently Sebastian Scheel, Secretary of state for urban development and Housing to care, personally, to organize the Chaos. The authority for urban development and the switchover to the Senate administration for Finance and the BIM to stop the privatisation of the land and to extend the leases in a socially responsible manner.
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the district mayor Martin Hikel (SPD) with understanding: “I understand that some of the settlers cannot afford the current prices for the land. On the one hand, the same law applies, of course, for all in the city, according to the state of Berlin the ground to the actual market value must sell. On the other hand, no one who has built up the settlements over 50 years ago, in a high age of there is displaced.“ And promises: “Therefore, I want to find a solution with the parties Concerned and wants to meet me in the spring with them.”
