DENISE LACHAT While banner-wielding protesters march through Barcelona, shouting for tourists to “go home”, residents in Swiss towns and cities are using the channels of direct democracy to vent their spleen. In 2023, voters in Lucerne approved an initiative called “Protect living space – regulate Airbnb”. Five municipalities in the Jungfrau region have now followed suit. According to Hanspeter Berger, the SP Bödeli-Jungfrau co-chair whose regional party branch is taking the fight to Airbnb, petitions supporting similar initiatives in Unterseen, Interlaken, Matten, Wilderswil and Bönigen were able to garner the necessary number of signatures in no time at all. “Airbnb is a big concern for everyone,” says Jürg Müller-Muralt from Unterseen, who helped to coordinate the initiatives. Residents packed out the local community hall to vote on the matter. Müller-Muralt had never seen anything like it, he says. Cause for concern People are concerned for good reason. The Federal Office for Housing (FOH) refers to a “worrying” trend in its latest report. In many Swiss regions, there are fewer and fewer properties available for long-term rent. Is Airbnb the culprit? The short-term rental platform is at least one of the factors making the situation more acute. “The Airbnb business model has unethical consequences,” says Hanspeter Berger. “Property owners can earn up to four times more on short-stay than on long-stay rentals. It squeezes local people out of the housing market and pushes up the cost of rent.” What Berger finds particularly galling is that you can make a quick buck from tourists via Airbnb while people working in the tourism industry often take home modest pay and cannot afford to live near their place of work. What is the answer to this problem? The five popular initiatives in Unterseen, Interlaken, Matten, Wilderswil and Bönigen aim to make Airbnb less attractive by preventing people from letting out their property on a short-term basis for more than 90 days per calendar year. The idea is that by limiting a property’s short-term listings to 90 days a year, a conventional longterm rental will again become financially more attractive to the owner. The 90-day rule is nothing new. There are cities in Switzerland and across Europe that already enforce it. The canton of Geneva introduced the rule back in 2018, while the canton of Vaud adopted something similar in 2022. And since the beginning of 2025, the city of Lucerne has applied it as a means of implementing the initiative mentioned above. David Roth, who masterminded the Lucerne initiative, is looking forward to the situation easing. He is convinced that hundreds of properties will revert from second homes to primary residences in the months and years ahead. Swiss housing shortage fuels Airbnb debate Affordable rents are scarce in Switzerland, with online booking platforms like Airbnb depriving tenants of suitable properties. Municipalities have now begun to fight back. Swiss Review / October 2025 / No.4 24 Tourism
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