immo!nvest – Die Plattform für Standorte und Immobilien

Category: Obwalden

  • Alpnach military airfield to be expanded

    Alpnach military airfield to be expanded

    The Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport(DDPS) is having a new vehicle parking hangar and a multifunctional workshop extension built at the Alpnach military airfield. The DDPS is investing a total of CHF 18 million in this project. The ground-breaking ceremony on 21 August marked the start of the construction work, which is scheduled to last until the beginning of 2026, the DDPS reported in a press release. According to the press release, around two thirds of the contracts were awarded to companies from central Switzerland.

    The single-storey vehicle hall will cover almost 2,000 square metres and will be built in the eastern part of the airfield. Specialised vehicles and emergency equipment will be housed here in future. The new building will obtain its heat energy from energy piles.

    The new workshop hall will be built as an extension to an existing hall in the western part of the airfield. In future, large specialised vehicles will be maintained there. The new building, measuring around 1,400 square metres, will provide space for a workshop, a work yard and a car wash. Office workstations, cloakrooms and ancillary rooms for operating materials will also be set up there. The extension will be supplied with thermal energy via district heating from the Alpnach Corporation.

    Both buildings will be constructed to “high ecological standards”, writes the DDPS. Plans include façades made of wooden louvres. Photovoltaic systems installed on both roofs will produce a total of around 324 megawatt hours of electricity per year.

  • Second home prices soar

    Second home prices soar

    In a press release , the major Zurich bank UBS informed about an increase in the price of holiday apartments in the Alpine region. With a price increase of almost 10 percent, residential real estate has reached its highest level in the past twelve years. Arosa GR, Engelberg OW, Flims/Laax GR and the Jungfrau Region, where prices have risen by 15 percent, are most affected.

    Based on the findings of the Alpine Property Focus study, UBS explains the price increase, among other things, with a decline in supply and increasing demand. As a result of the corona pandemic, working from anywhere has become attractive. Many working people have moved their desk and primary residence to the holiday regions.

    Furthermore, held back sales have led to the tense supply situation on the residential real estate market. According to this, many owners would have refrained from a planned sale of the holiday apartment because of their own needs for their home office.

    The Second Homes Act, which has been in force since 2012, has also had an unfavorable effect, ordering a de facto freeze on the construction of second homes in tourist regions. However, the stable value of residential real estate is said to be unaffected by the lack of new housing construction.

    As a result of the high capital costs when buying a holiday home and rising interest rates at the same time, the demand for holiday homes is likely to fall again, according to experts. The real estate economist at UBS, Maciej Skocz, quoted in the study, also includes the increased energy costs and expects “a good third higher usage costs” for an “average holiday home” for 2023 compared to the “beginning of the second home boom in 2020”. In the medium term, the expected increase in the supply of second homes will regulate the current price explosion again.