Federal Council draws up new regulation for permissible net yield
Published: Tuesday, Dec 12th 2023, 10:30
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What net yield on rented properties will be permissible if the reference interest rate should one day exceed two percent? The Federal Council will draw up a regulation on this as a precautionary measure.
The National Council gave the state government the corresponding mandate on Tuesday. It did so by adopting a motion by Stefan Engler of the Grisons Council of States with this demand by 130 votes to 61 with 3 abstentions.
The centrist politician argued that market observers assume that the reference interest rate will continue to rise. The Federal Housing Office (BWO) recently increased it to 1.75 percent.
Since 1986, the principle has applied that income from rental properties is permissible if it is 0.5 percent above the reference interest rate. However, the Federal Supreme Court made two changes to its practice in 2020. Among other things, it ruled that the income may now exceed the reference interest rate by two percent if the reference interest rate is two percent or less.
If the reference interest rate rises to over 2 percent, the question will arise as to whether the surcharge on the reference interest rate permitted when calculating the net yield should be reduced directly back to 0.5 percent. According to Engler, it would be better for the Federal Council to clarify this issue politically than to leave this important question for tenants and landlords to the courts.
Red-Green against
The Federal Council agreed to adopt the motion, which the Council of States had already approved in September. "Gouverner, c'est prévoir", said Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin in the Council on Tuesday. Governing means looking ahead.
If the reference interest rate rises by 0.25 percentage points, landlords can raise rents by 3 percent. In the case of long-term tenancies, however, this is subject to the condition that previous reductions have also been passed on.
A red-green minority in the National Council argued on Tuesday that the text of the motion already sets out a certain direction for the new regulation. This in the sense that the interests of landlords would be placed in the foreground. However, they failed with their motion to reject the motion.
©Keystone/SDA
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