Since a court ruling, more houses have been sold on the open market, with local authorities usually having their hands tied. The consequences in Munich are serious, as new figures show.
City politicians feared it, and now the figures have proven it: the judicial restriction of municipalities’ right of first refusal for residential buildings in locations worthy of protection has massive effects on the protection of tenants. Many owners have taken advantage of the new legal situation and sold their properties on the open market. Now the people who live there are threatened with renovations and higher rents. In 2022, the municipal department counted 51 real estate transactions with 726 apartments for which the city could no longer assert a right of first refusal in order to permanently withdraw them from the private market.