The housing giants Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen, which are about to merge, are selling real estate in Berlin to the public sector for 2.46 billion euros.
The negotiations have been concluded, said Finance Senator Matthias Kollatz on Friday.
The public housing companies Degewo, Howoge and Berlinovo bought a total of around 14,750 apartments.
There are also around 450 commercial units.
The industry leader Vonovia is about to take over its smaller competitor and is offering its shareholders EUR 53 per share. The two real estate giants together own around 550,000 apartments worth more than 80 billion euros, most of them in Germany. The main focus of Deutsche Wohnen is in Berlin, but there the group also experienced severe political headwinds.
A referendum is to be held in the capital on a possible socialization of the housing stocks of large real estate groups. The background to this is the sharp rise in rents in recent years. Vonovia boss Rolf Buch and Deutsche Wohnen boss Michael Zahn want to take countermeasures - they are offering the public sector around 20,000 of the 150,000 or so units in Berlin for sale. There is now an agreement for over 14,000 of these apartments. Rent increases in Berlin are also to be capped by the corporations over the next five years.