Fight for living space in Pontresina: “Development is worrying”

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Miss Saratz, what claim do you have against Unterländer?

Nora Saratz: Absolutely nothing, I’m half Zurich myself. Second home residents are incredibly important to us. These people feel very emotionally attached to our village.

Second countries?

This word does not officially exist, but we use it consciously. We would like to thank our second house residents for their interest. But now we are faced with a situation where it is incredibly difficult for local people to live here. The development is taking a worrying direction.

What does it mean to worry? Can you measure this?

Take the number of children for example: from 2010 to 2022, 269 children were born here. 220 of them still live in Pontresina today. We have more people walking away than people coming in. The only exception is Swiss people over the age of 50. And this process is accelerating. Therefore, we present the referral tax for discussion; We must take action.

Silvaplana already had the tax idea. The project failed.

But that was before his second home attempt. The second home owners filed a tax lawsuit in federal court to no avail. But in 2016, they threatened a boycott, forcing local businesses to block the law at a community meeting. However, today the housing situation is much more dramatic than before the second home initiative.

The locals bear some degree of blame. They are the ones who fuel the oppression by selling every inherited barn goat to foreigners at the highest price.

This was certainly the case in the past. However, we see that local people who sold their flats as second homes in Pontresina have changed hands very little at the moment. Because for many people this means: If I sell my flat, I will have to leave the valley.

So, has the tourism community followed the wrong housing policy in recent years?

I don’t intend to judge this. I have been running the local authority for three years and over the last two years we have noticed more housing being converted at an accelerating pace. If we continue the current policy it will be bad social policy. That’s why we need to discuss the measures.

Couldn’t communities simply support social housing? The money would be there.

The Municipality of Pontresina does not yet have its own construction land and therefore has not been able to become active as a developer. We established a foundation in Pontresina to promote affordable housing. There are various possible measures. Starting tomorrow, we will be presenting some of these for discussion as part of the engagement process.

What ideas in particular?

A general increase in property taxes or allocating a portion of property gains and property transfer taxes to this fund for primary residence construction may also be considered. But these are all ways to fund our foundation. But we want something different with the referral tax.

Well?

We are pursuing clear directional goals and these are: more living space and warmer beds for local people. Living space analysis has shown us that in recent years more and more flats have been converted into second residences, and second homes are used less and less as holiday homes. The proportion of cold beds is increasing and locals are finding it increasingly difficult to find apartments. Now, to achieve a control goal you have to treat people unequally so that their behavior changes. In this case, using an apartment as a second home should become less attractive. It’s understandable that many people see this as unfair.

Hand in hand: Do you really believe that if the owner of a million-dollar property has to pay a few thousand francs more a year, this will have a guiding effect?

Starting tomorrow, we will prepare a survey on all possible measures to facilitate a discussion. Your question also belongs there. If it does not have a guiding effect, this measure will at least provide financial resources to achieve its purpose. It is essential for us to raise awareness about the problem and issue and initiate discussion.

You did it.

Source : Blick