Chur Voters to Decide on Affordable Housing Quotas and Local Reform Measures

Voters in the Swiss city of Chur will decide on 29 November on competing proposals to address the local housing shortage, where the vacancy rate has fallen below 0.25 percent. The electorate in the capital of Graubünden faces a choice between a broad popular initiative for affordable housing and a narrower counter-proposal drafted by centre-right parties.

The popular initiative, supported by a coalition of the Social Democratic Party, the Greens, the Green Liberals, housing cooperatives, and the Tenants' Association, requires one third of all newly built residential floor space created annually in the city to be rented out on a cost-rent basis. Under this system, rents are calculated strictly according to actual underlying costs rather than prevailing market rates. Social Democratic city councillor Barbara Rimml stated that municipal land could be awarded under building rights to non-profit cooperatives, which would then let the apartments at cost-based rents.

Opponents from a centre-right alliance of the FDP, The Centre, and the Swiss People's Party argue that the initiative text lacks explicit limitations to public land and could lead to burdensome regulations on private property. FDP local party president Marco Lütscher stated that forced measures create uncertainty for developers and delay new construction projects. The counter-proposal submitted by the centre-right parties restricts the mandatory one-third quota exclusively to city-owned property and aligns the definition of affordable housing with federal promotion guidelines.

Chur's municipal parliament recommended that voters reject the initiative and accept the counter-proposal by a vote of 11 to 10. Whichever proposal secures a majority will require the city council to establish the corresponding legal framework within two years.

In addition to the housing issue, three other local measures will appear on the ballot on 29 November. Residents will vote on abolishing early retirement pensions for departing city council members, raising annual municipal operating subsidies for Theater Chur from 860,000 Swiss francs to 1.16 million Swiss francs, and converting the Chur-Sand power plant utility into an independent public-law entity.

Written by Thorben Thiede thorben.thiede@alpineweekly.com