Zurich readjusts housing and transport policy
The Zurich electorate clearly rejects a municipal right of first refusal, but is narrowly in favor of doubling cantonal housing subsidies and clearly in favour of stricter rules against 30 km/h on main roads. At the same time, a new basic right to digital integrity was rejected, as was a higher premium reduction. A signal for restrained state intervention while at the same time recognizing the housing shortage.
The counter-proposal to the “More affordable housing” initiative is adopted with around 51% of votes in favor. The credit for cantonal housing subsidies increases from CHF 180 million to CHF 360 million. This will provide cooperatives and non-profit developers with additional funds to realize projects in the affordable segment without directly interfering with ownership contracts
The actual pre-emption initiative was clearly defeated with almost 60 percent of votes against, although the housing shortage is widely recognized. Voters thus accepted the diagnosis of a tight market, but rejected the instrument of a systematic right of first refusal for the municipalities as too much of an encroachment on freedom of ownership and contract
Canton takes over the speed sceptre
The mobility initiative is accepted with just under 57% in favor and establishes 50 km/h as the rule on main traffic routes, while 30 km/h remains possible on short stretches and in justified exceptional cases. In future, it will no longer be Zurich and Winterthur but the canton that decides on speed limits on main roads. A change of power that sets tight limits on urban traffic policies
As a result, voters will strengthen cantonal control of motorized traffic and weaken municipal attempts to implement noise and safety goals more broadly by means of 30 km/h speed limits. For planners and investors, this means more regulatory clarity at the network level, but less scope for neighborhood-related traffic and urban development policy experiments
Digital rights and premium reduction fail
The initiative “For a fundamental right to digital integrity” received little support with around 25% of votes in favor. The more moderate counter-proposal was also rejected with a good 55% voting against. Neither an explicit right to a “mobile phone-free life” nor additional constitutional guarantees against surveillance and data analysis were convincing. The canton is therefore not given a constitutionally enhanced mandate in the digital space
The increase in cantonal premium reductions was also rejected, although around CHF 1.3 billion already flows into this pot today. The No to an additional CHF 50 million per year signals fiscal restraint and leaves low-income households caught between rising healthcare costs and stagnating transfer payments
Signals for the housing market and planning
For housing construction in the canton of Zurich, the package means more subsidies, but no new coercive instruments under planning law such as a general right of first refusal. Municipalities and cooperatives must therefore focus their strategies more on cooperation, mobilizing building land and accelerating approval procedures rather than on direct market intervention
Overall, the vote shows an urban-rural tension. The housing shortage is recognized, but financial incentives and cantonal control are preferred to far-reaching interventions in property rights or everyday mobility. For the real estate industry, planning and politics, this opens up a field in which the implementation of increased housing subsidies becomes a decisive lever.