BWO examines options for non-profit residential property
Published: Thursday, Jun 13th 2024, 11:40
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Home ownership in Switzerland is becoming increasingly unaffordable. The Federal Housing Office (BWO) has now examined different variants of non-profit home ownership as an alternative to home ownership. To date, there is no project in Switzerland in which non-profit home ownership has been realized in its pure form.
The dream of owning a home in Switzerland remains unfulfilled for many, the Federal Office wrote in a press release on Thursday. One reason for this is the constantly rising prices. And in order to facilitate access to affordable home ownership, certain conditions must be met.
Five alternative home ownership models from Germany and abroad were therefore examined on the basis of 15 criteria. One example is "flexible home ownership". In this model, a building cooperative creates condominiums and sells all but at least one apartment, which it rents out. In this way, the building cooperative remains a co-owner so that it can later exercise a right of first refusal if a privately purchased apartment comes up for sale again.
A second model is "small home ownership". Here, the condominium owners only own the apartment and not the rest of the house, which they would otherwise have to co-finance. Instead, they pay a fee to the owners for the use of the general parts of the house.
According to the BWO, the study shows that there is no contradiction between public utility and home ownership. The following conclusions were drawn for Switzerland: There needs to be an unlimited but limited right of first refusal and the will and possibility to exercise this right of first refusal, as well as independent monitoring.
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