The Swiss real estate industry has had good years. Construction activity has been high, as has demand for real estate. The short-term prospects also appear fundamentally promising. But despite this development, there will be no shortage of structural challenges in the future.
These exist at a wide variety of levels:
• Political and planning decisions: These are intended to enable economic growth without neglecting the sustainable development of the landscape and habitats (keywords: urban sprawl and second-home initiative).
• Energy consumption and CO2 emissions: Both the construction industry and existing buildings are responsible for a significant share of energy consumption and CO2 emissions. It is true that regulations in this regard have been continuously tightened and have led to significant progress in new buildings. However, old buildings are clearly lagging behind. Since the rate of new construction in Switzerland is only about one percent, dealing with the existing building stock is a key factor. 80 percent of the dwellings in Switzerland were built before 1990, and about 55 percent even before 1970. Targeted and differentiated concepts are needed for such existing buildings.
• Aging and individualization: Even though the family home is often the measure of all things in the public discussion, only around 20 percent of all households in Switzerland have four or more people living in them. In contrast, more than a third of all households today have only 1 person living in them. Nevertheless, around 54 percent of all apartments have four or more rooms.
• Technologization and informatization: The house of tomorrow will have many more modern technical components than was previously the case. While information technology has long since found its way into commercial buildings, it will now also be increasingly integrated into residential construction. In the process, the technical possibilities must be harmonized with the competencies and preferences of the users.
The shortage of specialists as well as the lack of an interdisciplinary network shows that an offer with high quality as well as a healthy portion of humanity is needed in real estate matters. In this respect, schellenberg.immo GmbH builds bridges across topics and interests.