Ghost settlements are now in high demand

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Children’s bikes are in front of the entrance. All the parking lots are full. Even at first glance it is clear: the Neugrüen housing estate in Mellingen AG has returned to life. The bike racks in the settlement of Dreilinden in Langenthal BE are also full. Children’s voices echo among the formerly silent concrete blocks.

This was not always the case. Just a few years ago, Blick reported on the Neugrüen ghost settlement. At the end of 2016, almost three years after construction was completed, almost a third of the 147 rental apartments and homes on the project were vacant. In the Dreilinden project in Langenthal, only 9 out of 38 apartments were rented in 2017 – more than a year after they were completed.

Mellingen and Langenthal are among Swiss municipalities with above-average vacancy rates. In 2019, 7.13 percent of all apartments in Mellingen were vacant. The Swiss average at the time was 1.66%. In 2022, vacancies in Mellingen fell to 2.74 percent.

Ghost settlements are history

This is reflected in the old Neugrüen ghost settlement. Apartments are full. Ernst Brunner (83) was moved soon after the superstructure was completed. “We had a large selection of apartments at the time and we chose the ground floor back house,” he tells Blick. Brunner is happy here. “We lived in the city of Zurich for 30 years, but I like it here even more because it’s better to live with a dog,” he says. It’s a quiet place. “The nursery is loudest when you’re out for a walk, but that’s pretty cool,” Brunner says. Many families have also moved here, and the playground is usually full.

Leon Baldinger, 26, runs a residential mountain bike shop. He is glad that life has returned to Neugrüen. He has been renting a commercial space here since September 2020. “Even then it was very well rented – but I think almost all apartments are occupied now,” says Baldinger. The location is ideal as it is easily accessible. “We have customers from all over Zug, Zurich, Lucerne, Basel and Aargau.”

New buildings attracted people

Just a few years ago, new sites were being built one after another in Staufen AG. The vacancy rate increased fivefold between 2012 and 2017 to 3.7 percent. From 2015 to 2017, 313 building permits were issued here. The main reason for this was that it was located in the Esterli-Flöösch district.

Blick was in the municipality of Aargau when the new buildings were completed at the end of 2017 and was nearly empty for months. Looking at the Pfalzpark development, one could see an abandoned settlement: only 13 of the 51 apartments in the ghost settlement were rented. The images Blick posted at the time resembled visualizations of the construction project: dark windows with an open space behind them. Unmanned. No plants on the window sills or even furniture on the balconies. Nothing to show residents.

Everything looks different today. The old ghost town has come back to life. Blick TV meets a local resident who lives with his family in a 5.5-room apartment on the estate. “We really like living here,” says the woman, who asked not to be named. The area is quiet and great for kids. “You can play on the playground here, which I can always see from the apartment,” says Anne. He doesn’t want to leave here anymore. The vacancy rate at Staufen has now dropped to 1.78 percent.

Today the settlements are full

Property management Wincasa confirmed to Blick that all apartments in Neugrüen in Mellingen are currently occupied. “There are currently no vacant flats in development,” said Wincasa spokesperson Janos Kick. Owners of the Pfalzpark settlement do not want to comment on the request. However, looking at the real estate portals, it is seen that there are currently no rental properties announced at this address.

If the institutional investors who built apartments outside the cities a few years ago were to be laughed at, it should be understood today that the calculus is right for them. Housing shortages in cities are driving people to the countryside. Even in ghost towns, space is shrinking. There is still no shortage of housing in Aargau. But even ancient ghostly settlements are well documented today.

Source : Blick