On 27 November, the FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG discussed a poll conducted by the renowned Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research. I hold the Institute in the highest esteem, not least because I was personally acquainted with its founder, Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, and learned a lot from her. A key issue on which Allensbach polls have focused, and continue to focus, is the appreciation of liberty among Germans. Sad to say, there has been a manifest trend for some years now to champion equality over liberty.

If the whitepaper presented by the incoming coalition government is implemented as planned, it will practically wipe out any inflation-hedging option for property owners in the conurbations (with real or imagined housing shortages) where the regime is to apply.

To get straight to the point: Indirect real estate investments in Germany are defined by quite a variety of different vehicles, and this is not about to change. Unlike in other countries, where publicly listed companies (including REITs) dominate the market for indirect real estate investments, closed-end and open-ended real estate funds exist side by side with institutional real estate […]

Germany is undergoing a shift to the left because the next Bundestag will seat only parties that pursue a more or less Social Democrat policy. The CDU bloc will enter into a coalition either with the SPD or with the Greens. This will further weaken the free-market liberal wing of the Christian Democrats, which lacks clout anyway. Add to this that the upper house, the Bundesrat, is also dominated by three left-leaning parties. As it is, they will have a majority in either house.

Unlike most Germans, I am not a great fan of President Obama. But if he actually goes ahead with the announced plan to wind up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it would be a feat of epic proportions that deserves nothing but respect.

For some years now, several major German portfolio holders of residential real estate have been listed on the stock market - including companies like Deutsche Wohnen and TAG, as well as more recently Gagfah, GSW, LEG NRW, and Deutsche Annington.

The pace of rental growth is slowing because construction has picked up. That is the way a market economy works.

However, I expect that the tax orientation, especially in the area of residential real estate... will come back in a few years' time, possibly even on a greater scale... But if the legislature curbs the market economy's play of supply and demand through overregulation, or indeed deactivates it in major areas, that is, if rents are kept artificially low and construction is made costlier, yields will drop below acceptable levels and will no longer be able to compete with alternative investment options.

It is a laudable thing for the IW Economic Institute in Cologne to undertake a comparison of the elections manifestos of Christian Democrats, Liberals, Social Democrats and Greens in regard to real estate issues on behalf of the ZIA German Property Federation.

I could not agree more with the overall tenor of the survey. The demands raised by Social Democrats and Greens imply a hefty burden for landlords as well as for the real estate industry in general, and will exacerbate housing shortage issues rather than alleviating them.

In truth, though, the portents are even worse than the survey suggests. It seems that the latest statements by Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leading Christian Democrats on the subject of "rent control" were not added to the survey until the very last moment. The survey summarises the core statement by the Christian Democrats as follows: "Open for rent pricing of new leases" (which probably refers to the rent control issue).

The next coalition government, no matter what the constellation (excepting the now unlikely continuation of the incumbent coalition of Christian Democrats and Liberals), will be sure to limit rent increase options in some way, including for new leases.