Zurich city council unveils plan to address housing shortage

The Zurich city council has unveiled a new plan to tackle the housing shortage in Switzerland’s biggest city. The council shared three measures that focus on providing more affordable housing.

Measures unveiled to address Zurich housing crisis

The city council has announced a new housing programme focused on providing more affordable housing. The council has set a goal of ensuring that a third of all rental apartments in Zurich will be non-profit by 2050, reports SRF.

Three measures were announced to help achieve this goal. The city council will build housing to rent and buy land and houses that it will lease to foundations to build more affordable housing on.

The second measure will introduce additional regulation to ensure younger and older people and those on lower incomes can access affordable housing. For example, a single individual will be prevented from living in a three or four-bedroom apartment.

Lastly, the council will directly engage with non-profit and private developers to address the housing shortage and rental prices. The city council could mandate that private developments build a proportion of affordable housing in certain circumstances.

Zurich city council focuses on long-term housing solutions

Switzerland’s housing crisis is particularly felt in its larger cities where the number of apartments or houses available to rent or buy (vacancy rate) can be as low as 0,1 percent. A lack of housing pushes up prices and can force residents to leave the city.

According to Zurich city mayor Corine Mauch (SDP), “There is no single instrument that will solve the housing problem overnight." Instead the council will focus on long-term planning.

The measures are seen by the Green Party as “a step in the right direction”, while the Alternative List called the plans “timid and toothless” amid concerns that they won’t go far enough to address the housing shortage.