Despite strong resistance: Pontresina wants to introduce a second home tax

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In Pontresina GR, holiday apartment owners may soon be asked to pay. The municipality wants to be the first village in Switzerland to introduce a second home tax.

The controversial measure is intended to reduce the housing shortage. It has become increasingly difficult to find affordable housing in recent years, not only in cities, but also in tourist areas in the mountains.

The community sees an urgent need for action

The municipal council of Pontresina sees the many second homes as one reason for the misery. In the spa town of Engadin, two of the three apartments are rented to holiday guests or used as a second home. More and more first homes are being converted into holiday apartments and hardly any new apartments are being built that the average earner can afford, the municipality noted during an information meeting for the population in December. Repurposing is permitted if an apartment was built before the entry into force of the Second Housing Act 2016.

The community’s conclusion: there is an urgent need for action. A tax on second homes is intended to make them less attractive and thus ensure that more apartments become available to the local population. The tax should be differentiated: the more often an apartment is used, the lower the costs. The municipality wants to use the tax revenues to promote affordable housing.

There was heavy resistance in Silvaplana

The second home tax is not yet a done deal. First and second home owners, as well as other interested parties, have one month from next week to respond to the plans. The canton also has a say.

It is already clear that the community plan will lead to heated discussions. For this you only have to look a few kilometers to the east. In Silvaplana GR, the municipality had the same plan more than ten years ago. The resistance to this was great. The municipality won the legal dispute in federal court. But because holiday apartment owners threatened to boycott local businesses, the municipality eventually scrapped the plans. In the canton of Bern, municipalities have also had the option to tax second homes since 2017. But no one has introduced the measure yet.

The mayor of Pontresina, lawyer Nora Saratz Cazin (42), is not deterred by this. She fully supports the measure. Now she has to convince the population of this too. The introduction of the tax will not be voted on until the autumn at the earliest. It would not be introduced before 2025.

Source:Blick