The purchase of a luxury villa in the first half of the Corona pandemic by the Minister of Health of all people made many headlines in 2020. And it was obviously a wrong decision, as ex-Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) now admits. After less than three years, Spahn and his husband have now separated from their shared villa in Berlin’s posh Dahlem district. “Yes, we sold the house,” said the 42-year-old politician, according to a report by “t-online.” The couple plans to move out of the villa in the middle of the year. A new home should be found by then.
Spahn, who is Vice-Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, now speaks of mistakes in terms of the timing and handling of the property purchase. “The purchase back then was the wrong time, in the middle of the pandemic.” The hoped-for retreat had become a source of unrest, “also due to our own mistakes in dealing with it”. To this day, demonstrators and onlookers are standing in front of the house: “Anonymous mail comes regularly, just recently a package with faeces,” said Spahn. He added: “Our happiness doesn’t depend on a house. That’s why we decided to go for a clean cut.”
Spahn’s real estate, purchase prices, financing and his relationship with the banks that gave loans were publicly discussed during the corona pandemic.
After the pandemic, he then practiced self-criticism in his book “We will have to forgive each other a lot” in 2022. “Politically unwise, insensitive” was the point in time for the purchase of the house, “which later made the headlines as a “villa” because of the comparatively high value of the property”. Despite everything, he does not regret the purchase.
Report: Loss of around 200,000 euros
Now it turns out the couple did not make a profit from the villa and the recent sale, but a loss of around 200,000 euros. Citing available documents, “t-online” reports that the villa was sold for 5.3 million euros. This contrasted with total expenditures of 5.5 million euros at the time, most of which were financed by loans.
According to information from the German Press Agency, the 5.5 million includes the purchase price, the extensive renovation and the usual additional costs for the notary, the land register entry, the real estate transfer tax and the broker.
Spahn now said “t-online” about the couple’s considerations: “Financially we had stretched ourselves. We are no different than many others who are fulfilling the dream of their own four walls. Inflation is doing the rest.”
Since the change of government in 2021, Spahn has earned less as a member of the Bundestag than as a minister.
