Construction practices take longer and longer in Switzerland – residential construction falters

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The growing Swiss population requires more and more living space, and yet fewer and fewer applications are made for construction. Building applications in municipalities with a vacancy rate for rental flats above 2.5 percent are currently one-quarter lower than in 2019. There were also fewer applications made in municipalities where the supply of rental flats was tighter. But why only?

ZKB cites basic structural conditions as the reason for its new real estate research: There are more and more obstacles. “Everyone favors intensification, but only as long as it doesn’t happen on our own doorstep,” the study says.

It now takes an average of 140 days from the zoning application to the building permit. That’s 67 percent longer than in 2010. The more densely populated an area is, the longer the delays. As a result, it takes 200 days in the canton of Zurich to approve an application. The canton of Geneva has to wait the longest for a permit – 500 days.

5th national language of Switzerland

But things can still go wrong even after the builders get their bags in the permits. “It is not for nothing that appeals is called the fifth national language,” says Ursina Kubli, 43, Head of Real Estate Research at ZKB. Projects can still be blocked until the last minute.

Despite the building permit, it cannot be built in one of every 10 flats. As a result, 4,000 apartments are missing every year in the rental housing market and the trend is rising. Noise protection regulations are a big hurdle. “The future focus of politics should be to remove barriers,” says Kubli.

Because the number of planning applications should actually increase. It’s not just because the population is increasing. But also because less is built on sites from scratch these days. Instead, more and more old properties are being demolished and replaced by new, denser buildings. In Switzerland, 119 new flats are needed today to actually increase the stock by a net 100. There are even 144 new apartments in the canton of Zurich.

More families in cities

The low vacancy rate is causing rents to continue to rise, especially in cities. In Zurich, for example, the vacancy rate in mid-2022 was 0.07 percent.

But that doesn’t mean families are being pushed out of the city – quite the opposite: In Zurich, the proportion of families in the population rose from 18.4 percent to 19.7 percent between 2014 and 2021. The most popular neighborhoods for families in the city of Zurich are Wollishofen, Fluntern and Albisrieden.

Families are more likely to stay in the city thanks to shorter commuting distances and better infrastructure, for example in the area of ​​childcare. But Kubli sees another reason: “Many families stay in the city because they can no longer own a home in the country, as in the past, due to the sharp rise in property prices.”

City of Zurich tenants also in the vicinity

However, even as the proportion of families in the city increases, more and more Zurich are deciding to move to a residential or rural area due to high rents. If not in your own home, then at least in a relatively inexpensive rental apartment.

Surrounding communities such as Adliswil, Kilchberg, Wallisellen or Uster and those along the S-Bahn lines are particularly attractive to the people of Zurich. In some places, the influx of Zurich residents has almost resulted in urban rental market conditions. According to ZKB, for example, in Zumikon, Schlieren, Wallisellen and Kleinandelfingen, the pressure on the rental market is very high – also due to new arrivals from the city.

Source :Blick