For all of its physically attractive qualities, gentrification of inner cities is becoming a barrier to affordable housing world-wide. In North America, government action is limited by ‘hands off our private enterprise’ attitudes. In Europe, however, with its democratic socialist governments, hands-on government interaction continues to be a reasonable approach to solving affordable housing problems.
Germany has very ambitious affordable housing goals. The borough of Friedrichshain–Kreuzberg in the Berlin metropolitan area has been employing a little-used authority that it has possessed for a long time to purchase and operate rental housing in order to preserve affordable stock. The CITYLAB article: Can Berlin Buy Its Way Out of a Housing Crisis? looks at the potential of the right of first refusal alongside other measures to increase the supply of affordable housing.
