“Relaxing Regulations: A Solution to the Housing Shortage in Bern”

In the city of Bern, too, the buzzword housing shortage is popping up more and more. Even if, in my opinion, one cannot yet speak of a housing shortage, it can still be said that the existing supply is not keeping pace with the increasing demand.

At the same time, there is a lack of investors in the housing construction sector. Not surprising when you consider the flood of conditions that the authorities alone impose on property developers. There are also legal obstacles: requirements in the areas of noise protection, protection of the townscape and the preservation of monuments. All of this puts a massive damper on construction activity. The call for state intervention has therefore already been made loudly in the city of Bern.

But what is not recognized is that even if the city builds itself, it has to overcome the same hurdles and thus costs as private companies. The latest solution is therefore to offer non-profit housing construction in the form of building cooperatives. This means lower rents for the selected residents, but only because the city sells the land with building rights at prices that are far below the market value.

As a result, the city also subsidizes so-called “non-subsidized” apartments in the cooperatives. Add to this the discounted loans and other mechanisms, and the city has less revenue and less money for public health or education.

The city should therefore better focus its actions on creating more attractive planning and building law framework conditions, so that building applications can be processed more efficiently, for example with the help of digitization, in particular by relaxing regulations and accelerating building and judicial procedures, and subsequently also more is built.