Swiss tighten property purchases by foreigners in 2013

[offshoreoildude]

I spent my Xmas holidays in the Swiss Alps. I noticed a huge number of new buidlings - particularly holiday type chalets. I asked my friends what's going on and they told me there had been a flood of foreign money into Switzerland in the last few years - and because of restrictive property laws a lot of it ended up in 'second homes' - homes owned by Russians/UK/Greeks that were opened up 2 weeks a year and shut the rest of the time. Anyways the Swiss got a bit sick of all this resource being tied up and in a popular referendum in March 2012 voted this sort of thing to stop;

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/specials/ma ... d=32330312

Can you ever imagine the result of a referendum or vote here on whether foreigners can own property? If Foreignes can own more than one property (regardless of tax)? If Foreigners can own more than 20% of a locations properties as 'second homes' that are under utilized?

On the other hand you can invest in these dubious locations!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/ove ... broad.html

[zzm9980]

Not all of those are dubious, but the one I'd be more interested in (Cape Town) definitely is!

[JR8]

I respect Swiss cantonal electoral law. It's probably as close to true democracy as exists.

[offshoreoildude]

I respect Swiss cantonal electoral law. It's probably as close to true democracy as exists.

+1

[aster]

It's also the most overboard in that the Swiss government has to ask people if it can buy new cars or planes for its use, not to mention way more trivial issues!

Imagine the US gov't asking the nation in a referendum across the country if the president can replace Air Force 1 and other gov't planet with new ones or whether the FBI can modernize its fleet of cars. Seriously, you want to run this and 1000x smaller decisions by the masses each time and waste money on this process?

[merichan]

It's also the most overboard in that the Swiss government has to ask people if it can buy new cars or planes for its use, not to mention way more trivial issues!

Imagine the US gov't asking the nation in a referendum across the country if the president can replace Air Force 1 and other gov't planet with new ones or whether the FBI can modernize its fleet of cars. Seriously, you want to run this and 1000x smaller decisions by the masses each time and waste money on this process?

Well technically we don't vote on every little expense

But we can request a vote via the referendum if we don't agree on the expense

For something federal like army expense, we need about 100 000 signatures of voters to start the process.

[aster]

Seriously, the Swiss should stick to making chocolate and ensuring that the slopes at Saas Fee are covered with snow.

[offshoreoildude]

Seriously, the Swiss should stick to making chocolate and ensuring that the slopes at Saas Fee are covered with snow.

That's incredibly insulting. I have far more admiration for the Swiss than pretty much any SE Asian country.

[sundaymorningstaple]

By the way, welcome back Aster. We've not been seeing too much of you in recent months! Missed you at the last Eagles gathering.

[wwww]

Seriously, the Swiss should stick to making chocolate and ensuring that the slopes at Saas Fee are covered with snow.

I couldn't agree more

[aster]

That's incredibly insulting. I have far more admiration for the Swiss than pretty much any SE Asian country.

Incredibly? Insulting? Wow. For compliments about the great chocolate and skiing at Saas Fee? Wow again for finding that insulting.

As far as your admiration is concerned, good for you. I admire Singapore so much more than Switzerland that I wouldn't know where to start.

- The only reason I would live in Switzerland would be in some bizarre scenario in which the gov't there would keep me hostage/incarcerated.

- The reason why I live in Singapore is because out of all the countries in the world... this is where I CHOSE to live. I honestly WANT to be here and to top it off I actually feel at home here more than anywhere else. You know this when you fly out of Changi... and you feel like you're leaving home.

[aster]

By the way, welcome back Aster. We've not been seeing too much of you in recent months! Missed you at the last Eagles gathering.

Hi SMS, many thanks for the kind welcome!

I too am looking forward to the next gathering of Eagles. I'm wondering if we could get a whole keg arranged somewhere if enough of us could confirm their presence.