Sugus House heiress terminates 105 tenants in order to be able to completely renovate

The current case of the Sugus houses in the city of Zurich is infuriating, but is more complex than it seems at first glance. The heiress could have valid reasons for the terminations. But in the process, falling for a scammer.

“This is a nice Christmas present,” says Paul M., who wishes to remain anonymous. He doesn’t mean this sentence seriously. On the contrary. This week the postman brought him a registered letter that shocked him: the eviction from his apartment.

It’s not just Paul M. who has to leave his apartment with his wife and three children, aged 9, 11 and 18, by March 31, 2025. There are also 104 other tenants who live in the so-called “Sugus houses” at Neugasse 81, 83 and 85 in Zurich, as Watson made public yesterday. Many of them are young families like Paul M.:

It is unrealistic that tenants would find an affordable apartment in the same area. And that in just under four months. The children would have to change schools and would lose their friends and their environment. Entire classes would be torn apart in the middle of the school year. The adults lose friendships that they would have found and maintained in the neighborhood.

What is currently happening here in District 5 actually contradicts everything that those who built the Sugus houses were committed to 25 years ago.

It should be family-friendly and affordable

The year is 1990. The SBB has a free space available in district 5, along the railway tracks in front of Zurich main station. The so-called X-ray area is to be created here. The stated goal is to provide affordable apartments, particularly suitable for families. City residents were already concerned about the increasing shortage of affordable living space.

The SBB is therefore announcing a competition for the area. SBB and the city of Zurich jointly chose the winning project: nine free-standing, identically designed residential buildings by the architect duo Isa Stürm and Urs Wolf, which are intended to “allow for a wide range of living arrangements and facilities”. These are the plans for the future Sugus houses, which will be named because of their rectangular shape and colorful facade.

This is what the Sugus houses look like.Image: watson

The idea sounds good. But the SBB is having problems finding a construction company that can and wants to implement this vision. It wasn’t until 1998 that they found what they were looking for with the builder and entrepreneur Leopold Bachmann. Bachmann completed the construction of the Sugus houses in record time. As early as April 2000, 317 tenants were able to move in.

Some call him the “cheap farmer of the nation,” “the quick farmer.” In 2004, for example, the trade magazine “Wohnen” accused Bachmann of taking the risk that his buildings would have to be renovated after just ten or twenty years.

Other voices call Leopold Bachmann a “great philanthropist,” a humanitarian. Bachmann repeatedly emphasizes that he is pursuing one goal above all: to provide affordable housing for low-income earners, especially families with children. That’s why he takes a humane approach as a landlord: he pays attention to the “tenant mix” and maintains that at least 20 percent of the tenants in his Sugus houses should always be foreigners.

After just ten years of quality defects

Cheap farmer or philanthropist? The truth probably lies somewhere in between. This is shown by a study commissioned by the city of Zurich and published in 2010 by two sociologists.

On the one hand, the sociologists draw a positive conclusion: the residents felt very comfortable and anchored in the X-ray area, had made friends with neighbors, and valued the daily exchange with a wide variety of people. Nobody reports any conflicts due to cultural differences.

In addition, Leopold Bachmann’s wish came true. According to sociologists, in 2010 more families with children lived in the Sugus houses than in any other urban area. And those who once lived in the Sugus houses no longer wanted to move away: “The moving rate in the settlement is well below the urban average of 20 percent per year.”

But this coin has a downside: the construction quality. In 2010 we see exactly the picture that Leopold Bachmann’s critics predicted.

“After 10 years everything falls apart (cheap equipment, etc.),” one tenant is said to have written in the two sociologists’ questionnaire. Others report cracks in the walls, poor building structure, mold, cheap tiles in the bathroom that needed to be replaced, drawers in the kitchen that could no longer be pulled out, silicone joints in the shower that would no longer hold, poor insulation Rooms or that window handles and ceiling plaster would fall off regularly.

The sociologists find that satisfaction with the quality of construction has decreased significantly within a short period of time. In the first survey in 2002, only 14 percent of tenants complained about the quality of Sugus buildings. Two years later, in 2004, it was 24 percent. In 2010, half of all tenants reported quality deficiencies in Sugus houses.

14 years have passed since this last survey. It is quite possible that there are now even more construction defects. It is difficult to assess whether these justify a total renovation. The tenants with whom Watson spoke say: No, a total renovation would not be necessary.

View into the kitchen of one of the three Sugus houses, which is to be completely renovated.Image: watson

However, the Allgood Property AG administration finds in the termination letter that the living situation is “no longer reasonable”. To reinforce this argument, the administration posted images of cracks, mold and other defects on its website. Allgood Property AG only writes three words about this:

Allgood Property AG refers, among other things, to this official “statement” at watson’s request.Bild: screenshot watson

Bachmann’s daughter inherited three Sugus houses

Allgood Property AG is not the new owner of the Sugus houses. It is merely the administration in place.

Leopold Bachmann died in 2021 at the age of 88. He gave most of his properties to his charitable Leopold Bachmann Foundation. He left the Sugus houses to two of his sons and his daughter Regina Bachmann. All three were given three blocks each. At least that’s what Tsüri.ch and the Tages-Anzeiger write. Watson was unable to independently verify this information.

On the Canton of Zurich’s property information website, watson received an error message when trying to locate the owners of the nine Sugus houses:

Error message in the official GIS browser of the Canton of Zurich.bild: screenshot watson

The Bachmann Leopold Foundation does not want to comment on the case because it is not the owner of the property. Watson was unable to establish contact with Regina Bachmann. Your company “Regina Bachmann Immobilien Zug” has only been in the commercial register since June 2024 and does not yet have a website.

However, the fact that Regina Bachmann only inherited three Sugus houses would explain why only the tenants of three blocks received notice of termination. Paul M. says to Watson:

He and many other tenants believe they know the answer: Regina Bachmann is using the total renovation as an argument so that she can then re-let the 105 apartments for a significantly higher return.

She leaves the “dirty work” – the eviction of numerous families, pensioners and people with low incomes – to Allgood Property AG. But by doing so she could have cut herself into her own flesh. Because there is a shady businessman hiding behind Allgood Property AG: Goran Zeindler.

The questionable entrepreneur

“Our experience is your benefit!” Goran Zeindler chanted this slogan on LinkedIn in 2021 to promote his real estate company Albego Real Estate AG.

Goran Zeindler advertised one of his companies on LinkedIn. The link to the company website leads nowhere today. Bild: screenshot watson

However, Albego Real Estate AG no longer exists. Just like the other seven real estate and construction companies that Goran Zeindler has founded in the last ten years. Everyone went bankrupt. They are so much in the red that the Höfe District Court (SZ) had to stop the proceedings several times “due to a lack of assets”. This means that the stock corporations no longer even had enough money to cover procedural costs. Let alone to pay off their creditors.

There could be a few of these. On the Immoverwaltungsvergleich.ch platform, a user rated Albego Real Estate AG with one star in September 2024. And wrote:

Shortly after our first report about the mass layoffs in the Sugus houses, a watson user contacted us with a similar story. The entrepreneur owes him 10,000 francs. And further:

Watson could not independently verify these allegations. Allgood Property AG, based in Baar (ZG), did not want to comment.

However, she continues to promise a lot on her website. For example, “comprehensive services across the entire real estate sector”. And in all imaginable roles: as a builder, property manager and investor. The stock corporation advertises with the same images of buildings that Goran Zeindlers already used for advertising purposes for his bankrupt corporations.

Allgood Property AG, based in Baar (ZG), is the only company founded by Goran Zeindler that is officially still liquid. However, it is a legitimate question as to how long this will last. And whether Sugus House heiress Regina Bachmann, while destroying the colorful life of an entire neighborhood, also fell for a scammer. Perhaps the dubious entrepreneur will give her a Christmas present that is just as “nice” as she gave her fellow tenants with the notices.

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