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Christian Georg Brunner, real estate economist, criticizes the planned core renovation of the Sugus houses as being profit-driven.
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Owner Regina Bachmann is planning extensive renovations, even though the buildings are only 24 years old.
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Brunner doubts the necessity of vacancy notices and sees it as a trick to increase rent.
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The planned floor plan change is intended to make new rentals easier and enable higher rents.
Three houses in a Zurich housing estate are to be completely renovated. They were built by Leopold Bachmann (1933–2021), for whom social compatibility was always important. He said in one of his few interviews during his lifetime that he thought it was important to provide affordable housing for those with lower incomes, especially families with children.
“The assessment of the building structure revealed that the condition of the properties requires comprehensive renovation,” the property management wrote in a statement after terminating 105 tenants on Monday.
20min/Céline Trachsel
His daughter, Regina Bachmann, has now inherited the three blocks and took over as the new owner on November 26, 2024. “The assessment of the building structure revealed that the condition of the properties requires comprehensive core renovation,” wrote the property management in a statement after all 105 tenants were given notice of termination at the end of March 2025 on Monday.
“Core renovation after 24 years is completely atypical”
Real estate economist Christian Brunner strongly doubts that the building structure is the reason for the total renovation. “We are talking about a technical age of the building elements of 24 years, because according to the federal building and housing register they date back to the year 2000. And a core renovation after 24 years is completely atypical.” For him it is clear: “This is about returns. It is a profit optimization for these properties. I understand that from an investment perspective, but from a socially responsible point of view I see it critically.”
Christian Brunner lectures at the Bern University of Applied Sciences and is also director and founder of the Institute Real Estate Management (IREM) in Winterthur.
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Termination due to construction is certainly not necessary. “But after a vacancy notice can of course be re-let at higher prices.”
Energetic argument is “a lazy person”
According to the administration’s statement, the kitchens and bathrooms as well as the pipe installations at Neugasse 81, 83 and 85 will be replaced and the wall and floor coverings will be replaced. There are also “ecological and energy-saving modernizations”.
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Brunner says that the settlement was not built cheaply, so the total renovation is more of an excuse. The real estate economist even considers the energy aspect to be a fake argument. “The façade, for example, is a ventilated curtain façade, which is expensive to build and very durable. According to the parity lifespan table, they only become due after 40 years.”
“It wasn’t built cheaply here.”
The embodied energy that is wasted, for example on components that are replaced before the end of their life, never justifies the later energy saved during use. “The buildings are also already equipped with underfloor heating. It might make sense to put a solar system on the roof. Or windows with triple glazing are installed. But, for example, replacing the windows could be done while the property is inhabited, so there would be no need for a notice of vacancy.”
Work could be carried out while living
Even replacing old kitchens and bathrooms or replacing pipes and coverings on floors, walls and ceilings – all of these works would be reasonable for tenants to carry out while they are inhabited.
Zurich’s rental prices for a 3-room apartment are rising rapidly. Here are the prices for 2020, 2022 and 2024.
20min/Taddeo Cerletti
Christian Brunner says that large-scale renovations are currently common for buildings from the 70s and 80s, but not for a building from the year 2000. “In the old houses we still have single-stone masonry with little or no thermal insulation, radiators for heat emission and As a rule, there are no elevators; such buildings have completely different energy and structural issues. In my opinion, justifying the vacancy notice in this residential area with energy-related modernization is very far-fetched and unfounded.”
Changing the floor plan the decisive trick?
He is particularly critical of the change in floor plan: the owner wants to reduce the size of the 5.5-room apartments and enlarge the 1.5-room apartments to 2.5 rooms. Brunner: “This is a trick so that when re-letting you no longer have to use an official form that states the contestable, previous rent. Because with the floor plan change it is a new rental.” In addition, it might even be enough for the owners to justify the construction-related vacancy notice before the arbitration board, which the affected tenants could now call.
“I expect that the apartments will later be charged twice as much.”
“The statement states that the floor plans will be adjusted due to current demand. But there are hardly any 5.5-room apartments in Zurich. They are in great demand; even small apartments are selling well. In Zurich everything is rented out anyway.”
His conclusion: The core renovation is only being carried out so that the apartments can later be rented out at market prices. “I expect that these apartments can be charged twice as much.”
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