In Berlin, a Grass-Roots Fight Against Gentrification as Rents Soar -<br />By CHARLY WILDERMARCH 18, 2017<br />BERLIN — When visitors want to experience this city’s much celebrated “alternative” culture, they often make their way to Heinrichplatz, a graffiti-covered square in the Kreuzberg neighborhood<br />that for decades has been a hub for independent arts, underground night life and radical politics.<br />This gap seems to be widening, the report says, “which generally raises concern for a real estate bubble.”<br />Johannes Novy, a prominent German urbanist, said Berlin’s affordability, mixed social makeup<br />and spirit of experimentation “are what made it attractive to begin with.” The recent regulation and grass-roots organizing are positive steps, he said, “but many of these measures have come far too late, and at this point it’s very difficult to stem the tide.”<br />What is at stake in the current debate, many say, is the very heart of the city.<br />Recent figures released by the German Property Federation show<br />that purchase prices on residential real estate in Berlin grew by 94 percent from 2010 to 2016, while rents increased by only 40 percent.<br />“They are the reason Kreuzberg is like it is.”<br />Late last year, the tenant collective learned that its landlord, Taekker, a Danish development firm, intended<br />to sell the building to private investors who planned a conversion to luxury loft apartments.
