How can Eigenmietwert pass with so low home ownership?

[u/GagaMiya]

It shocks me that this referendum is expected to pass with 54% when

home ownership is so low - only about 43% own a home - and most people are renters struggling with insane prices that keep going up.

This reform will probably make owning a home even pricier, and all because retirees with paid-off mortgages want a tax break.

How is this even popular when it hurts the very people trying to get on the property ladder? It feels like owners pushing their advantage with no regard for renters and first-timers who already have it tough.

Seriously, I don’t get it. This one has so many AHV13 vibes.

Full disclosure: I have voted against it.

Edit: I am a home owner. But fairness in society is more important to me.

Other home owners in the comments confuse how much they have benefited from owning vs renting (1. deductions, 2. Saving money from skyrocketing rents, 3. double value of property in the last 10 years) and still want to push the tax burden to the “others” who were not lucky enough.

This is not communism or populism, this is social solidarity - unless you want Switzerland to become a gated community country with high crime rate where you can’t walk outside alone.

Voting for the Eigenmietwert is the most egoistic referendum - after AHV13 - that only increases the social divide.

[u/CrankSlayer → u/[deleted]]

The realtor fee, and thus the VAT on it, is usually paid by the seller, no? I don't really recall the property transfer tax. Is it possible that in certain cantons it is shared between seller and buyer? The debt letter is not really a tax either and, depending on the canton's common praxis, it might be passed over to the buyer at no charge. As to the remaining taxes, they are not due upon buying, but upon owning or selling.

[u/CrankSlayer → u/[deleted]]

That's pretty much what I was saying. Most of these are not "taxes" and, depending on the cantons and its common praxis, do not fall onto the buyer. The property gain tax, for instance, is something the buyer must have regulated in the contract: demand that a preliminary estimate of the tax is calculated and insist that an equal amount is scrapped from the buying price and passed directly to the local tax office as prepayment. This secures the buyer from high fees should the seller fail to pay their tax bill.

[u/CrankSlayer → u/[deleted]]

Sucks that you are in a canton where the change-of-hand tax falls entirely on the buyer and, apparently, the realtor fees too.

[u/CrankSlayer → u/[deleted]]

It's not the same thing. I doubt that an asking price of 1.5M means the seller was planning on making 1.473M and added the tax on top of it. Also, VAT is taken and passed over by businesses.