Deals
Street Protests and Rooftop Beers Herald Record Property Deal
- Vonovia to buy Deutsche Wohnen in $23 billion German accord
- Berlin government gets 20,000 flats as concession to back bid
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The chants from thousands of protesters swarming the square were so deafening that the small entourage of executives, lawyers and bankers huddling in the red-brick office tower on Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz had to close the windows to drown out the noise some 20 floors below.
Unbeknownst to the demonstrators, the two polar opposites of the German rental market were within striking distance on this cloudy Sunday in the heart of the German capital: everyday citizens wielding posters demanding cheap housing for all and the nationalization of giant property companies, and the two largest private landlords plotting an audacious combination that stands to become a political lightning rod a few months before general elections.