In other words, they're pulling a publicity stunt here, with the elections conveniently coming up in two weeks. Interfering with the market is uncalled for here

In other words, they're pulling a publicity stunt here, with the elections conveniently coming up in two weeks. Interfering with the market is uncalled for here, even though it might make good appearance in local media, and resonates with the intellectually challenged. The government's job sure is to provide economic conditions such that a market for housing and other basic needs can sustain itself. But what they are rather doing is publicly blaming investors as "evil insects" ("Heuschrecken") in the worst socialist or even Nazi tradition, and making construction expensive by laws such as EnEV (law putting absurd energy efficiency burdens on new buildings) and asymmetric, unreasonable rights in favor of tenants. Really, if there's a housing crisis, it's entirely the fault of the government, by definition.