Finanzinvestoren auf dem deutschen Wohnungsmarkt

During the 1990s, the formerly publicly financed and social housing in Germany was sold on a large scale to financial market players whose business models were initially based primarily on the so-called Hartz IV concept. In the meantime, returns are increased by “optimising” the housing stock. This includes constant rent increases, modernisation, administrative automation and the standardisation of operating procedures. The article examines the marketisation and financialisation of the non-profit housing stock after 1990. For this purpose, fundamental changes in the management of the (formerly) non-profit housing companies as well as the opening of the housing field for financial market actors – made possible by financial market liberalisation – are taken into account. This serves to analyse the implementation of new logics of exploitation in large financial market-based housing companies and their relationship to tenants, who have become passive customers.