The proposal comes at a time of a tight housing market. In the canton of Vaud, the vacancy rate in 2026 stands at 0.94 per cent, meaning that Lausanne can continue to use the municipal right of first refusal to secure plots of land and rental properties for social housing.
The main change is the scale of the proposal. The city government had once again requested 130 million Swiss francs for the 2026–2031 legislative period. The municipal council’s finance committee is now demanding an additional 70 million and wishes to increase the budget to 200 million Swiss francs. The municipal council must decide on the proposal.
Right of first refusal as a lever
Lausanne has been pursuing an active acquisition policy for years. This is based on the Vaud LPPPL, which has been in force since 1 January 2020 and grants municipalities in areas with a housing shortage a right of first refusal in favour of public housing. According to the city, this right has already been exercised eleven times between February 2020 and the end of February 2023. In its 2023 annual report, the city also records four further acquisitions via the right of pre-emption. This means the mechanism continued to be utilised right up until recently.
For the current legislative period from 2021 to 2026, the City Council had initially approved 80 million Swiss francs in December 2021 and increased the budget by a further 50 million to 130 million in March 2023. The amount now under discussion would therefore represent the largest ever budget for municipal property purchases in Lausanne.
Policy with a direct impact on the property market
In practical terms, the mechanism works as follows for the property market: the city purchases properties at the advertised price, removes them from the open market and can subsequently make them available for affordable housing in the long term, either under building rights or through non-profit organisations. According to a response from the city dating from 2023, 195 flats resulting from the pre-emption transactions at that time were to be recognised as non-profit housing.
The legal basis for this is also well established. In 2023, the Canton of Vaud clarified the rules on the right of pre-emption, and in December 2024, the Constitutional Court confirmed that local authorities can finance such pre-emption transactions without being obliged to hold the funds as freely available own resources. This further strengthens the scope for action available to large cities.
Controversy over impact and scope
Politically, the model remains contentious. Left-wing forces in Lausanne have long been pushing for a more proactive land policy, whilst centre-right voices doubt that higher acquisition loans will have a noticeable impact on the housing shortage or rent levels. It is precisely this point that makes the vote in the municipal council so contentious. It is not just about an additional 70 million, but about the question of how far a city, as a buyer, should intervene in the housing market.
