Second home law drives up real estate prices

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In fact, each municipality is only allowed to have 20 percent second homes. So says the law. But there is a loophole. The conversion of traditional first homes into second homes is not subject to any restrictions.

As a result, approximately 32,000 of the 80,000 first homes in Swiss holiday resorts can be profitably converted and sold as holiday homes. With brutal consequences for communities such as Flims GR: the housing market is drying up, locals and temporary workers are barely finding shelter.

Nationally, Flims is one of the municipalities with the highest percentage of second homes. But this is not only a problem for municipalities and the economy in the canton of Graubünden. Tourist locations in the Bernese Oberland and in Valais are also affected. If you can’t get cheap municipal or company-owned housing there, you should look into the second housing market. However, prices have exploded there.

Home seekers are also having a hard time in the Bernese Oberland

The municipality of Saanen in the Bernese Oberland, which includes cities such as Gstaad or Schönried, is experiencing a high demand for housing, Blick reports on request. The supply of available housing is low and anyone looking for an apartment has to suffer.

However, this is not solely due to conversions. Like Flims, Saanen tries to create living space for the local population. Or supports private initiatives that pursue this goal.

It sounds similar in the Oberland municipality of Lauterbrunnen. The problem is well known. There, however, the community officials are not talking about a change of use from first to second home. Apartments that were already there before the second home initiative and are therefore not registered in the land registry are free to use. That is why they are often used as holiday homes or sold.

Another problem: the Spatial Planning Act

The demand for housing in the municipalities of the Valais tourist destination Aletsch Arena is also high. The Second Housing Act and the accompanying wealthy apartment seekers would push up real estate prices and push them to too high a level, it is said. The result: apartments are simply unaffordable for the local population.

Another problem arises from the Spatial Planning Act. It is practically impossible for a municipality to open up new building zones. In addition, almost all available construction sites must be zoned.

That is doubly cruel, because the local population cannot find existing properties or build new ones because there are not enough construction sites.

Source:Blick