Switzerland is building more densely

The building zone area in Switzerland has remained almost stable over the last five years, but the population has grown over the same period. As a result, people in Switzerland now live and work on less land per person than five years ago. This is the conclusion of the new building zone statistics of the Federal Office for Spatial Development ARE.

On average, one inhabitant currently requires 282 square meters of building zone space, compared with 291 square meters five years ago and as much as 309 square meters ten years ago. According to the ARE, new buildings are now being built larger or higher in order to make greater use of the building zones. This applies to both already built-up and newly built-up construction zones. Overall, the building zone area this year is 234,000 hectares, which is only one percent more than in 2017.

The fact that hardly any new building zones are being created is mainly due to the cantons' spatial planning. It requires the municipalities to develop their settlements inward and to build more densely. However, the ARE notes that there are still considerable reserves of building land. Just under half of the currently undeveloped building zones are in urban areas, slightly more than a quarter in municipalities close to urban areas and a quarter in rural municipalities, according to the federal office. (ah)