immo!nvest – Die Plattform für Standorte und Immobilien

Tag: Wohnbaugenossenschaften Schweiz

  • New quarters on the Koch site

    New quarters on the Koch site

    In 2013, the city of Zurich bought the Koch site at the intersection of Albisrieden and Altstetten, which had been occupied since March of the same year. In 2017, the city, together with the Zurich section of the Swiss Association of Housing Cooperatives and the consulting firm Wüst Partner, launched a concept call for tenders for the planned district. The team application of the Allgemeine Baugenossenschaft Zürich (ABZ) and Kraftwerk1 cooperatives together with the real estate developer SENN were awarded the contract.

    From 2025 at the earliest, around 330 non-profit apartments for around 900 residents will be built here. In addition, generous commercial areas and a neighborhood park are planned. Grün Stadt Zürich is responsible for the park, while the two Zurich cooperatives ABZ and Kraftwerk1 and the real estate developer SENN take over the land in building rights. In the Koch district, new visions of living and working together are to be implemented and a significant contribution to the 2000-watt society is to be made.

    The family company Senn is planning the commercial building called MACH, which is characterized by oversized rooms, high payloads and plenty of design freedom. The installation of gallery floors can be freely selected and ensures a high degree of flexibility. In the MACH, not only commercial and production companies are planned on 10,000 m2 of mostly double-height rental space, but also trading and service companies as well as educational and leisure facilities. Particular attention is paid to sustainability through the high adaptability, the wooden element facade, PV system, rainwater use and the vertical greening.

    The Allgemeine Baugenossenschaft Zurich is building a three-part building complex with 204 apartments. This consists of an approximately 85-meter-high high-rise on Flurstrasse and an eight-story row of buildings in the Quartierpark. A mix of 2 to 5.5 room apartments is being built here. A garden of 1830 m2 and a community pavilion are planned on the 1st floor. Photovoltaic systems are installed on the roofs. The ground floor is used for various commercial and community rooms as well as a supermarket.

    Living, business and culture are combined in the compact building of the building and housing cooperative Kraftwerk1. In addition to apartments, gastronomy, kindergarten and after-school care as well as the circus district with the circus Chnopf should invite the neighborhood to linger. A staircase leads from the park to the 1650 m2 terrace on the first floor. 125 apartments are planned, one third of the living space will be rented in subsidized housing. The intensively green roof serves as a place of retreat for the residents. The settlement is planned car-free and will be particularly sustainable thanks to a wood-concrete hybrid construction, photovoltaic systems and rainwater retention.

    The 12,000 m2 district park will be the green heart of the new Koch district. Grün Stadt Zürich is implementing the wishes of the population with the park: many trees, biodiverse, playful – and for everyone. Planned are an open, spacious meadow and a “jardin sauvage” designed to be close to nature. Thanks to the former 2700 m2 coal storage hall, there is also an area that allows people to stay even in bad weather. Wherever possible, the material already available on site is reused: old paving slabs, for example, are turned into a dry biotope for lizards or a place to sit for guests.

    A wide range of cultural offers and forms of living, trade and services will find a new home in the compact building of Kraftwerk1.
  • The federal government, cooperatives and SBB are giving impetus to non-profit housing

    The federal government, cooperatives and SBB are giving impetus to non-profit housing

    Apartments are scarce in the larger Swiss cities. This applies in particular to inexpensive apartments. In order to enable more non-profit housing construction, especially in central urban locations, the Federal Housing Office (BWO), Swiss housing cooperatives and the SBB have jointly drawn up framework conditions for a model building rights contract. The BWO also represented the Swiss Housing Association. This protects the interests of both umbrella organizations for non-profit housing construction. The model building rights contract will come into effect in future when SBB hands over land with building rights to non-profit housing developers.

    “We welcome the fact that SBB is making areas available for non-profit housing construction with building rights. This contract ensures that the framework conditions are compatible with the funding criteria for non-profit housing construction,” says Martin Tschirren, director of the BWO.

    “SBB aims to offer around half of its apartments at low prices – either through their own apartments or by paying the building permit.” According to Alexander Muhm, Head of SBB Real Estate, the new contract is an important step in this direction.

    “We are pleased that we have reached an agreement, even if the building lease interest for non-profit housing will be at the upper price limit,” emphasizes Eva Herzog, President of the Swiss housing cooperative. “Now we will take the SBB at its word to give more areas of building rights to cooperatives.”

    Compromise lays a uniform basis for future projects
    The common regulation has the advantage for all partners that future building rights contracts with non-profit housing developers no longer have to be negotiated from scratch for each project, but can be implemented more easily and quickly on the basis of the framework conditions that have now been agreed. The SBB advertises every sale of SBB land in the building law in a competition. In close cooperation with cities and municipalities, it ensures that the best use is found for the respective location.

    In particular, the new agreement regulates the assessment and development of the building lease interest and ensures that the non-profit apartments within the meaning of the Housing Promotion Act (WFG) are also inexpensive in the long term. This is because the building lease interest is based on the so-called cost rent and corresponds to the cost limits of the BWO.

    The new model contract also takes account of the fact that the SBB, as the owner of the land, participates moderately in the increase in value of the areas, as required by the strategic goals of the federal government. As a state-owned company, SBB is bound by clearly formulated tasks and goals. The owner expects SBB to develop railway areas in a targeted manner and thus make a long-term contribution to a financially healthy railway system.

    The promotion of non-profit housing is a constitutional mandate of Swiss housing policy. The non-profit property developers – housing cooperatives, foundations or associations – orientate themselves towards the cost of rent and operate without the intention of making a profit. Your apartments are inexpensive in the long term. Many non-profit property developers offer their tenants various social services in addition to living space, thereby relieving the public sector. In addition, this type of housing promotes social mixing and generational diversity.
    SBB can look back on around 100 years of tradition in working with non-profit housing developers. This is based on the support of the railway workers’ building cooperatives, which were among the pioneers of cooperative housing construction.