Mapping property relations
Who owns your house? After the Basel districts of Rosental, Klybeck and Kleinhüningen, we are currently investigating the ownership structure in the Matthäus district. It is not only the home district of our association Stadt für Alle, but also the densest district in Basel and even the third densest in Switzerland. That means lots of tenants, lots of buildings and lots of property. Here, too, properties are being speculated with, mass terminated, upgraded and displaced. We dedicate the third poster in our Betongold poster series to Basel’s infamous district and shed light on housing speculation, historical developments, the consequences of gentrification, as well as particularities of the district and its residents.
Small step on a long walk
The Betongold Matthäus poster is the third edition of the Betongold poster series. The series arose from urban movements and is supported by the City for All association. For years, we have been meticulously collecting and analyzing publicly available data on property ownership. This enables us to show who owns residential property, where speculation takes place and how ownership structures have changed historically. This painstaking work is worthwhile because it has enabled us to uncover speculation in the real estate sector for example the Varioserv AG network and its use of rental mass cancellations, which would otherwise remain hidden from the public, i.e. the tenants. Our goal is to investigate all neighborhoods in Basel and present each of them on a poster. This will create an atlas of property ownership in Basel.
Sharing knowledge with everyone
Our database and the Betongold poster series are unique. Our work makes knowledge about our neighborhoods freely accessible. However, such work has its price. Even though we do most of the work on a voluntary basis, we repeatedly reach our financial limits, not least because we must outsource tasks such as printing or graphics. It goes without saying that this also applies to the Matthäus poster, which includes weeks and months of research. However, this and the following posters should continue to be distributed free of charge to all letterboxes in the respective neighborhoods to ensure that as many residents as possible have access to this knowledge. That’s why we need your support!
If you are still not sure whether you want to support us, you are welcome to download the Betongold posters Rosental, Klybeck and Kleinhüningen from our website (in German) and see for yourself how relevant and informative our posters are!
