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Today in Switzerland For Members

Today in Switzerland: A roundup of the latest news on Monday

Helena Bachmann
Helena Bachmann - [email protected]
Today in Switzerland: A roundup of the latest news on Monday
China is vying to buy a Valais spring. Photo by Jonathan Chng on Unsplash

Swiss landlords are charging foreigners higher rents; it will no longer be possible to buy train tickets from Switzerland to some countries; and other news in our roundup on Monday.

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Foreigners pay higher rents than the Swiss

In Switzerland, having a foreign origin can be expensive.

According to a national study, a non-immigrant couple without children pays an average of 1,550 francs in rent for a 100-square-metre flat outside of notoriously high-rent cities like Geneva and Zurich.

However, foreign tenants, pay an average of 190 francs more per month for an apartment of the same size.

This situation is all the more unfair because there are more poor people among foreigners than among the Swiss,  MP Mustafa Atici pointed out: 13.6 percent for the former group compared to 6.8 percent for the latter. 

Read our story today about other higher costs that are imposed on foreign nationals.

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SBB will  no longer be selling tickets for some European destinations

If you plan to travel abroad with Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), do so before the end of this year.

That's because from January 1st, 2024, Germany’s national train system, Deutsche Bahn, will drastically reduce the range of its international train tickets.

This means that from then on, SBB will essentially focus on tickets to its other immediate neighbours — Italy, France and Austria.

Tickets for trains in Spain, Great Britain, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Poland, and other Eastern European countries will no longer be available, either online or at the counter, Swiss media reported on Friday.

There will, however, be a few exceptions: tickets for Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, and the Czech Republic, as well as the Eurostar to London and the TGV from France to Barcelona will continue to be sold. The direct night trains from Switzerland to Zagreb and Amsterdam, can also still be used.

MP calls for ban on second homes if housing shortage worsens

Deputy Bastien Girod submitted a parliamentary proposal seeking to adapt the current law on second homes to the context of housing shortage in big cities.

And the ban should be enforced even more strictly in in Zurich and Geneva, where shortages are most serious, he noted.

If vacant accommodations fall below 0.5 percent, construction of secondary homes would have to be outlawed, he told Swiss media in interview on Sunday. 

Also, municipalities must be able to impose occupancy standards for new buildings and new leases, Girod said. 

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China wants to import Swiss water

The municipality of Tourtemagne, in canton Valais, has its own spring water, Mühlackern, which passes under the Matterhorn mountain.

However, there is some debate about who owns the legal right to the water — a local businessman or the municipality.

This question is very pertinent as it appears that China wants to buy this source — offering more money for it than the local entrepreneur — and start exporting it with a Matterhorn image on the bottle.

This news is triggering heated debates and much tension in the village, as residents “are afraid that the source will go abroad," said Mayor Zenhauser.

This would not, however, be the first time a Swiss product got a new, foreign identity:

Why is Switzerland's famous Matterhorn mountain disappearing from Toblerone bars?

If you have any questions about life in Switzerland, ideas for articles or news tips for The Local, please get in touch with us at [email protected] 
 
 
 
 
 

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