I remember when I lived in London, once you had kids you moved out. Either you couldn’t afford a big enough place to raise kids, or the local schools were horrific, you wanted to raise kids in a less urban environment.
this, I’m surprised there’s no development of reasonable sized flats for singles and couples with no kids, that’s what’s needed in the city center ( 25-35 sqm studio, 40-50 sqm 1 bedroom)
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I think there are quite a few such developments. I lived in something like that in Zurich which was about 50 sqm with 1 small bedroom. The problem was that it cost 2’450 pcm back in 2012 (which I felt was outrageously expensive, but going ‘upmarket’ was the only way as a foreigner I could even find a place to live) and it only got ridiculously more expensive since then.
A legal review of the proposal has not been made yet. The funny thing is that politicians can make noise before legal review.
Back to immigrants, ETH or UZH foreign students can forget about renting in Zürich. Same applies to workers with B permit. It will be easier (5 years) to get Swiss citizenship by simplified naturalization than renting an apartment in Zürich (10 years) 
Zurich SVP leadership wants to oblige landlords to give preference to Swiss residents
On Tuesday evening, the executive board of the Zurich SVP will present its plans for a new cantonal popular initiative in Wallisellen. The petition is titled “Right to a Homeland – Housing for Our People.” It seeks to oblige landlords to rent vacant housing “preferentially” to Swiss citizens and to all residents who have resided in the canton of Zurich for at least ten consecutive years. This is stated in the initiative text, which has been made available to this editorial team.
The two criteria are to be understood as equally important. The following example illustrates what this means: A Swiss citizen from the canton of Zug and a foreign citizen who has lived in the canton of Zurich for eleven years apply for the same apartment in Thalwil. In this case, the landlord has free choice. If a foreign citizen from Zurich who has only lived here for five years also applies, she loses out.
According to the initiative, this local bonus will be activated if Switzerland’s permanent resident population exceeds 10 million by 2050, i.e., almost one million more than today. According to federal forecasts, this will be the case in 15 years. The situation should be reassessed in 2050, according to the arguments for the initiative.
The comparison of living outside Zurich is maybe not fully comparable to London. You can raise your kids outside Zurich and reach HB in 10-30 min ride from your local railway station. Frankly, I don’t know why families with kids choose to live in Zurich.
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I have read that there will be several left and right initiatives related to housing to vote in ZH in the nearest time.
I don’t think you can compare London and Zürich, the latter being much smaller with plenty of recreational features…Badis , schools, parks, playgrounds, etc. The only negative thing that Zürich gives kids is a sense of entitlement.
dude, that’s still Zurich, we’re talking 1h+ about outside of Zurich 
which is still far better then London where typically you need 2h to reach Canary Wharf from the countryside
With a 2 hour commute, you could commute from Germany to Zurich 
absolutely, but pay German taxes, etc. Some of my colleagues do it, I guess mainly because they already had some years clocked in Germany. Of course there’s a difference in hooping on a Swiss train vs driving for ~2h (twice a day)
It’s often because of child-care, the parental situation, friends - or a house they already own or because they deemed house-ownership very important.
The house of my parents is in Germany, maybe 1-2km from the Swiss border - but it’s just too far and I have no time to maintain a house. And that’s on top of the tax and social contributions shitshow Germany is becoming.
Well, the same that you see the rise and fall of empires, you see the rise and fall of cities also…
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I don’t see a fall of Zurich city anywhere on the horizon. Surely less and less people would afford living in the city, but will resort to commuting, that’s all.
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At least that would solve the shortage.
Very interesting article from SRF. Another cause of housing shortage: objections to new construction by neighbors.
This is quite an interesting situation because it’s about the competing interests between the haves and the have-nots.
People already owning property makes the objection, people trying to buy or trying to rent a new apartment get screwed by delayed construction and scarcity of new property. So, the system is skewed to cater the complaints of people with property, while it’s no possible to complain as non-owner.
So, maybe it’s not all about the foreigners (25% of population) taking over all available places. People that own their own home (42% of households) delaying construction all around is contributing a bit to the problem too.
“Got mine, fuck you”
(My apartment has unobstructed view to the mountains - but I foresee now new buildings there in the near or mid-term future, due to zoning).
I can imagine some of these oppositions are frivolous, but many would be justified. For example, some houses in our street now have several blocks of apartments looking down into their previously private back yard. That impacts the value dramatically.
It is pretty important to do due dilligence before buying. If your house is surrounded by 1960s buildings, chances are they’ll be developed soon enough.
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What does that mean? That you own your land and the airspace above your neighbors’ land plots? Because that’s the implication: having rights for the airspace above the land plots of your neighbors. I know it’s something traditional and very important for NIMBYs. That doesn’t make it any rational.
Also, it opens the door to jokes such as: “can’t find an apartment? Ha! a private backyard is more important than having a place to live, suck it loser”.
In the end we’re fine. The big issues are for the ones below average income. 100-people lines for visiting an apartment in rent.
PS. I believe the others have eye lids to close their eyes or neck muscles to look the other way if there’s something they don’t like to see. All I have to hide is a few electronic files…
That is one of the markings of socialism
Where I live the zoning law describes in details the limits and shape of construction but it also mentions “character of the zone” as a factor. It gives the commune authorities a lot of leeway, same for neighbour objections. NIMBY?
Let’s say the governing class first maintains a privileged low density area where the haves can buy houses without having to compete with block-of-flats developers for the land. These houses will be bought by middle class as well who doesn’t travel abroad etc and saves every frank for that investment; then the rules change and voila, eat the rich. Rules for zoning should be set many, many years in advance, especially such rules which might negatively impact people.
In Lausanne and its suburbs I see huge low density enclaves - they should be decreed obsolete and re-developed, house owners would be handsomely rewarded with a huge land value increase. Instead, ever denser redevelopments are going on.