Properties are becoming cheaper in Switzerland; Vaud residents to pay less income taxes; and other news in our roundup on Wednesday.
Property prices continue to plunge in Switzerland
After years of the upward trend, and reaching their peak in 2022, real estate prices have dropped sharply in recent months.
This rapid decline was caused mainly by higher interest rates.
Between May and July this year, property prices fell by 13.4 percent compared to the 2022. numbers.
In some cantons, however, the drop is even more substantial; in Basel-Country, for instance, prices decreased by 16.1 percent.
In its latest report, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) noted that the fall in prices of residential properties “could very well continue.”
Vaud residents to pay lower taxes
Vaud’s income taxes are among the highest in Switzerland, so it should come as a welcome relief to the canton’s residents to learn that the move to decrease taxes by 3.5 percent has gained lots of momentum.
The canton’s Council of State said the move towards lower taxes is “balanced, thoughtful, and reasonable,” and will benefit all taxpayers.
Stalking will soon to be a punishable offence
A project aimed at including obsessive harassment in the Swiss Penal Code is making progress. If it comes into force, the culprits would risk up to three years in prison.
A paragraph will be added to the existing ordinance, stating that anyone who “stalks, harasses or obstinately threatens a person and hinders him in the free determination of his way of life, is punishable by a custodial sentence of not more than three years or by a monetary penalty.”
The Swiss Federation of Psychologists (FSP), was quick to praise the criminalisation of this practice, which “often greatly disrupts the daily life” of stalking victims.
Switzerland’s largest hospital inaugurates new emergency room
“There is a medical emergency every three minutes in Geneva,” Bertrand Levrat, director of Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) told the media on Tuesday, while announcing the opening of a larger and more functional emergency room.
A l’issue de 4 ans de travaux, menés simultanément avec la poursuite des activités cliniques et ayant contraint à une série de neuf rocades de lieux de soins, les #urgences adultes disposent désormais de 3 900 m2 sur un même plateau #rénovation #hôpital https://t.co/zeX02d4zSg pic.twitter.com/ZJNcyi65BU— HUG (@hug_ge) October 3, 2023
The 3,900-square-metre urgent care department can accommodate, in the same place, vital, non-vital, ambulatory, and psychiatric emergencies, as well as a radiology unit.
Also, the reorganisation of the patient in-take process will speed up the medical assessment and reduce waiting times, Levrat said.
Source: The Local