Switzerland needs to build many more houses

Some are starting to think that it is right to start building outside the cities, precisely to give vent to the need for new homes, especially from a perspective that looks to the future. Tio highlights this in an interesting article:

As NZZ reports, the need for living space today is higher than ever. According to forecasts by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), Switzerland will reach the threshold of 10 million inhabitants between 2034 and 2040. The task of the Confederation and the cantons is to ensure a sufficient number of building areas. But, as Daniel Steffen, an economist at the University of Lucerne, points out, "reserves are unlikely to be sufficient to accommodate the entire expected population growth." Furthermore, adds Hofer, «it is too easy to add up all the available building areas. This is a purely urban planning approach. Reserves must be available in the right place"

According to a recent report by the Federal Office for Spatial Development (ARE), there are much more buildings outside building zones than previously thought. Compared to previous surveys – the last one dates back to 2019 – the number increased by 23,000 units, reaching 618,000. The canton hosting the largest number of these properties is Bern (82,000), followed by Grisons (33,000), St. Gallen (31,000), Valais (29,000), as well as Lucerne and Ticino (both 28' 000). Not only that: the costs of building land are growing rapidly. In Zurich, for example, prices of up to 12,000 francs per square meter can be expected, even for small residential construction projects. This means three to four million francs for a small apartment.

So we start to look at the urbanization of extra-urban areas, creating new urbanized areas that will be the basis for an expansion that seems impossible to postpone, also because prices for properties are very high. Here is a graph showing the evolution of Swiss real estate prices

However, the problems are not completely resolved, also because Switzerland is extremely mountainous, so building exploitation will penalize agricultural activity in the not abundant building areas.

However, it is interesting to note that Italy and Germany have demographic problems, Switzerland does not. Who knows why…