The Saxon housing industry is still burdened with old debts from the GDR era amounting to a good one billion euros. Of this, 596 million euros are owed to the companies of the Association of the Housing and Real Estate Industry and 435 million to the housing cooperatives, according to a minor question by MP Juliane Nagel (Left Party). The Left Party faction is calling on the federal government and Saxony to launch a debt relief initiative.
Leftists see injustice
"Even 36 years after state unification, injustices remain. These include the old debts of the municipal and cooperative housing companies in the East," said Nagel. They were the result of an "unprecedented act of enrichment by West German banks". "To this day, these legacy debts prevent investment and, in the worst case, housing has to be privatized." Since 2010, the public sector in Bavaria has lost at least 3,000 municipal apartments.
