[Column] The Tragic K-Real Estate Politics Seen from Berlin

Photo by Asia Economy

When I visited Berlin, where even the prime minister rents and lives peacefully, I wondered if I could gain even a small idea about the stifling Korean housing market. Among the things I saw and heard over several days, almost nothing matched my expectations. Berlin was also struggling with skyrocketing housing prices over the past few years. Both Germany and Korea had similarly failed significantly in housing policy. However, aside from this point, everything else was different.

I met a Berlin city council member who has been focusing on housing policy for over ten years. He is Andreas Otto from the Green Party, which forms the coalition government of the Berlin state. He said, "It is natural for city centers to be complex and densely populated. Do you want a countryside house with a large yard at a reasonable price in the city center? Then you should move to the suburbs."

In Berlin, there is a group of buildings called 'Hackescher H?fe,' where residential and commercial functions are exquisitely mixed. Mr. David Kastner is the head of the real estate asset management company that manages these buildings. He is a thorough market economist who insists on completely excluding public interference and guaranteeing autonomy to companies. He said, "However, if you are a real estate company, you must pursue sustainability. Real estate is a business where people come and go. If you only pursue short-term maximum profits, you are bound to fail."

I met two people with completely opposite political spectrums in succession, but surprisingly, they had something in common. The left-leaning council member who said that increasing floor area ratio in the city center is inevitable, and the right-leaning entrepreneur who said that chasing only immediate profits leads to ruin. The sentence would not be awkward even if the subjects were swapped. Instead of rejecting the thoughts and language that the other might have, they left them as common ground. It seemed they were creating room for dialogue to start anytime based on minimal common denominators. It was the moment I realized why coalition politics is possible in Germany and why it is so difficult in Korea.

In Korea, people are busy demonizing the other side. The ruling party blames all real estate problems on the previous government. The opposition party acts as if all current problems started on May 21 of this year (the current government's inauguration date). Landlords mock tenants as 'sudden poor,' and tenants curse, "May all speculators fail." There is no space to intervene between them. What you do becomes right or wrong depending on who does it. What I do becomes right or wrong depending on who does it. What the Korean real estate market urgently needs may not be German housing policy but the German spirit of dialogue and compromise.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.