Swiss rental market seeing impact of economic slowdown
Tight market for homes keeping prices up
Trendy city centre areas, such as that around the new Prime Tower in Zurich, are able to demand top prices for housing (photo, Prime Tower)
GENEVA / ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – New apartment leases in urban Switzerland have risen 10 percent a year in the past five years but this could be coming to an end, according to property consultants Wuest & Partner in their most recent quarterly assessment of the Swiss real estate market, but not before a new increase this year. Home prices remain high, with no sign of the very tight market easing, according to “Property market Switzerland 2012/1″.
The report notes that typical transaction prices for standard single-family houses today range from CHF500-700,000 in non-urban areas and CHF1.5 million to CHF2.5 million in Zurich, Geneva and Switzerland’s high-end tourism destinations.
The company has also just published its second annual “Immo-Monitoring”, an in-depth report on the market that shows a dangerous level of overheating in real estate in 102 communes, more than half of them in French-speaking Switzerland, reports news agency ats. Geneva is, to no one’s surprise, one of the hot spots: the price of single-family homes has risen 136 percent in 10 years (2001-2011) while the price of owner-occupied (PPE) apartments has risen 200 percent.
Overheating does not necessarily equate bubble, the consultancy’s Robert Weinert told ats. Investors have few alternatives and the 78,000 newcomers to the Geneva area in 2011 kept demand high.
The report parallels one published by Credit Suisse in February, which expect real estate prices, even high ones, to remain relatively stable: the elements needed to push prices down are not there, with immigration remaining high, confidence in markets high ad interest rates low.
“The effect of interest rates on the housing market is causing price distortions which are increasingly
growing at two distinct rates. Whilst one area experiences a run on condominiums like it
has never seen before, restricting the supply and so causing a worrying increase in property
prices, other areas face problems in placing rental properties, in particular new-build and upscale
properties, and only find relief in the persistently high rate of immigration. The trend is exacerbated
by the fact that the expansion of supply, driven by the increasing focus of institutional
investors on property, is increasingly focused on rented housing. As things currently stand, this
trend is likely to continue throughout the year as fundamental data remain unchanged. The result
will be increasing vacancy rates in the rental sector and continued price rises in residential
property offered for sale. Thanks to the low share of speculative real estate sales though, property
prices are not increasing as a result of a speculative price bubble, but rather as a result of a
overheating of demand. Falling demand and sharp rises in interest rates are much-feared triggers
that could bring about a possible price correction, though not in 2012.”
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland will be creating an additional 2,000 spaces to welcome asylum seekers while their initial requests for asylum are being processed. The country currently receives about 2,500 new requests a month and the confederation has reached the limits of its space for processing them as they enter the country.
Once the first phase of the process is completed, asylum seekers are assigned to cantons, which then provide them with longer term housing. The federal government says it can speed up processing and reduce costs if it has more initial welcome centres.
The federal Migration Office is supporting Swiss Defense Department efforts to find 2,000 more spaces for asylum seekers that should be ready for use by the end of 2013. The defense department and the federal justice department are drawing up an administrative agreement that will allow the use of “military infrastructures” for the centres, although military training centres have been excluded from the list.
The Defense Department, which includes administration offices for sports in the country, said 2 March it has not yet completed its list of places that can accommodate a large number of people, be used for at least six months at a stretch and that are accessible to heavy vehicles year round.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – You could be due for up to a 10 percent reduction in your rent if you haven’t asked for a cut since 2008, says Asloca, the Swiss tenants’ association, 1 December. It won’t come to you: you have to ask for it.
The Swiss rental reference interest rate has fallen from 2.75 to 2.50 percent, which means it can be applied to rental agreements. The rate is calculated quarterly, based on the average of banks’ mortgage rates. Today’s lower rate gives tenants the right to ask for a 2.91 percent rent reduction, but it’s the fourth since the start f 2008 and in total the reductions come to about 10 percent. The law changed in October, making it easier to apply the reference rates to real rent reductions.
Asloca says tenants are often afraid to ask for a reduction on an existing lease for fear that the landlord will try to use that to end the lease, but the opposite is true: tenants who insist on reductions because the law gives them the right to this lower rents overall in the country, and they are better protected when the landlord tries to increase the rent.
Guide to how to ask for a cut in rent, Bon a savoir (Fr)
Insurance was 8.4% in 2009, but cost has risen for past 2 years
Sausage, roesti and great local wine in St Gallen in late October: the Swiss spent CHF460 a month on average of their household budget dining out in 2009, but this includes work canteens and cafeterias as well as restaurants
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Average disposable household income in Switzerland in 2009 was CHF6,650 a month, with 13 percent of that, CHF1,185, going for food, beverages and restaurants. Housing and energy together made up the largest household budget item, CHF1,495 a month.
Transport used up 7.7 percent of the budgets and entertainment 6.7 percent. Clothing: 2.4 percent.
Households were left with, on average, savings of CHF1,160 after all expenses were deducted.
Taxes consumed on average CHF1,125 a month, some 12 percent, or less than what a household spent on food and beverages.
But taxes are only one part of Swiss mandatory expenses, which also include social security payments:
- 10 percent of disposable income that includes AVS and company pension plans (the Swiss first and second pillars)
- the mandatory part of the health insurance system (5 percent)
- and money sent to other households, for example as part of a divorce settlement (2 percent).
These mandatory expenses together with taxes account for 29 percent of household budgets, some CHF2,720 a month.
In addition, the Swiss in 2009 spent 3.4 percent on health insurance not covered by the basic, obligatory plans.
The figures were published by the Swiss Statistical Office Tuesday 15 November.
The office notes three important points: 58 percent of all households had lower revenue than the average, 39 percent had at least two people contributing to the revenue, and revenue here includes salaries but also social security income, pension payouts, interest payments, dividends, income from fortunes and money from other households (notably divorce settlements).
UBS real estate risk map Q3 2011 (click on image to view larger)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Real Estate Bubble Index, published quarterly by bank UBS, shows the housing market continuing to boom but not at risk of a housing price bubble, nationwide.
Morges is one of two new regions that have been added to the “at risk” of reaching the bubble stage, however, along with the Oberengadin region and new regions have been added for monitoring for risk.
The third quarter 2011 risk level is 0.58 on the scale that tracks slump, balance, boom, risk and bubble. “A value of 0.58 corresponds to the boom level and implies no elevated risk of a Switzerland-wide correction,” UBS notes.
“Only when the index surpasses a value of 1 is the market considered risky. The index reached its peak in the early 1990s at a level of 2.5 at the height of the last Swiss real estate bubble.”
The quarterly report shows some cooling of house prices but no change in trend foreseen for home mortgage debt.
Lake Geneva region remains expensive, Morges shifts to “at risk”
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government said Wednesday night 2 November that it condemns Israel for two new measures, voted by the Israeli cabinet Tuesday, shortly after Unesco admitted Palestine as a member.
Bern stopped short of calling the measures retaliatory, but it notes that the decision by Tel Aviv to “speed up construction of several thousand additional housing units in the settlements in and around East Jerusalem” is illegal and constitutes a violation of international law”.
The Swiss Federal Council also says that it is “preoccupied by the Israeli government’s announcement concerning a possible freeze on transferring funds to the Palestinian Authority. Such a decision would be contrary to Israel’s international obligations. Switzerland calls upon the Israeli authorities to continue to turn over the tax revenues collected in the name of the Palestinian Authority. These funds make up a significant part of the Palestinian Authority’s budget.”
Switzerland abstained from the Unesco vote on Palestine, but swissinfo cited a statement Monday night by Rodolphe Imhoof, Swiss permanent delegate to Unesco in Paris: “If Switzerland abstained in the voting, it’s because it believes that this debate should not be held in the context of an organisation whose role is a technical one, such as Unesco,.” Imhoof added that the matter was one for the political organs of the UN to decide.
The Israeli government has denied charges that the two cabinet decisions are retaliatory, but AFP quotes an unnamed Israeli official as saying the measures were a “punishment” for the vote.
Lausanne (photo, ©2011 overthemoon on flickr, reproduced with permission)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Police in canton Vaud are warning would-be renters to be wary of scams via Internet ads for housing. The fraudulent ads take a variety of forms, with several of them originating in Africa. Some are legitimate sites that have been hacked, while others look legitimate and are signed by lawyers or notaries but they are wholly fictitious.
Be on the alert for these signs that you might be looking at a fake advertisement:
- The apartments are described as high-quality, tastefully furnished, in a modern building but the rent is abnormally low for this type of housing
- The con artists ask what your availability is for a visit and request information by e-mail, such as a copy of your ID, your monthly income and more
- Advertisements in French often use French terms, rather than Swiss ones, to describe the apartment, such as F2, F3 instead of 2 pièces, 3 pièces
- There may be several grammar and spelling mistakes
- They ask for a deposit in advance, one month’s rent, to reserve the apartment. The money requested is to be sent to them via a funds transfer company.
The police suggest that if you suspect that a site is fraudulent or has fake information you contact the owner of the site directly to verify the details.
Geneva, with Switzerland's worst rate for available housing
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The good news is that there is more available housing in Switzerland than a year ago, or at least there was 1 June.
The federal government took stock that day and noted 38,420 unoccupied dwellings of all types, an increase of 1,700 houses and apartments over 1 June 2010.
The 1,700 represent a 5 percent increase, for a rate of “0.94% of the approximate housing stock”, says Bern.
The available housing included 4,570 houses, an increase of 250 from the previous year.
The number of apartments for rent rose, but the number of apartments for sale fell.
The bad news if you live in Geneva (but you already know this) is that you live in the Swiss city with the worst rate of available housing, 0.25 percent.
One option is to move to Solothurn, with 2.09 percent, the highest vacancy rate in the country.
Swiss construction and renovation is booming, thanks to low interest rates
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The current very low interest rates in Switzerland run the risk of overheating the mortgage market and Wednesday the Swiss Federal Council underscored that it considers urgent the need for measures to reinforce macroprudential management.
In particular, the government wants to ensure that the central bank and supervisory authorities have rapid access to lending data from the banks to avoid a Fannie Mae style meltdown from risky loans, with the broader impact that would have on the economy.
The Swiss National Bank and Finma, the federal supervisory body for financial institutions, are already working with the Federal Finance Department, and the working group will very soon begin to involve Swiss banks, the cabinet said in a statement 7 September.
The working group’s work is an extension of steps taken 17 August, when the government announced that banks will be required to get tougher about mortgages starting in January 2012.
Borrowers will need higher down payments to buy homes starting next year.
The group is reviewing the way in which the central bank can have rapid access to bank data when it’s not available to Finma. Current legislation may be too restrictive, the cabinet argues, and if this is found to be the case it will draw up a new legal framework by the end of the year and submit it to parliament.
“Macroprudential” is a relatively recent buzz word in the financial word, says the Bank for International Settlements, reflecting greater concern since 2008 over the impact of high risk lending on the economy as a whole. One of its earliest uses was in 1979, in a background paper prepared for a BIS working committee by the Bank of England:
“Prudential measures are primarily concerned with sound banking practice and the protection of depositors at the level of the individual bank. Much work has been done in this area – which could be described as the ‘micro-prudential’ aspect of banking supervision. […] However, this micro-prudential aspect may need to be matched by prudential considerations with a wider perspective. This ‘macro-prudential’ approach considers problems that bear upon the market as a whole as distinct from an individual bank, and which may not be obvious at the micro-prudential level.”
Background feature: “Swiss mortgage rates remain low, but market increasingly scrutinized”, 17 June 2011, GenevaLunch
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The tight housing situation in Geneva is not likely to ease much thanks to new construction, if construction and permits issued in the first half of 2011 are any sign.
Throughout Switzerland, new permits were up by 19 percent, an increase of some 30,000 new units. Five percent more new units were under construction, some 70,000, during the first half of the year, compared to the same period in 2010.
Geneva new permits up but total units only 2,000
But the picture for the greater Lausanne and Geneva areas is mixed. Geneva had a 26 percent increase in new buildings in the first half of the year, but buildings under construction were down by 11.3 percent in the second quarter (semester figures not available).
New permits issued during the first six months rose by a 63.5 percent, representing more than 2,000 units.
Lausanne area sees slowdown in building
The greater Lausanne area saw new construction fall during the first half of the year by more than 39 percent, with buildings under construction up 6.7 percent and new permits down more than 11 percent.
Vacancy rate, as a % of all Geneva housing, since 1985
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva’s very tight housing situation has not improved, new figures released 9 August by Ocstat, the cantonal statistical office, show. The figures are part of the annual federal statistics on housing.
The vacant housing rate in June 2011 was stuck at 0.25 percent, the lowest availability rate in Switzerland, with a total of 437 apartments and 119 villages the day the pulse was taken, most of them for rent rather than for sale. Seven of the 25 communes in the canton showed no vacant housing at all, while the 60 additional units listed, compared to a year earlier, were in the city centre, Lancy and Vernier.
The city centre Plainpalais park is ringed by old apartment buildings, which when renovated, as Muller's is, generally fetch high rents (photo: Rohit Acharya on flickr, reproduced with permissison)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva is heating up as the summer holidays set in, not over outdoor temperatures but over the revelation by TSR public television 30 June that Mark Muller, Geneva councilor with responsibility for construction, pays only CHF1,800 plus charges for a seven-room apartment.
The rent for the top-floor flat overlooking Plainpalais is well below the rate of about CHF7,000 one would expect to pay in Geneva, according to TSR and the Tribune de Geneve, which corrects the amount to CHF2,000 a month, based on a phone interview.
The Tribune focuses on the fact that the housing boss’s rent remains relatively low because of the LDTR, loi sur les démolitions, transformations et rénovations d’habitations, which Muller has fought for several years. He has rented the apartment since 2009, he told the Tribune and he did not take over a lease held by a friend.
The disclosure follows the canton’s publication this week of housing statistics that show rent jumps 17 percent when tenants move. The statistics show that the average rent for a 7-room apartment is CHF3,187, but the annual report on Geneva rents notes that the price varies hugely at this end of the rental scale depending on the “standing” or quality of the apartment.
Geneva, marked by much coming (growth) despite the going (exodus): companies, individuals
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva comes out looking pretty but at a price, in the latest “location quality” comparison drawn up by bank Credit Suisse for Swiss cantons. The report issued 22 June says Geneva’s growing economic success is thanks in particular to the availability of high quality labour and its easy accessibility. Geneva’s growth rate from 1995-2008 was the strongest in French-speaking Switzerland.
Victim of its success leads to greater regional cooperation
The canton is nevertheless a victim of its own success, the report notes, with companies and individuals moving to neighboring canton Vaud and across the border to France. A growing regional cooperation is developing as a result, the report notes.
Geneva is one of the country’s smallest cantons, at 282 square kilometres but it is ranked fourth for dynamic economic performance by the bank after Zurich, Zug and Aargau, wth the last two benefitting from their proximity to Zurich.
Geneva’s strength comes from its mixed role as a home to international organizations and as Switzerland’s second international financial centre plus main centre for private wealth management, but it has also been growing rapidly as a trading centre for raw materials. It is gradually going through a transformation from cutting edge industries to cutting edge value-added business, which means that measuring by the value created per employee is one of the country’s highest.
Disposable income in Geneva is by far the lowest in Switzerland
The downside is that Geneva has the tax rates, corporate and personal, that are among Switzerland’s highest, with some of the most costly housing in the country. As a result, Geneva’s regional disposable income, or RDI, used to calculate the financial attractiveness of cantons for residence, is by far the lowest in Switzerland.
Credit Suisse points to the exodus towards France and neighbouring towns, notably Nyon, Rolle and Morges, as the direct result of these high costs, both for companies and individuals.
Zurich says no to both proposals to limit assisted suicide
Update 13:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – First Swiss 15 May voting results are in:
- Geneva accepting a re-zoning project for Plan-les-Ouates and Confignon, but a bicycle and pedestrian paths system looking like it is headed for defeat
- Vaud voting to support families in need, in particular those reaching the end of long-term unemployment claims.
- Zurich voters gave little support to either of the two proposals to limit assisted suicide (TSR, Fr).
a Zurich voters are famously having their say about suicide tourism 15 May, UK media in particular report, but inside Switzerland the hot issues include rezoning for a new housing area in Geneva, and nuclear waste and a minimum wage in canton Vaud.
Geneva: green transport support, re-zoning for new building
Geneva debates giving cyclists more space
The 15 May votes do not include any federal-level popular referendums. The Swiss go to the polls three to four times a year and the next federal voting session is in October, when members of parliament are elected.
Geneva voters, with the entire canton now eligible to vote online, have five items on the ballot. The one that has prompted the liveliest French-language media coverage is a zoning change in Plan-les-Ouates and Confignon, in the areas known as Les Cherpines and Les Charrotons. The re-zoning would permit agricultural land to be re-zoned for offices and homes, with the possibility of creating 3,000 homes near l’Aire, to the west of the A1 autoroute. The government is backing the plan, but opponents argue, among other things, that in order to eat local food as a feature of supporing the environment, you have to have land to grow it.
Geneva is also voting on a popular initiative to create pedestrian and cycling paths that would have priority, but the cantonal government says it is opposed to the plan, citing the fact that only 6 percent of those using “transport” systems are on bicycles and that the plan goes against a Geneva constitutional article that does not allow one form of transport to be given priority over others.
Vaud: nuclear waste, minimum wages
Vaud citizens are being asked to decide on a popular referendum that would create a minimum wage; Switzerland in general does not have minimum wages except for certain categories of workers, such as household staff, where they were established to avoid abuse. Unions and employer organizations generally negotiate wages that set a minimum.
Vaud is also one of several cantons that had planned votes on nuclear power stations, but in the wake of the early 2011 federal government moratorium on building nuclear plants, the ballot item was dropped. In its place is part of the larger ballot issue: voters are being asked to approve Swiss plans to bury nuclear waste deep underground. The cantonal vote is not binding on the federal government.
This weekend also sees the final round of voting to elect local officials.
Neuchatel, Valais, Zurich
Neuchatel: There are no cantonal voting items but the communes of Boudry, Cortaillod and Bevaix are voting on whether or not to join together.
Valais is not voting this weekend.
Zurich: Voters are being given two popular referendums on assisted suicide, one to end it and the other to limit it to Zurich residents when carried out in the canton, but neither is expected by most observers to pass. The importance of the vote lies in the message it will send to the federal government, which is expected to propose stricter legislation, possibly in 2011, and to canton Vaud, where a vote will probably be held in 2012 on allowing assisted suicide in homes for the elderly.
British media have covered the Zurich vote as part of ongoing coverage of suicide tourism, focusing on people going from the UK to Switzerland to die at one of the two main Zurich area clinics, Dignitas and Exit. Numbers are unconfirmed by vary widely, from 100 mentioned by the Telegraph to 800 on a waiting list mentioned by the Guardian.
Ed. note: one BBC story, and as a result other UK media stories, mistakenly reported that Switzerland is voting on the issue this weekend: only canton Zurich is voting on it (BBC’s Imogene Foulkes got it right).
Polls have shown a majority of Swiss in favour of ending suicide tourism, while safeguarding free choice about ending one’s life, for Swiss citizens.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A Nigerian family is working out an arrangement with the landlord after being evicted by Geneva police Monday when they failed to pay their rent after several months of warnings, city police confirm.
The mother works at the International Labour Organization and is one of several Nigerians in Geneva who are reportedly owed several months of back pay by their government.
Patrick Pulh, police spokesperson, told GenevaLunch that the mother does not have diplomatic status and the family therefore was treated like any other that doesn’t pay its rent. Geneva saw 1,125 evictions in 2010, says Pulh, down from the 1,540 in 2009.
The family is believed to be working out an agreement with the landlord, but it remains unclear what the Nigerian government’s plans are in terms of settling backpay for its employees who work in international organizations.
The Nigerian Tribune reports that the country’s minister for labour, in Geneva for a meeting at the ILO in March, was briefed on the back payment problem but salaries have remained unpaid.
Three out of five Swiss residences are single-family homes
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government has counted the country’s homes, officially, for the first time. The new Federal Register of Buildings and Dwellings statistics show that at the end of December 2009 the number of buildings with residential use in Switzerland was 1,623,000 with a total of 4,008,400 dwellings.
Switzerland has a population of 7.4 million, giving it on average 1.85 persons per dwelling.
More houses than apartments, and homes are getting larger
Three out of five dwellings are individual homes, surprisingly almost as many in urban areas, 57 percent, as in rural, 59 percent. But houses supply only 25 percent of lodgings. Three- and four-room apartments account for 53 percent of all residential living space.
The five largest cities vary, with Zurich having not quite twice as many individual houses as apartments, while Geneva has three times as many houses.
Source: Swiss Federal Register of Buildings and Dwellings, 2009 figures. Left to right: total buildings, total housing, individual homes, multi-dwelling housing
The study does not look at the number of square metres of dwellings but in terms of the number of rooms, apartments have been getting larger.
More than 60 percent of apartments built after 1990 have four or five rooms, with a steady fall in the number of three-room apartments. Geneva is the only city to have more five- and six-room apartments (combined) figure than four-room ones.
Number of dwellings, by the number of rooms, Swiss-wide, 2009 (source: Federal Statistical Office)
The figures for the first housing tally are limited, based on figures gathered on the basis of the 2000 census, but the register will be expanded in coming years.
It is part of the new federal approach to gathering annual statistics for a more comprehensive government data base in the place of a census every 10 years.
Australia creates flood tax
Displaced Afghan refugee Gul Hassan is taking refuge on a road side near Hajizai Afghan refugee village which was destroyed by recent floods; August 2010 (UNHCR / R. Ali)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Monsoon floods that devastated Pakistan in 2010 continue to cause extreme hardship in the face of a funding shortfall, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva says.
“This natural disaster, unprecedented in terms of destruction of housing and infrastructure, has necessitated an unprecedented response,” the IOM notes in a statement issues 27 January.
The UN agency coordinates some 300 agencies and NGO (non-governmental organization) groups involved in the Shelter Cluster programme to re-house people in the region.
It says international donors have contributed US$1.1 billion or 56 percent of a UN appeal for US$1.96b launched in September 2010. Agencies in the Shelter Cluster appealed for US$322 million and have received US$126m or 39 percent.
Some 11 million people were left homeless, with 1.7 million houses destroyed. Punjab province alone saw twice as many people lose their homes as did in the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Those caught by the floods include Afghan refugees.
Millions have been helped but “unless more funding is forthcoming, at least half a million families who lost their homes and need help to rebuild either a one-room or a transitional shelter will receive nothing,” according to the IOM.
City also celebrating western Lausanne urban development award
Lausanne, December 2010: city reduces its debt but will continue investment programme
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Lausanne handed its taxpayers good news Wednesday 19 January, saying it will reduce the city’s debt by CHF25 million in 2010, after a reduction of CHF2 million in 2009.
The city, which has grown by 6,500 inhabitants since 2007, has invested more than CHF600m in the past four years for what it calls “modernization and efforts to increase its attractiveness”.
The city’s mayor, Daniel Brélaz, has come in for heavy criticism for the size of the debt and 24 Heures (Fr) points out that some investments planned for 2010 were not carried out in order to reduce the debt, possibly in time to woo voters before coming elections.
The debt reduction covers 1.1 percent of the city’s CHF2.3 billion debt, which has grown by CHF44.55m in the past four years and which includes a CHF141 million increase to cover recapitalization of the city’s pension fund for municipal workers.
More housing on the books as international population boosts city’s size
Lausanne at dusk, December 2010
The local government says it plans to continue its investment programme, pointing to the debt reduction as a positive sign that city finances are under control, even if the debt remains substantial.
It points out in its statement about the payoff that the city’s assets are greater than its debt.
One part of the current investment programme is increasing housing by 3,000 homes. Future investment projects call for an additional 5,000 homes by 2020 to ease the tight housing market.
The US government has said it will no longer pursue efforts to persuade the Israeli government to freeze settlements in the occupied territories in order to resume stalled peace talks with the Palestinians. The USA promised Israel 20 Stealth fighter jets worth $3 billion and US vetoes on anti-Israel resolutions in the UN Security Council in exchange for a 90-day settlement freeze. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu was unable to persuade his coalition cabinet to accept the deal.
Palestinian negotiators had demanded a freeze on building settlements in the occupied West Bank as well as in East Jerusalem, which would become the capital of an independent Palestine, as a pre-requisite for continuing talks that were begun in September 2010.
It is not immediately clear what the Obama administration will propose next. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are arriving in Washington for talks and will attend the Saban Forum in Washington, DC where US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to give a speech 10 December.
Links to other sites: JerusalemPost, LA Times, Washington Post
Traffic then security are also issues, with security a growing concern
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Housing is the main worry for expatriates and diplomats in Geneva, a poll run jointly by Geneva police and the Swiss Mission to the United Nations.
More than half of the 1,098 persons questioned said housing was their biggest concern, while traffic problems were listed by 16.3 percent and lack of security by 13.6 percent.
The poll included 318 members of the diplomatic corps, 581 international organization employees and 235 members of staff at multinational companies, with 66 percent of them having lived in Geneva for at least two years. Three-quarters were from Europe
A negative point in the survey was the perception on the part of the foreigners that security is getting worse in the city, with 80 percent of those questioned saying it is.
The report on the poll was presented at an annual meeting on human rights hosted by Geneva for NGOs (non-governmental organizations). This year’s theme was security: how to provide it while respecting human rights.
The report also showed that Geneva nevertheless is viewed well by foreigners living there, with 92 percent saying they would recommend it to their friends and 77.3 percent saying the quality of life is good.
The police are generally viewed positively (60 percent), but around the Cornavin train station in Geneva and the Paquis district 61 percent believe the police are too passive.
Geneva, the authors note, is given a relatively good score when compared to the countries where they previously resided, with seven of them doing better than Geneva on a scale of 10:
- Singapore, 9.1 /10, given the top rating
- Geneva, 7.6
- USA, 6.5
- Great Britain, 5.9
- Brazil, 5.7
- South Africa, 2.6.
Swiss are building homes in the suburbs and towns
Geneva: a city with too few building cranes (winter 2010)
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The number of newly-built homes in Switzerland has increased by more than 12 percent since the start of the year, compared to 2009, but the figure hides major discrepancies between areas. Overall, in the second quarter of the year the number of new homes increased in villages with no more than 2,000 residents and in small towns of 5,000-10,000 people. But the five main cities in Switzerland showed a 20 percent drop in completed new homes, with Lausanne the only one showing growth: Basel, Bern, Geneva and Zurich all saw a decline.
Houses under construction up, but building permits down
A small glimmer of hope for the tight housing market in Swiss cities is that the number of new homes under construction at the end of June 2010 was more than 8 percent higher than a year earlier. For the country as a whole, federal statistics show 9,750 new homes being built during the second quarter of the year, a 2.5 percent increase over the same period in 2009.
The boost looks short-lived, however, with the number of new building permits down by 2 percent at the end of June for the country as a whole, but down 17 percent in the five main cities. Basel and Lausanne areas show an increase in permits, while the number is down sharply in Geneva, Zurich and Bern.
The Royal Bank of Canada has raised the interest rate on mortgages to 6.25 percent on five-year closed mortgages, the third increase in a month. RBC is the country’s largest bank and others are likely to follow, says The Globe & Mail, with the national bank saying that its key lending rate will rise in June.
Meanwhile, the prices, at least in Vancouver, are enough to raise the roof, reports McLeans.
The diplomatic Middle East Quartet, which met in Moscow Friday 19 March, has issued a strongly worded reaction to Israel’s recent announcement it intends to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem. The group of four (the UN, US, Russia and the EU) are calling for Israel to remove settlement homes within 24 months. and for Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate an agreement in the same time period that provides for an independent Palestinian state living next to Israel in peace. “The quartet condemns the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem, “UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon said unequivocally.
The New York Times had earlier reported that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared anxious to lower the temperature after Israel came in for heavy criticism over the housing. “We all condemned the announcement, and we all are expecting both parties to move toward the proximity talks and to help create an atmosphere in which those talks can be constructive,” Clinton said before the Quartet’s statement.
Links to other sites: Guardian, UK, Jerusalem Post, Moscow Times, New York Times
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland has added its voice to a growing number of nations asking Israel to end its plans to build 1,600 new homes in the Occupied West Bank. The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) in a statement Thursday morning 11 March called the decision a clear violation of international law.
“The FDFA is following with concern the events taking place in East Jerusalem, and deplores the go-ahead given by the Government of Israel to the building of 1,600 new dwellings in the settlement of Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It asks the Government of Israel not to proceed with the building project. East Jerusalem is an integral part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
“Switzerland considers the building of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to be a violation of international humanitarian law, which forbids an occupying power to transfer any part of its civilian population to an occupied territory. The Israeli settlements are a clear violation of international law.”
Arab League Secretary-general Amr Moussa announced after an emergency meeting Wednesday 10 March that Palestine is withdrawing from indirect talks with Israel. Moussa reportedly had been phoned by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who said that given Israel’s announcement that it will build 1,600 new settler homes, his government cannot participate in talks. Al Jazeera quotes Moussa as saying “The Palestinian president decided he will not enter into those negotiations now . . . the Palestinian side is not ready to negotiate under the present circumstances.” Al Jazeera interviewed US Vice-president Joe Biden, who is in the region to encourage the talks, which were announced Sunday, just two days before the Israeli announcement about the planned new West Bank construction. Biden told Al Jazeera that “Everyone knows the Palestinians deserve an independent state, the Israelis deserve an independent and secure state and for those kinds of actions to occur when there’s more agreement than disagreement is just destabilising.”
Israel has apologized for the timing of the announcement, and it appears that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was unaware the announcement would be made.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, CBS News commentary, CNN, Jerusalem Post, Times, UK
Outsiders are divided over whether or not the Chinese economy is experiencing a bubble, particularly in specific areas like housing, but the country’s parliament meets and focuses on economic recovery. Growth is targeted at 8 percent and inflation at 3 percent. Premier Wen Jiabao insisted in the opening session that housing prices in cities must be curbed and he told the National People’s Congress that the government is increasing low income housing expenditure by 14.7 percent in 2010.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Xinhua
China’s “hukou” or housing registration system has been part of the country’s social system for more than 50 years, but a group of major newspapers Monday 1 March put pressure on the government to end the system, which they say discriminates against migrant workers in particular. The registrations were originally designed as part of massive social planning changes in the 1950s. It identifies people, based on their origins, as urban or country dwellers. Social services are based on these labels, and one result is that people registered as coming from the countryside are often denied services in cities. The government published a discussion paper on reforms a few weeks ago. Twelve newspapers, in an unusual move, this week printed a joint editorial calling for the system to end, in advance of China’s lawmakers holding their annual meeting.
Links to other sites: BBC, East Asia Forum, Xinhua
Housing prices rose in Great Britain in January 2010 for the first time in 10 months, but early reports for February show some slippage, down 1.4 percent over January. Prices are nevertheless 9.2 percent higher than in February 2009. The housing price news is accompanied revised figures published 25 February by the government that show the UK grew by 0.3 percent in the last three months of 2009, slightly more than earlier reports showed.
Links to other sites: BBC, Market Watch
Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade is offering houses and land to Haitians who were affected by the earthquake. He says his country will offer them a place to live and even a region if the number of Haitians who are interested is great enough. The land would be in fertile country, not the desert, he specified.He referred to Haitians as sons and daughters of Africa, noting that many are thought to have gone to Haiti from Senegal, as slaves.
Swiss food and drink cost you a little more in September 2009.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s inflation rate fell slightly in September, down 0.9 percent, to an annual rate of 2.9 percent. The Consumer Price Index remained stable but the overall CPI is the result of a balance between imports,which have gone down in price and Swiss-made goods and services, which have risen slightly. It also hides differences that include falling prices for housing, energy and transport but rising prices for teaching, communications, food and drink, healthcare.
