Even in a shortage, rents should remain aligned with the neighborhood

Shortage and costs reaching new heights: the housing market is increasingly difficult to sustain in many places in Switzerland. For Vaud national councilor Raphaël Mahaim (The Greens), one of the mechanisms responsible for this problem is the alignment of rents with those of the neighborhood or locality. This calculation of “usual rents” “generates a phenomenon of overheating”, leading to a constant increase in prices, he writes in the text of a motion tabled in Parliament. He therefore asks that it no longer be applicable in times of shortage, or that at least the cantons be authorized to leave it aside in this case.

Unconvinced, the Federal Council responded by recommending the rejection of this motion, which will however have to go before the National. “Rents are generally not abusive if, in particular, they are within the limits of usual rents in the locality or neighborhood,” he recalls, citing the code of obligations. And by applying different criteria in the event of a shortage, “the rules for combating abuse would be modified and complicated,” he believes.

The very analysis of the Green national advisor is contested by the government, which recalls that “strict requirements” exist in this area. “We can therefore doubt that this criterion systematically pushes rents upwards; in certain circumstances, a comparative rent can also mitigate the increase in rents.” A parliamentary initiative from the Zurich SVP Hans Egloff, currently in the hands of the competent committee, must already bring about correctives to this mechanism, which is difficult to apply today, due to the lack of transparency in the sector, recalls the Federal Council.

Faced with the growing shortage of housing, the government believes rather “that it is more urgent to take measures at the level of supply rather than making one-off changes to the rent-setting mechanism”. And to cite an action plan currently on track with all the relevant stakeholders to accelerate new construction in the cantons. At the same time, Asloca launched a popular initiative to try to curb rent increases.