ABSTRACT
The system of pseudo-house-ownership largely explains the short tenure of house properties in Berlin and towns offering equally favourable opportunities for unsound speculation. The town council has explained its housing policy as follows :—“It is the purpose of the town to set a beneficent example in the domain of house-building and to attempt as far as possible to equalise the fluctuations in supply. In all the States the first public experiments in house-building have invariably been undertaken in the interest of municipal work-people. Freiburg’s house-building enterprise dates from 1862. It began by building houses to sell at cost price, but when it was found that the owners were selling out at a profit it ceased to part with its houses and has since let them on a commercial basis to working-people, small officials, and others. The policy of municipal house-building has many strong opponents in local government circles.
