Plan of action for the expert test: This is Parmelin’s plan to combat the housing shortage

Apartments instead of offices: It should also be investigated whether the strict separation between residential, commercial and industrial areas can be relaxed. Vacant offices can be converted into residential buildings. As a first step, the authorities want to conduct an investigation to explore the possibilities.

No hoarding of building land: According to the report, one problem is that landowners do not want to release building land. These existing resources should be better utilized by setting incentives or specifying the minimum amount of living space to be created on a piece of land.

What’s the point? Despite the fundamental criticism of the action plan, real estate expert Scognamiglio believes these measures are important. The greatest potential lies in weakening the strict separation between residential and work zones. Nowadays this no longer makes sense. Raiffeisen chief economist Fredy Hasenmaile also emphasizes the dense development: “This creates great incentives for builders, because you can earn more without buying expensive building land.”

Procedure: The construction sector and the cantons must develop a concept to make building permit procedures more efficient. Partly thanks to digitalization.

Free objection: Objections sometimes only lead to delays in construction projects. You want to put an end to that. One possibility would be that objections entail new costs. Corresponding demands are pending in parliament.

Adjust law: Noise protection, domestic security and other interests can get in the way of housing projects. The federal government therefore wants to consider explicitly writing the importance of sufficient living space into law.

What’s the point? “The balance of interests is an important point,” says Hasenmaile. More efficient approval procedures would also increase planning certainty. But he thinks the authorities’ idea to hire more staff to process building applications faster is dangerous: “Part of the problem is that we have too many civil servants with too much time on their hands.” Scognamiglio also criticizes the fact that all measures must first be thoroughly investigated. It will take years before they are implemented.

More cheap apartments: Adding more floors to buildings or reducing the distance between houses could be linked to the condition that a certain proportion of the new apartments to be built must be cheap. The cantons want to talk about this now.

Cheaper to build: In Bavaria, a new type of building emerged that does not have to meet all construction standards – with the aim of building cheaper. The federal government wants to investigate whether this can also be introduced in Switzerland.

What’s the point? An important reason for the high housing costs is not construction costs, but the sharp increase in land prices, says Claudia Schwalfenberg (56) of the Swiss Association of Engineers and Architects (SIA). Lower construction costs cannot solve the problem, but at most defuse it somewhat. Lea Gerber (43) of the Swiss Association of Housing Cooperatives also warns against building too cheaply. The shot could backfire if renovations were needed after just a few years.

All in all, real estate expert Scognamiglio compares the action plan to a visit to the dentist: “It’s a mouthwash, not a dental treatment. It smells a little better again, but the rotten teeth are no longer pulled out afterwards.”