MUNICH - Housing is to be removed from Germany's draft legislation for real estate investment trusts (REITs), German junior finance minister Axel Nawrath announced on Monday. In removing residential REITs from the draft legislation, the finance minister Peer Steinbrueck is bowing to massive resistance within his Social Democrats (SPD) party. Construction minister Wolfgang Tiefensee (also SPD) informed Steinbrueck in a letter last week that he would not be able to approve the draft in its current form.
MUNICH - Housing is to be removed from Germany's draft legislation for real estate investment trusts (REITs), German junior finance minister Axel Nawrath announced on Monday. In removing residential REITs from the draft legislation, the finance minister Peer Steinbrueck is bowing to massive resistance within his Social Democrats (SPD) party. Construction minister Wolfgang Tiefensee (also SPD) informed Steinbrueck in a letter last week that he would not be able to approve the draft in its current form.
The Christian Democrats (CDU), the other party in Germany's grand coalition government, called on Steinbrueck to stand firm and to present the draft in its original form to the cabinet. If residential REITs are not included in the law, then German housing would simply end up in the hands of trusts based in other EU countries, CDU politician Otto Bernhardt said.
The German cabinet is to debate the legislation on November 2, and the law is expected to come into effect on January 1 2007.
