1 / Introduction

For more than a decade, we have been experiencing a unique real estate boom in the world's metropolises. The downside is sharply rising rents. Income growth no longer keeps pace. Low- and average-income citizens are threatened with displacement from sought-after inner-city locations. The turning point came when politicians in Europe decided to end the so-called "non-profit housing system”.

It is no longer the social purpose of housing that is the most important aspect of housing policy, but the return on investment that housing generates. Yield is the profession of the rapidly expanding real estate groups. The real estate companies Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen, but also LEG, ADO Properties, Covivio, Akelius, CDC Habitat, TAG Immobilien, Grand City Properties and others, are increasingly dominating the housing market all over Europe. They make record profits that industries can only dream of. The owners are anonymous pension and other investment funds from all over the world which -- in search of profitable investment opportunities – struck "concrete gold" after the 2008 financial crisis. The expectation of a return on investment is changing the urban landscape. It is not only in Paris and London that the city centres are visibly degenerating into “museums” for tourists and rich apartment owners. Neighborhoods that have evolved over time are being transformed into hip, up-market districts with the same expensive art and pub culture everywhere. Where working people stream in from the suburbs in the morning and disappear again at night because they can no longer afford to live there.

SOLD CITY not only makes the dangers for urban culture visible. It also reveals a new social question and an immense danger to democracy.