Open letter to the Federal Council of Switzerland
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regarding the public petition for the socialisation of the real estate holdings of former Credit Suisse
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Dear members of the Federal Council,
We write in support of the above petition. The future of the real estate portfolio of Credit Suisse Funds AG must be urgently addressed in the wake of the institution’s collapse. The Federal Council has important responsibilities and options for action in this regard, given the current national and international housing crisis.
We are a group of international scholars and experts on housing, planning and economic development. Our members come from more than 150 cities and five continents. We held our annual conference in Zurich this year with support from the Department of Architecture of ETH Zurich. We heard from Swiss experts in our fields and were presented with findings from deep economic and housing research. We saw impressive examples of the Swiss model of economically and environmentally sustainable cooperative housing.
We were alarmed however to see the effects of the financialisation of Zurich’s private housing market. The redevelopment of Wydäckerring, for example, has resulted in residents’ displacement due to rent increases of 250 per cent. At an affordable estate in Wiedikon, which is under redevelopment by Credit Suisse, we met several elderly long term residents under eviction with nowhere else to go. We discussed developments across the city and the country that are under similar kinds of pressures.
Our network has extensive research experience in the economics of housing and its privatisation and socialisation. All the origin cities in our network have problems with housing affordability, but the destruction of low cost housing by a large and powerful institution like Credit Suisse, in one of the most wealthy nations in the world, is unjustifiable. The collapse of this institution raises serious questions about its real estate and housing assets.
The state guarantee of the acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS involves billions of public money. To not protect the residents of its assets in this transaction is unacceptable. Substantial structural change to the financialised corporate landlord model is essential. The model is inadequately regulated and its ability to responsibly and sustainably manage housing is demonstrably poor.
Socialisation of the fund’s real estate holdings would transfer their management to the public sphere. It could ensure a continuing supply of affordable housing throughout Switzerland. It is our collective opinion that such an initiative is legally viable, and there is a rich array of public, non-profit and cooperative housing models to guide such a venture. We are happy to provide advice on this.
We expect a thriving democracy such as Switzerland to not disenfranchise its inhabitants. The socialisation of Credit Suisse’s poorly-managed property portfolio is well within the Federal Council’s capacity.
Salecina 5. June 2023
Yours sincerely
International Network for Urban Research and Action INURA
CH-8005 Zürich, Switzerland
Open letter editors (in alphabetical order)
Dr. Panayotis Antoniadis, NetHood Zurich, Switzerland
Dr. Ileana Apostol, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Dr. Gruia Badescu, University of Konstanz, Germany
Dr. Nitin Bathla, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Andreas Bentler, Stadt Münster, Germany
Dr. Matthias Bernt, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space, Germany
Maria Soledad Betancur Betancur, IPC, Colombia
Jens Brandt, Tampere University, Finland
Dr. Tino Buchholz, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Dr. Onur Ceritoglu, INURA Zurich, Switzerland
Bob Colenutt, INURA London, UK
Dr. Constance Carr, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Stefan De Corte, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Karlheinz Deventer, INURA Hamburg, Germany
Jaap Draaisma, INURA Amsterdam, Netherlands
Hon. Prof. Michael Edwards, Bartlett School of Planning, UCL, London, UK
Prof. Dr. Eniko Vincze, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania
Orhan Esen, Bundesverband für Wohnen und Stadtentwicklung, Berlin, Germany
Dr. Kike España, University of Málaga, Spain
Paloma España-Naveira, University of Málaga, Spain
Dr. Rubén Mora Esteban, University of Malaga, Spain
Prof. Dr. Momen M. El-Husseiny, American University in Cairo, Egypt
Dr. Sorin Gog, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania
Prof. Dr. Kanishka Goonewardena, University of Toronto, Canada
Dr. Teresa Hoskyns, CRAC Crosscultural Research on Architecture Collective, UK
Prof. Dr. Ute Lehrer, York University, Canada
Prof. Dr. Roger Keil, York University, Canada
Prof. Dr. Stefan Kipfer, York University, Canada
Dr. Philipp Klaus, INURA Common Office, Switzerland
Dr. Manuel Lutz, STATTBAU GmbH, Germany
Dr. Marvi Maggio, INURA Firenze, Italy
Prof. Dr. Cristina Mattiucci, University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy
Faiq Mari, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Dr. Vera Marin, ATU – Association for Urban Transition, Romania
Prof. Miguel A. Martinez, Uppsala University, Sweden
Dr. Alokananda Mukherjee, Jadavpur University, India
Anna Lisa Pecoriello, INURA Florence, Italy
Prof. Dr. Camilla Perrone, University of Florence, Italy
Anastasiia Ponomaryova, NGO Urban Curators, Ukraine
Mariia Prystupa, Kharkiv National University, Ukraine / University of Helsinki, Finland
Prof. Dr. Fred Robinson, Durham University, UK
Prof. Dr. Christian Schmid, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Antonia Steger, Urban Equipe / Mieten-Marta, Switzerland
Prof. Dr. Angela Stienen, Bern University of Education, Switzerland
Dr. Linda Strande, Eawag, Dübendorf, Switzerland
Siegfried Bernd Ries, INURA Vienna, Austria
Nicolas Rolle, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Prof. Dr. Marit Rosol, University of Würzburg, Germany
Mark Saunders, Spectacle, London, UK
Katja Schwaller, Stanford University, USA
Dr. Kate Shaw, University of Melbourne, Australia
Sabeth Tödtli, Urban Equipe, Switzerland
Ueli Trachsler, INURA Zurich, Switzerland
Dr. Nazli Tumerdem, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Prof. Dr. Omar Uran, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia
Dr. Justyna Orchowska, University of Warsaw, Poland
Dr. Richard Wolff, INURA Zurich, Switzerland
Dr. Tammy Wong, Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan
Associate Prof. Dr. Iacopo Zetti, University of Florence, Italy
Qianer Zhu, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
To sign this letter (for INURA members), please send an email to zurich2023@inura.org
To sign the petition, please visit cs-immobilien-en