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The SP wants to freeze rents
Rental prices should no longer be allowed to rise, not even because of higher interest rates. This requires a faction advance of the Social Democrats. It does, of course, provide for one notable exception.
If the SP has its way, the rents may only be increased again if they are checked for their legality: Power plant 4 on the Zwicky site in Wallisellen-Dübendorf.
Photo: Thomas Egli
“We are in a dramatic situation,” warns Cédric Wermuth, co-president of the SP. People with low and middle incomes can afford less and less because their wages are worth less and less due to inflation. Added to this are the health insurance premiums, which are above average and are not included in the inflation statistics. Since it does not endure a rent increase, so Wermuth. He warns of “massive social upheaval” – and demands measures to protect purchasing power. (Also read: Rising rents put 1 million people in distress.)
Specifically, his party has submitted two parliamentary group proposals. The first calls for no less than a rent moratorium. It is to apply temporarily until state control of rents is introduced, which the SP is demanding with its second faction movement.
Force landlords to comply with the law
Such a moratorium would have far-reaching consequences. For the time being, landlords should not be asking more money for their apartments – not even if, as expected, the reference interest rate rises in the summer and a rent adjustment of around three percent is due in many places. According to the SP’s request, such an increase would only be permissible if the landlord can prove that he has not previously generated any abusive income. A notable exception.
The SP is aiming for a system change. Today, if tenants find the agreed rent illegal, they have to take their landlord to court. Of course, very few do that. Most agree to what they have signed in the contract. Not even every hundredth initial rent ends up in court. As a result, homeowners can also enforce rental prices that allow a higher return than provided for by law.
“A law that is not enforced in such a blatant manner is unacceptable.”
According to the SP, tenants paid over CHF 10 billion too much in 2021 alone. Over the last 15 years, it has even been a total of 78 billion francs, which is “massively harmful to the economy” and “unsustainable from a regulatory point of view”. The numbers are of course disputed.
The SP now wants to force the landlords to explain how they calculated the rent. If they do not do this or if the rental price violates the legal requirements, the moratorium should apply. Only certain apartment categories such as luxury apartments could be exempted from this. The SP did not specify in detail when an apartment belongs to this category. Wermuth speaks of extremely expensive and spacious apartments. The moratorium, on the other hand, is intended to protect households with low or middle incomes.
campaign ammunition
According to the co-president, the SP is united behind this demand. Of course, it will not be easy to find enough supporters outside the party for the initiative to win a majority. With the bourgeois, the Social Democrats will probably hit granite.
However, you may say to yourself: If we don’t get the demand through, it will at least help us in the election campaign. Because the lack of apartments and rising rents are a concern for many Swiss people. It is quite possible that they will become one of the big campaign issues in the autumn.
New attempt with state rent control: SP co-president Cédric Wermuth and SP national councilor Jacqueline Badran.
Photo: Keystone
Accordingly, the SP is also trying again for a state rent control. The Zurich National Councilor Jacqueline Badran had requested two years agoto introduce one throughout Switzerland. But the National Council dismissed Badran by 105 votes to 82. Now the Social Democrats are trying a milder variant: the federal government should adapt the law so that it allows cantons and municipalities to carry out state rent controls on their own.
The SP is thinking of periodic and selective revisions, as are already taking place today with the AHV and taxes. Badran and her party expect this to have a major preventive effect.
Today, many rents are abusive due to the lack of such controls. It is not uncommon for returns of over 10 percent to be achieved – instead of the maximum 3.25 percent that the law currently allows. “A law that is not enforced in such a blatant manner is unacceptable,” says Badran angrily. At least municipalities, cities and cantons, which suffer particularly badly from the high rents, must therefore allow the federal government to control rents.
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The SP wants to freeze rents
Rental prices should no longer be allowed to rise, not even because of higher interest rates. This requires a faction advance of the Social Democrats. It does, of course, provide for one notable exception.
If the SP has its way, the rents may only be increased again if they are checked for their legality: Power plant 4 on the Zwicky site in Wallisellen-Dübendorf.
Photo: Thomas Egli
“We are in a dramatic situation,” warns Cédric Wermuth, co-president of the SP. People with low and middle incomes can afford less and less because their wages are worth less and less due to inflation. Added to this are the health insurance premiums, which are above average and are not included in the inflation statistics. Since it does not endure a rent increase, so Wermuth. He warns of “massive social upheaval” – and demands measures to protect purchasing power. (Also read: Rising rents put 1 million people in distress.)
Specifically, his party has submitted two parliamentary group proposals. The first calls for no less than a rent moratorium. It is to apply temporarily until state control of rents is introduced, which the SP is demanding with its second faction movement.
Force landlords to comply with the law
Such a moratorium would have far-reaching consequences. For the time being, landlords should not be asking more money for their apartments – not even if, as expected, the reference interest rate rises in the summer and a rent adjustment of around three percent is due in many places. According to the SP’s request, such an increase would only be permissible if the landlord can prove that he has not previously generated any abusive income. A notable exception.
The SP is aiming for a system change. Today, if tenants find the agreed rent illegal, they have to take their landlord to court. Of course, very few do that. Most agree to what they have signed in the contract. Not even every hundredth initial rent ends up in court. As a result, homeowners can also enforce rental prices that allow a higher return than provided for by law.
“A law that is not enforced in such a blatant manner is unacceptable.”
According to the SP, tenants paid over CHF 10 billion too much in 2021 alone. Over the last 15 years, it has even been a total of 78 billion francs, which is “massively harmful to the economy” and “unsustainable from a regulatory point of view”. The numbers are of course disputed.
The SP now wants to force the landlords to explain how they calculated the rent. If they do not do this or if the rental price violates the legal requirements, the moratorium should apply. Only certain apartment categories such as luxury apartments could be exempted from this. The SP did not specify in detail when an apartment belongs to this category. Wermuth speaks of extremely expensive and spacious apartments. The moratorium, on the other hand, is intended to protect households with low or middle incomes.
campaign ammunition
According to the co-president, the SP is united behind this demand. Of course, it will not be easy to find enough supporters outside the party for the initiative to win a majority. With the bourgeois, the Social Democrats will probably hit granite.
However, you may say to yourself: If we don’t get the demand through, it will at least help us in the election campaign. Because the lack of apartments and rising rents are a concern for many Swiss people. It is quite possible that they will become one of the big campaign issues in the autumn.
New attempt with state rent control: SP co-president Cédric Wermuth and SP national councilor Jacqueline Badran.
Photo: Keystone
Accordingly, the SP is also trying again for a state rent control. The Zurich National Councilor Jacqueline Badran had requested two years agoto introduce one throughout Switzerland. But the National Council dismissed Badran by 105 votes to 82. Now the Social Democrats are trying a milder variant: the federal government should adapt the law so that it allows cantons and municipalities to carry out state rent controls on their own.
The SP is thinking of periodic and selective revisions, as are already taking place today with the AHV and taxes. Badran and her party expect this to have a major preventive effect.
Today, many rents are abusive due to the lack of such controls. It is not uncommon for returns of over 10 percent to be achieved – instead of the maximum 3.25 percent that the law currently allows. “A law that is not enforced in such a blatant manner is unacceptable,” says Badran angrily. At least municipalities, cities and cantons, which suffer particularly badly from the high rents, must therefore allow the federal government to control rents.
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The SP wants to freeze rents
Rental prices should no longer be allowed to rise, not even because of higher interest rates. This requires a faction advance of the Social Democrats. It does, of course, provide for one notable exception.
If the SP has its way, the rents may only be increased again if they are checked for their legality: Power plant 4 on the Zwicky site in Wallisellen-Dübendorf.
Photo: Thomas Egli
“We are in a dramatic situation,” warns Cédric Wermuth, co-president of the SP. People with low and middle incomes can afford less and less because their wages are worth less and less due to inflation. Added to this are the health insurance premiums, which are above average and are not included in the inflation statistics. Since it does not endure a rent increase, so Wermuth. He warns of “massive social upheaval” – and demands measures to protect purchasing power. (Also read: Rising rents put 1 million people in distress.)
Specifically, his party has submitted two parliamentary group proposals. The first calls for no less than a rent moratorium. It is to apply temporarily until state control of rents is introduced, which the SP is demanding with its second faction movement.
Force landlords to comply with the law
Such a moratorium would have far-reaching consequences. For the time being, landlords should not be asking more money for their apartments – not even if, as expected, the reference interest rate rises in the summer and a rent adjustment of around three percent is due in many places. According to the SP’s request, such an increase would only be permissible if the landlord can prove that he has not previously generated any abusive income. A notable exception.
The SP is aiming for a system change. Today, if tenants find the agreed rent illegal, they have to take their landlord to court. Of course, very few do that. Most agree to what they have signed in the contract. Not even every hundredth initial rent ends up in court. As a result, homeowners can also enforce rental prices that allow a higher return than provided for by law.
“A law that is not enforced in such a blatant manner is unacceptable.”
According to the SP, tenants paid over CHF 10 billion too much in 2021 alone. Over the last 15 years, it has even been a total of 78 billion francs, which is “massively harmful to the economy” and “unsustainable from a regulatory point of view”. The numbers are of course disputed.
The SP now wants to force the landlords to explain how they calculated the rent. If they do not do this or if the rental price violates the legal requirements, the moratorium should apply. Only certain apartment categories such as luxury apartments could be exempted from this. The SP did not specify in detail when an apartment belongs to this category. Wermuth speaks of extremely expensive and spacious apartments. The moratorium, on the other hand, is intended to protect households with low or middle incomes.
campaign ammunition
According to the co-president, the SP is united behind this demand. Of course, it will not be easy to find enough supporters outside the party for the initiative to win a majority. With the bourgeois, the Social Democrats will probably hit granite.
However, you may say to yourself: If we don’t get the demand through, it will at least help us in the election campaign. Because the lack of apartments and rising rents are a concern for many Swiss people. It is quite possible that they will become one of the big campaign issues in the autumn.
New attempt with state rent control: SP co-president Cédric Wermuth and SP national councilor Jacqueline Badran.
Photo: Keystone
Accordingly, the SP is also trying again for a state rent control. The Zurich National Councilor Jacqueline Badran had requested two years agoto introduce one throughout Switzerland. But the National Council dismissed Badran by 105 votes to 82. Now the Social Democrats are trying a milder variant: the federal government should adapt the law so that it allows cantons and municipalities to carry out state rent controls on their own.
The SP is thinking of periodic and selective revisions, as are already taking place today with the AHV and taxes. Badran and her party expect this to have a major preventive effect.
Today, many rents are abusive due to the lack of such controls. It is not uncommon for returns of over 10 percent to be achieved – instead of the maximum 3.25 percent that the law currently allows. “A law that is not enforced in such a blatant manner is unacceptable,” says Badran angrily. At least municipalities, cities and cantons, which suffer particularly badly from the high rents, must therefore allow the federal government to control rents.
Found a mistake?Report now.