Chur to vote in November on affordable rental housing

This coming November, residents of Chur, the capital of the canton of Graubünden, will vote on a popular initiative that calls for a third of the new housing units built each year in the city to be rented at cost-based rents rather than market prices. The aim is to curb the housing shortage that has worsened in the city in recent years.

The text revives a similar proposal that was rejected in February 2016 by fewer than 100 votes, about 0.5% of the ballots cast. According to the initiative committee, which also includes Social Democrat Barbara Rimml, the situation has worsened since then. Rimml told Grigioni Sera that the housing market in Chur had deteriorated more than the Swiss average.

Rents up 15% in five years

Figures cited by the initiative's backers confirm the trend. Over the past five years, rents for new housing in Chur have risen by 15%, almost double the Swiss average of 8%. The vacancy rate remains very low, at 0.13%: roughly one empty home in every 800.

According to Rimml, Chur has mainly seen the construction of expensive housing for well-off residents, while housing at moderate rents is lacking. The initiative aims to correct this imbalance: an apartment renting for 2,000 francs on the open market would cost between 300 and 400 francs less a month if rented at a cost-based rate.

The new housing would not be built by the municipality, but by private owners or housing cooperatives. For Rimml, the initiative would still oblige the city to act and actively promote the construction of affordable housing, rather than leaving that task to the market alone.

It remains an open question whether such a requirement could be extended to the whole canton. Joshua Wada, president of the Graubünden tenants' association, considers this unlikely: the housing shortage is widespread, but its causes vary from place to place. In Davos, for instance, it stems mainly from the large number of secondary homes.