A Country of Tenants. Swiss Social Housing Policy, 1936-1950

Florian Müller, University of Zurich

From an international perspective, Switzerland remains a country of tenants. Dominated to a remarkable degree by private real estate interests, the Swiss housing market has been characterized by both low home ownership rates and limited state housing subsidies throughout the twentieth century. By examining the controversies that arose in connection with state intervention in the housing market between 1936 and 1950, this article provides explanations for the development trajectory of the Swiss housing market in the second half of the 20th century. In the wake of economic crisis and World War II, temporary measures were implemented by the Swiss federal state to regulate rents and subsidize housing construction. Yet, by the 1950s, these measures had been largely dismantled and the emerging housing boom was quickly dominated by the private rental market. While most Western European countries and the USA developed after 1945 either social housing and/or supported home ownership, both policies remained very weak in Switzerland. The emergence of this peculiar housing policy framework can be contrasted with developments in other Western European countries and the USA. The predominance of renting and the difficulties in classifying the Swiss housing market into the different typologies of housing systems make Switzerland an especially promising case for comparative research. Although the unique characteristics of the Swiss housing market are widely recognized in the comparative literature, a historically informed study of Switzerland is still lacking. This article contributes both to a better understanding of the peculiarities of Swiss housing policy and to the clarification of the various types of housing systems.

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 Presented in Session 159. Housing, Real Estate, and the State