Tag Archives: Editor’s Choice

20 Minutes. After noticing a roadside police check, a resident of the canton of St Gallen sent a message to a WhatsApp group warning of the check. Not long after he received a nasty surprise. © Marcelmooij | Dreamstime Speaking to the newspaper 20 Minuten, the man said: “Me and several others received a penalty notice this week. I received a fine of 850 francs because I warned of a police check via WhatsApp. What I wrote in the group is private and has nothing to do with anyone else. Why are...

© Nik Frey | Dreamstime The UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index 2017 describes housing in Zurich and Geneva as only moderately overvalued. The two Swiss cities rank 6th (Geneva) and 9th (Zurich) in a list of 20 selected global cities. The top eight: Toronto, Stockholm, Munich, Vancouver, Sydney, London, Hong Kong and Amsterdam are all classified as bubble risk. Only Chicago is undervalued. Since 2012 apartment price are...

A survey by Tamedia offers clues to why 52.7% of Swiss voters rejected the pension reform plan that was put to a vote last Sunday. © Michelle Meiklejohn – Dreamstime 20% of those voting “no” thought it was a pseudo reform that didn’t go far enough, while 26% felt it left too much of a burden on younger taxpayers. In 1981, when the life expectancy of an average Swiss woman was 79.2 years, the average time spent collecting the state pension was 15.2 years. Now an average Swiss woman can expect...

The UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index 2017 describes housing in Zurich and Geneva as only moderately overvalued. The two Swiss cities rank 6th (Geneva) and 9th (Zurich) in a list of 20 selected global cities. © Nik Frey | Dreamstime The top eight: Toronto, Stockholm, Munich, Vancouver, Sydney, London, Hong Kong and Amsterdam are all classified as bubble risk. Only Chicago is undervalued. Since 2012 apartment price are down 10% in Geneva, but up 10% in Zurich. Matthias Holzhey, a Swiss real...

Some who move to Switzerland might not be aware that they are almost certainly required to pay one of the world’s highest broadcasting fees. An annual Swiss licence costs CHF 451.10 per household. © Jacek Chabraszewski | Dreamstime A successful vote in 2015 changed the rules on who must pay the fee. From 2019, it will be compulsory for anyone with a primary or secondary residence in Switzerland to pay it, effectively making it a tax on all households. At a new lower price of CHF 400 It will...

Many people employed in Swiss homes are undeclared. According to one estimate the amount of unpaid social security taxes on the total paid to these people could be as high as CHF 320 million a year. © Tomislav Pinter | Dreamstime Quitt.ch, a company that helps people with the administration around employing home help, reckons between 200,000 and 250,000 of the 400,000 people employed in homes in Switzerland are unregistered, a figure supported by a number of other studies. According to...

© Nwanda76 | Dreamstime - Click to enlarge Home vacancy rates in Switzerland’s main cities have all risen over the last few years, bringing some hope to those looking for a place to live. The latest 2017 data confirm this trend. While these percentage shifts might appear big, very low vacancy rates underly them. On 1 June 2012, none of these cities had a vacancy rate above 1%. Zurich (0.29%), Bern (0.48%), Basel...

Home vacancy rates in Switzerland’s main cities have all risen over the last few years, bringing some hope to those looking for a place to live. The latest 2017 data confirm this trend. © Nwanda76 | Dreamstime Over the last five years vacancy rates have risen by between 18% and 49% in the main cities of Zurich (+32%), Bern (+37%), Basel (18%), Lausanne (+49%) and Geneva (+38%). While these percentage shifts might appear big, very low vacancy rates underly them. On 1 June 2012, none of these...

Switzerland’s federal council, the country’s seven-person executive or cabinet, has come up with a plan to cut those exorbitant mobile roaming phone bills that many of us return home to after trips abroad, an experience which hurts even more now roaming charges have been eliminated for EU residents. © Ocusfocus | Dreamstime The roaming proposal is part of a wide-ranging revision to Switzerland’s telecommunications laws, the first since 2007. The updated laws would give the government new...

Switzerland’s federal council, the country’s seven-person executive or cabinet, has come up with a plan to cut those exorbitant mobile roaming phone bills that many of us return home to after trips abroad, an experience which hurts even more now roaming charges have been eliminated for EU residents. © Ocusfocus | Dreamstime The roaming proposal is part of a wide-ranging revision to Switzerland’s telecommunications laws, the first since 2007. The updated laws would give the government new...