“Housing shortages lead to social tensions”

Construction activities are declining drastically. Therefore, Switzerland is threatened by a major housing shortage in the next few years. Politics is compression. However, according to Credit Suisse, the necessary conditions for this have not yet been formed. Quick action is needed now.

Because: Due to immigration and the trend towards smaller apartments, Switzerland is growing by around 55,000 households each year. “We can already see that there are very few flats to be built,” says Fredy Hasenmaile, 55, real estate specialist at CS. The bank expects the vacancy rate to drop below 1 percent as early as 2024.

Therefore, Switzerland is heading towards a housing shortage of the kind that last prevailed in the late 1980s. There is already a shortage of housing in the centers. Not in the country yet. But even there it is only a matter of time.

resentment among the population

The result of scarcity: rising rents. Housing is getting harder to find. And this causes resentment among the people. “The impending housing shortage will inevitably lead to social tensions,” says Hasenmaile. “Housing supply is an important issue that politicians should take seriously.”

Credit Suisse sees the problem in the Spatial Planning Act, which was amended in 2014. They wanted to concentrate – and rightly so. But compression is not working. It is hindered in various ways. “There are so many malicious objections,” Hasenmaile says. In many cases, it is about protecting the cityscape, noise legislation or species protection. This leads to conflicting goals. In Zurich alone, the construction of over 1,000 apartments is currently blocked due to the Noise Law.

Limit objections

Therefore, it is important to set priorities. “He should ask himself if the housing supply is more important than the preservation of the cityscape,” Hasenmaile says. In addition, it must be ensured that the appeal options can no longer be abused so easily.

In other words, laws need to be adjusted. Even if that happens, it will probably take years at best for relief to be felt.

Source :Blick