Rental apartments in Zurich are becoming more and more expensive. (Image: Shutterstock.com/footageclips)
The Zürcher Kantonalbank wants to promote non-profit and affordable housing with a discounted mortgage for housing cooperatives. Depending on whether the award criteria are met, the non-profit housing developers receive an interest rate reduction of up to 0.50% on their mortgage.
Rental apartments in the Swiss core cities are becoming more and more expensive – especially in Geneva and Zurich. This leads to a lack of affordable housing. For this reason, the Zürcher Kantonalbank is launching the ZKB WohnPlus mortgage – a new offer for non-profit housing developers who provide social services, as can be seen in a media release on Monday.
Housing cooperatives can thus receive an interest rate reduction of up to 0.50% for their settlements on their mortgage. Concessions are granted for renewals of existing as well as new mortgages. The basic requirement for a ZKB WohnPlus mortgage is that the apartment rents are at least 15% lower than the market rents. In addition, the evaluation model includes 28 qualification criteria that can be applied to non-profit housing developers and their settlements. Seven of these criteria form the elementary basis and must be fully met. Another 21 criteria include both fundamental and ambitious measures.
Established standards for award criteria
In order to develop the 21 award criteria and the evaluation model, the ZKB takes into account established standards (including UN Sustainable Development Goals, Swiss Sustainable Building Standard (SNBS), 10 guiding principles for non-profit housing construction in Switzerland). Two examples of the criteria are: the social mix and neighborhood networking. In the first category, the focus is on age, nationality, social status, gender when the apartment is allocated, while in the second category the focus is on the available space (e.g. availability of daycare, kindergarten, community center, shops for the needs of the residents).
Incentive for social achievement
If a housing cooperative meets the defined requirements, ZKB supports this commitment with favorable financing conditions. For the interest rate reduction according to stage 1 (max. 0.30% interest rate reduction), at least seven other criteria must be met in addition to the seven basic criteria (a total of at least 14 criteria). For stage 2 (max. 0.50% interest rate reduction), seven additional criteria must be met (a total of at least 21 criteria). The interest rate reduction is granted during the first five years of the term.
In addition: If level 1 is initially reached in a settlement, customers have the opportunity to prove that they have fulfilled further criteria after two years. If the customer then meets a total of at least 21 criteria (level 2), the conditions are reduced again by a maximum of 0.20% by the end of the fifth year. This creates an incentive to make further improvements in terms of social performance during the term.
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