A lot of money doesn't always help either.
But it is a strange understanding of politics to spend billions of euros without seriously achieving one's own goals.
Housing policy in Berlin can hardly be described in a much different way when the state government is celebrating the purchase of around 15,000 apartments for 2.5 billion euros - and this route is taken even further with the referendum on Sunday on the controversial expropriation of large housing companies.
Such a socialization against compensation is supposed to bring more than 240,000 apartments into public hands, which would be 16 times as extensive as the acquisition for 2.5 billion euros.
That may please those who live in these government apartments.
But if you need a new place to stay, are looking for a cheap apartment or want to expand, that doesn't help much.
Above all, more living space helps against rising real estate prices.
So what could Berlin do?
Identify building areas, build them yourself, hand in real estate and land cheaply and subject to conditions.
The city could better equip and digitize its own administration so that building applications can be processed quickly and houses built faster.
But Berlin prefers to march on its own and expensive path.