Here is an interesting article I found in BAZ. It talks about a show aired by TSR (some Romand TV channel) which "described" how
expats are to blame for the rapidly increasing rental costs.

http://politblog.bazonline.ch/blog/i...-lane/?lang=de

Here a quote from the article translated for you:

IMO, if Switzerland wouldn't have all them SUV driving, arrogant, only English speaking expats, then coutnry wouldn't be what it claims to represent.

What are your thoughts on this subject?

I completely agree with all your points lost_inbroad

I don't really know what the bold above means.

The reality is that for those Swiss not involved in the financial sector, but doing everyday 'average' jobs, the article is completely true...

Thank you porsch1909 for your laconic imput.

Do the expats not go and spend copious amounts of money at Migros and coop? Are everyday average job people able to afford to get their laundry done at 5 A sec?

The English speaking expats stimulate the economy.

Was this in your word calendar for the day?

Well some points are true, wouldn't go as far as calling it Xenophobia... Xenophobia is what people from the Balkans are subjected to, as for expats they're subjected to hate from the haters

Totally agree about the point of the explosion of rental prices though, the country does not have enough infrastructure to house these thousands of people coming here every year, the locals suffer and the expats / immigrants suffer...

..well, but in that case, once again, Switzerland didn't react fast enough and completely failed to see the issue coming a long time ago. I mean, it's not like expats just started coming yesterday.

No, it wasn't.

The problem is, that it wouldn't really be an issue if they would adopt a forward thinking strategy.

Someone sold those expats those SUVs and someone built those roads for them to drive those SUVs on and someone else yet still sold them the gasoline to drive those SUVs with, and it was the Cantonal Police that gave those expats the driver's licenses to drive those SUVs on Swiss roads and I'm pretty sure the driver's license application was in the cantonal language, and not in English.

So I say...

quitcherbitchin'

Apparently we expats are the only ones who can afford to pay "Billag" so that the Romandians can HAVE a television station to watch.
(........ because we ALL earn over 120K and all )

Oh wait...this is an LiB propaganda thread. I feel so conned

I always assumed it was the SWISS who owned the properties and decided, and hence put up, the rents. Silly me.

[sigh] you know what, should we even care any more? It's all a bit "same old same old" isn't it?

As a car driving (not an SUV though), english speaking foreigner, taking the job and the house of a Swiss person, well, you know what... I just don't care any more!

Not necessarily, most big developments are owned by pension funds or investment funds who are only after making a quick buck. Hit and run is the strategy, be it renovate and rent at a higher price, or build from scratch luxurious apartments that are only accessible to high earning foreigners. Local landlords just follow suit and take advantage of the situation. Why would you rent your apartment for less than what your corporate neighbour is renting his for?

Didn't they complain? Do they just live in your garden or what?

For the record: My wife made her driver's license in Switzerland... in English! (You can even make the test in Serbocroatian and loads of other funny languages in Zurich)

That's quite funny actually - we bought our house from the most xenophobic old witch you have ever met - she hated us. But she'd had the house on the market for over a year and in the end after turning us down 3 times her estate agent said that she better take our offer or he was going to resign as her agent! So she did, spitting blood the whole process. She also owns 2 other houses in the road. Last year she moved into the house that is at the bottom of our garden! Ta-da!!

After reading the first part, I have to agree, though most SUV drivers do not put "English Spoken Within" signs on their bumpers.

Later on the article tells the truth about the mismanagement of the housing situation in Vaud and Geneva, (Google translation follows)

Not the influx of foreign cadres leads to the housing problem, but rather the unequal sharing of supply and demand. An average of 300 dwellings per year would be sufficient to accommodate the new arrivals (counting the spaces occupied by locals). The problem is that since the year 2005 7500 dwellings are missing and that was drained by the construction of too many large homes of the market for smaller, cheaper items. This is evident especially in Geneva, where the freeze has created an incredibly absurd situation.

As indeed it is for expats and other foreigners not working in the banking sector.

That's exactly my point! This stagnant economical and governmental apparatus failed to see the issue (once again)...and at the pace they tend to build things here, I can only imagine, that things will get drastically worse.