Swiss voters reject extra powers for landlords on subletting

ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss voters narrowly rejected a change within the legislation giving landlords extra powers to limit subletting by tenants, based on preliminary outcomes of a referendum on Sunday that scrutinized Airbnb’s position within the rental market.

Advocates of the change handed by parliament in 2023 argued tenants have been more and more subletting through rental firm Airbnb. Opponents of it, led by a serious tenants’ affiliation, rejected this, saying most Airbnb letting is through landlords.

Kathrin Anselm, who’s accountable for Airbnb for Switzerland, instructed Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger earlier this month that the corporate had no affect on the residential housing market.

Preliminary outcomes confirmed 51.6% of voters rejected the subletting change, which additionally utilized to industrial property.

Within the newest spherical of nationwide referendums held underneath its system of direct democracy, voters additionally rejected – by a barely bigger majority – laws to present landlords extra rights to terminate leases when wanting to utilize their property.

The tenancy questions have been intently adopted in Switzerland, the place most households lived in rented or cooperative dwellings on the finish of 2022, official knowledge present.

Swiss voters additionally rejected the federal government’s plans to increase the nation’s community of motorways.

In a separate session, residents of Zurich rejected an initiative to take away gender-inclusive language from town’s official texts following months of debate.