3 ms·

Sure it can. Many, many government companies compete in the open market in my Country. I'm sure it's the same in Germany.

• kuschku 9y ago
  It's not in Germany. And the government companies that did have been sued all the time, and lost every time. My city currently has the issue that we need new low-income and student housing, the private companies refuse to built it (not profitable enough), but say they'd immediately sue if the city would build on its own. The resulting housing crisis has driven up rent for 2 decades now, but we can't do anything. It looks like they're slowly coming to an agreement now, with the city making a deal that they can build such housing, in small amounts that are unlikely to influence the market prices, if it's built in places where no private developer wants to build.