Swiss Federal Council tightens anti-missuse rules on rental prices

Switzerland’s Federal Council has rejected a proposed legislative initiative to automatically review rental prices but has introduced a revised indirect proposal to strengthen protections against alleged misuse of high rents. The move follows the rejection of the Mietpreis-Initiative, a popular referendum submitted on June 23 that called for regular, mandatory checks on rental prices to cap excessive increases. The Federal Council argued that such an approach would be overly burdensome and risk discouraging investment in housing construction without effectively addressing systemic issues. Instead, it proposed new rules to make it easier for tenants and landlords to determine whether a rent is deemed excessive under current, often opaque regulations. The initiative’s proponents criticized the government’s approach, arguing that the current system lacks clarity and fails to prevent price manipulation. The revised proposal aims to streamline the process for identifying and addressing potential abuses, though it does not mandate automatic reviews or enforce caps on rent increases.