Despite regularly appearing articles in the press about housing shortages, Swiss citizens, nevertheless, do not feel particularly cramped. Many have not just one apartment, but even two. The debates that have unfolded in the country regarding so-called 'second homes,' or more precisely, residential real estate built for investment purposes in popular tourist regions, have shown how widespread this phenomenon currently is in Switzerland.
True, it is not limited to just 'second homes.' As shown by the results of a study conducted by scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Wohnforum), the University of Basel, and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Hochschule Luzern), currently in Switzerland, 28% of citizens live at multiple addresses, another 20% have used such a format at least once in the past, and as many as 9% of respondents have four or more addresses across the country.
"It looks surprising, but such is reality. For example, I personally know a young woman who has an apartment in Basel because she is getting vocational training there, but at the same time she regularly lives in different parts of the country with her mother, father, and boyfriend," says sociologist Cédric Duchesne-Lacroix, one of the authors of the mentioned study.
Nevertheless, this scientist does not hide his astonishment, because he did not initially expect such a degree of prevalence of the phenomenon of 'multi-address' living. "Owners of second homes built in tourist regions either for personal vacation or, most often, for renting them out during the high tourist season, make up only 8% of respondents. We expected, taking into account all possible formats of living arrangements, that people with multiple addresses in the country would be no more than 15%. But it turned out to be almost 30%."
So why do almost a quarter of Swiss allow themselves to live not in one apartment, but in several? Or is this not a luxury but a necessity? As the aforementioned study shows, 68% of respondents stated that they need additional space for leisure and relaxation. Only 15% of respondents cited professional motives.
And yet, paradoxically, 'leisure time' is by no means the decisive motive for making a decision to rent or buy additional space. As Cédric Duchesne-Lacroix believes, it all depends on how the survey was designed and on what methodology the study was conducted.
Since respondents could name several reasons, the effect of accumulating some reasons and dispersing others occurred: 'rest' was usually cited by all respondents, but if you look at individual regions, at a lower level of generalization, completely different priorities emerge. And if you look at the situation a little differently, the reasons will immediately become clear.
Let's take the category of age. It turns out that the largest number of people living in multiple places at once is found among people aged 15 to 24. That is, these are citizens in the most active age, engaged in education, starting a family. These are people just beginning to find their place in life, and therefore they have to change their place of residence, or distribute their life priorities across the country, without clinging to one place, much more often.
This conclusion is indirectly confirmed by the fact that, for example, people living in multiple homes are much more common among single (36.5%) and divorced (34.4%) than among those who are married (22%). Achievements in the struggle for gender equality, when custody rights can belong equally to both parties previously married, also lead to children starting to live in two homes, or even four if we also consider the older generation of grandparents.
Thus, the phenomenon of multiple residences clearly reflects not so much the Swiss desire for hedonism or profit, but a qualitative revolution in lifestyle, accompanied by an increase in the degree of diversification of life projects and people's mobility. This phenomenon existed in Switzerland before, but not on such a scale, says Cédric Duchesne-Lacroix.
The nature of this 'multilocality' has also changed – for example, in Alpine regions, where peasants had winter apartments in the valley and summer quarters in the mountains. Today, as a result of structural changes in the Alpine economy, such mobility has disappeared, but it has been replaced by another, largely related to a revision of approaches to understanding what is called the 'traditional family.'
In an effort to obtain first-hand information, we met and talked with a Swiss married couple. The better half of the family lives in Zurich in a separate apartment, while the husband and his two-year-old daughter permanently reside in Neuchâtel. 'My wife could not find work here in her profession, so she is forced to stay in Zurich,' says the father of the family, Pierre-François Besson.
The plus here is the ability to maintain a constant connection between the two linguistic regions of the country, which helps 'not to get stagnant in the head' and always remain 'at the height of modern requirements.' Moreover, says Pierre-François, his wife's family also lives in Zurich, and thus we have solid life foundations in both the 'German' part of the country and the 'French' part, and this greatly helps in everyday life, not to mention that such opportunities greatly expand personal horizons.
Of course, there is also a negative side to this situation. “Our expenses are higher than usual. We have to spend more time and effort resolving bureaucratic issues and requirements. For example, my wife has to explain to the tax office in Zurich every year that our main place of residence is Neuchâtel, and we pay taxes there too. There are also everyday problems, such as making sure both apartments are equipped with everything necessary, children's clothing, for instance.”
The widespread adoption of the “multi-local” lifestyle has become an interesting object of study for Swiss sociologists. First and foremost, they ask the question: to what extent is the behavior of almost a quarter of the country's population, who allow themselves to have several apartments, ethically acceptable, especially given that in many regions of the country there is a clear shortage of affordable housing, and rental costs in Switzerland are slowly but steadily rising every year?
“Of course, one could argue that someone who works in another city and rents an apartment there takes up 'extra' space and makes it harder for others to find housing. But on the other hand, this person does not take up 'extra' space in a train car, they do not cause additional greenhouse gas emissions, and they do not clog the country's already congested highways,” emphasizes Cédric Duchêne-Lacroix.
So what's the bottom line? In a free country with a free market, anyone who has sufficient funds and is compelled by necessity can have several apartments. This situation most likely has no direct bearing on the housing shortage issue.
Olivier Pauchard.
Translation by Ludmila Klot.