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There is a housing shortage in Switzerland. Not for the first time. «Wo-Wo-Wonige», the Zurich revolutionaries chanted in the late 1980s. Now we are back to the same point: in some cities it has become easier to find a parking space than an affordable roof over your head. And that says something.
As is often the case in times of great need, now is the time for simplification. For a complex problem, they come up with political solutions that all have one thing in common: they are useless.
When it became known last week that the canton of Aargau wanted to house underage asylum seekers in a building in Windisch, the SVP entered the housing war with a verbal sledgehammer: “That Swiss tenants will be thrown out of their apartments to make way for asylum seekers.” Creating parasites from all over the world is a scandal.” The right’s recipe against the housing shortage: close the borders!
The SP reacted no less populist. National Councilor Jacqueline Badran proposed banning private California booking platform Airbnb. In this way, 20,000 apartments would become available in Germany. In one go.
Just like the Social Democrats, the Greens also dream of state intervention: landlords should be legally obliged to apply stricter occupancy criteria. For example, that at least two tenants have to move to a three-room apartment. The recipe of the left against the housing shortage: Compulsory shared housing for everyone.
Neither Ballenberg fantasies nor a planned economy will take us further in this matter. If we want to increase prosperity, our country needs immigration. To halt urban sprawl and provide affordable housing for everyone, we need to build smarter – and at the same time much more – in cities. That means: condense and build up. With a vacancy like in Zurich, which does not even correspond to the alcohol content of a non-alcoholic beer, the shadow on the children’s pool is no longer a convincing argument.
Refugees and Airbnb are not the problem. Anyone who contradicts this is at best conducting an election campaign. Only the most banal law of economics can help alleviate the housing shortage: when supply increases, prices fall. Instead of competing with inappropriate proposed solutions, politicians should create incentives to build more:
Wo-Wo-Wonige instead of Wa-Wa election campaign!
Source:Blick
I am Liam Livingstone and I work in a news website. My main job is to write articles for the 24 Instant News. My specialty is covering politics and current affairs, which I’m passionate about. I have worked in this field for more than 5 years now and it’s been an amazing journey. With each passing day, my knowledge increases as well as my experience of the world we live in today.
