Switzerland is on the verge of repeating England’s mistakes in housing construction, says Christian Hilber, a Swiss real estate economist at the London School of Economics, in an interview. There is only one point where he believes Switzerland is on the right track. “We want to get the balance right with nature and the environment, but if it comes to a human being wanting to have a house for them and their family, that has to be the top priority.” These were the unusual and clear words of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, addressing the housing crisis in England. His Labour government recently presented a detailed plan on how it intends to correct the precarious property market situation. The ambitious goal: 370,000 new homes are to be approved each year, 87,000 in London alone. The last time there were so many new builds in England was in the 1970s. Switzerland also has a housing crisis, with many parallels. Like England, it has strict restrictions on land use – since the last ...
