The law requires compensation for the taking and socialization of land. The German constitution requires compensation, as does international law. This legal obligation to compensate has been widely interpreted as an obligation to pay "market value". But what is the market value of land? How can it be determined? And should a project that seeks to convert land and real estate held as assets by capital corporations into commons be subject to the same standards of compensation that apply when a plot of farmland is taken for the construction of a highway?

We begin by outlining the problem of compensation for socialization as it appears in the context of German constitutional law. We then explore alternatives to the prevailing methods of determining "market value". We are interested in how value and valuation, as expressions of social relations, contribute to the socialization of land. And further, how changes in the conceptualization of value and methods of valuation can contribute to reclaiming land (and housing) as commons.