Federal Act
on Second Homes
(Second Homes Act, SHA)

This Act reg­u­lates the per­miss­ib­il­ity of build­ing new homes and of mak­ing changes to the struc­ture and use of ex­ist­ing homes in com­munes with a pro­por­tion of second homes ex­ceed­ing 20 per cent.

¹ In this Act, «home» means a col­lec­tion of rooms that:

a.

is suit­able for res­id­en­tial use;

b.

forms a struc­tur­al unit;

c.

has an ac­cess either from out­side or from a com­mon area shared with oth­er homes with­in the build­ing;

d.

has cook­ing fa­cil­it­ies; and

e.

is not a move­able ob­ject.

² In this Act, «prin­cip­al home» means a home that is oc­cu­pied by at least one per­son who is per­man­ently res­id­ent in the com­mune in which the home is loc­ated in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 3 let­ter b of the Re­gister Har­mon­isa­tion Act of 23 June 2006³.

³ The fol­low­ing homes are deemed equi­val­ent to prin­cip­al homes:

a.

homes that are per­man­ently oc­cu­pied for com­mer­cial or edu­ca­tion­al pur­poses;

b.

homes that are per­man­ently oc­cu­pied by a private house­hold that per­man­ently oc­cu­pies an­oth­er home in the same build­ing;

c.

homes that are per­man­ently oc­cu­pied by per­sons who are not re­quired to re­gister with the res­id­ents’ re­gister of­fice, such as dip­lo­mat­ic staff or asylum seekers;

d.

homes that have been un­oc­cu­pied for no more than two years, are hab­it­able, and are ad­vert­ised for long-term rent or for sale (empty homes);

e.

homes that are used for ag­ri­cul­tur­al pur­poses but which due to the alti­tude of their loc­a­tion are not ac­cess­ible all year round for ag­ri­cul­tur­al pur­poses;

f.

homes that are used by busi­nesses for the short-term ac­com­mod­a­tion of staff;

g.

homes that are used as ser­vice ac­com­mod­a­tion for per­sons such as those work­ing in the hotel and ca­ter­ing in­dustry, in hos­pit­als and in res­id­en­tial in­sti­tu­tions;

h.

homes that are law­fully be­ing used tem­por­ar­ily for non-res­id­en­tial pur­poses.

⁴ In this Act, «second home» means a home that is neither a prin­cip­al home nor equi­val­ent to a prin­cip­al home.

¹ Where re­quired, the can­tons shall spe­cify in their struc­ture plan meas­ures to en­cour­age great­er oc­cu­pancy of second homes and to pro­mote the hotel in­dustry and reas­on­ably priced prin­cip­al homes.

² They may is­sue reg­u­la­tions that lim­it the con­struc­tion and use of homes more strictly than this Act.

¹ Each com­mune shall draw up an in­vent­ory of homes each year.

² The in­vent­ory of homes must as a min­im­um in­dic­ate the total num­ber of homes and the num­ber of prin­cip­al homes.

³ The com­mune may also list homes deemed equi­val­ent to prin­cip­al homes as a sep­ar­ate cat­egory and add this cat­egory of homes to the prin­cip­al homes.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the re­quire­ments for the in­vent­ory of homes and de­term­ine the de­tails of its pub­lic­a­tion.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall de­term­ine the pro­por­tion of second homes when com­pared with the total num­ber of homes for each com­mune based on the in­vent­ory of homes in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4.

² If a com­mune does not sub­mit its in­vent­ory of homes with­in the re­quired dead­line, it shall be as­sumed that the com­mune con­cerned has a pro­por­tion of second homes in ex­cess of 20 per cent. The com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­ity may ex­tend the dead­line at the re­quest of the com­mune if there is good cause.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify the fed­er­al au­thor­ity that de­term­ines the pro­por­tion of second homes.

⁴ This au­thor­ity shall con­sult the can­ton in which the com­mune is loc­ated be­fore reach­ing its de­cision.

¹ In com­munes in which the pro­por­tion of second homes de­term­ined in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 5 ex­ceeds 20 per cent, no build­ing per­mits may be gran­ted for new second homes. If the pro­por­tion is less than 20 per cent and if grant­ing a build­ing per­mit would res­ult in the com­mune hav­ing a pro­por­tion of second homes in ex­cess of 20 per cent, no build­ing per­mit may be gran­ted either.

² The con­struc­tion of new homes in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 let­ter b and in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 8, 9, 26 or 27 is re­served.

¹ In com­munes with a pro­por­tion of second homes in ex­cess of 20 per cent, build­ing per­mits may only be gran­ted for new homes if they are used as fol­lows:

a.

as a prin­cip­al home or as a home deemed equi­val­ent to a prin­cip­al home in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 2 para­graph 3; or

b.

as a home in­ten­ded as man­aged tour­ist ac­com­mod­a­tion.

² A home is deemed to be man­aged tour­ist ac­com­mod­a­tion if it is per­man­ently offered for the ex­clus­ively short-term use of guests on terms that are cus­tom­ary in the mar­ket and in the loc­al­ity and it:

a.

is loc­ated in the same build­ing as its own­er has his or her prin­cip­al res­id­ence; or

b.

it is not suit­able for the per­son­al needs of the own­er and is man­aged as part of an or­gan­ised ac­com­mod­a­tion busi­ness.

³ The build­ing au­thor­ity shall im­pose a re­stric­tion on use in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 let­ter a or para­graph 2 let­ter a or b in the build­ing per­mit by means of con­di­tion of use. If the build­ing per­mit for a new home does not con­tain such a con­di­tion and in the ab­sence of au­thor­isa­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 8, 9, 26 or 27, it shall be as­sumed that the re­stric­tion on use in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 let­ter a ap­plies.

⁴ As soon as the build­ing per­mit takes leg­al ef­fect, the build­ing au­thor­ity shall in­struct the land re­gistry to note the re­stric­tion on use in the land re­gister in re­spect of the prop­erty con­cerned.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

the re­quire­ments that the or­gan­ised ac­com­mod­a­tion busi­ness must meet;

b.

the duty to re­port any change in use from a home used as man­aged tour­ist ac­com­mod­a­tion in­to a prin­cip­al home; and

c.

the word­ing of its con­di­tions of use.

¹ In com­munes where the pro­por­tion of second homes ex­ceeds 20 per cent, or­gan­ised ac­com­mod­a­tion busi­nesses may be au­thor­ised to con­struct homes without re­stric­tions on use in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 if:

a.

the busi­ness can only be run or con­tin­ue to be run prof­it­ably with the in­come ob­tained if such homes are con­struc­ted;

b.

the own­er or the op­er­at­or on re­quest provides proof that the in­come from the homes will be in­ves­ted in con­struct­ing or run­ning the or­gan­ised ac­com­mod­a­tion;

c.

the main us­able area of these homes does not ex­ceed 20 per cent of the en­tire main us­able area of the rooms and homes;

d.

the homes and the or­gan­ised ac­com­mod­a­tion com­plex form a struc­tur­al and func­tion­al unit, un­less the reg­u­la­tions on pre­serving the ap­pear­ance of the loc­al­ity or cul­tur­al her­it­age man­age­ment re­quire oth­er­wise; and

e.

there are no oth­er over­rid­ing in­terests to the con­trary.

² For homes in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 that per­man­ently re­main the prop­erty of the or­gan­ised ac­com­mod­a­tion busi­ness and are ren­ted out by the same, the total main us­able area in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 let­ter c may amount to a max­im­um of 33 per cent. A re­lated re­stric­tion on ali­en­a­tion must be noted in the land re­gister. Art­icle 7 para­graphs 4 and 5 ap­ply by ana­logy.

³ If the busi­ness con­structs homes in ac­cord­ance with both para­graph 1 and para­graph 2, the max­im­um per­cent­age of 33 per cent shall be re­duced by the value ob­tained by di­vid­ing the area of the homes in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 by the sum of the area of the homes in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1 and 2 and mul­tiply­ing the res­ult by 13 per cent.

⁴ In an or­gan­ised ac­com­mod­a­tion com­plex that already ex­is­ted on 11 March 2012, a max­im­um of 50 per cent of the main us­able area may be con­ver­ted for use as homes without re­stric­tion on use un­der Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 provided:

a

the busi­ness has been run as such for at least 25 years;

b.

it can no longer be run prof­it­ably and can­not be con­ver­ted for use as homes in­ten­ded as man­aged tour­ist ac­com­mod­a­tion;

c.

the fact that the ac­com­mod­a­tion busi­ness con­cerned can no longer be run prof­it­ably is not due to any fail­ure on the part of the own­er or op­er­at­or; and

d.

there are no over­rid­ing in­terests to the con­trary.

⁵ An in­de­pend­ent ex­pert re­port must be provided as proof that the re­quire­ments in para­graphs 1 or 4 have been met. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails.

¹ In com­munes with a pro­por­tion of second homes in ex­cess of 20 per cent, new homes without re­stric­tions on use in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 may be au­thor­ised with­in the build­ing zones in pro­tec­ted build­ings or build­ings that define the ap­pear­ance of the loc­al­ity provided:

a.

the con­ser­va­tion value of the build­ing is not ad­versely af­fected, and in par­tic­u­lar the out­ward ap­pear­ance and ba­sic struc­ture of the build­ing es­sen­tially re­mains un­changed;

b.

the long-term pre­ser­va­tion of the build­ing can­not oth­er­wise be guar­an­teed; and

c.

there are no over­rid­ing in­terests to the con­trary.

² Out­side the build­ing zones, the per­miss­ib­il­ity of new homes without re­stric­tions on use as defined in Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 is gov­erned by the spa­tial plan­ning le­gis­la­tion.

³ Oth­er re­quire­ments of fed­er­al law and of can­ton­al law are re­served.

A home sub­ject to the pre­vi­ous law un­der this Act is a home that law­fully ex­is­ted or was the sub­ject of a leg­ally ef­fect­ive build­ing per­mit on 11 March 2012.

¹ Homes sub­ject to the pre­vi­ous law are not sub­ject to any re­stric­tions on res­id­en­tial use; ex­ist­ing or fu­ture re­stric­tions on use un­der the can­ton­al or com­mun­al law are re­served.

² Such homes may be ren­ov­ated, con­ver­ted, or de­mol­ished and re­built without any re­quire­ment to im­pose re­stric­tions on use un­der Art­icle 7 para­graph 1. With­in build­ing zones, the main useable area may be ex­ten­ded by a max­im­um of 30 per cent of the main us­able area ex­ist­ing on 11 March 2012. With­in these lim­its, ad­di­tion­al homes and build­ings may be cre­ated.⁴

³ If the ex­ten­sion of an ex­ist­ing home ex­ceeds the area men­tioned in the second sen­tence of para­graph 2, the ex­ten­sion shall be per­mit­ted provided the home is de­clared to be a prin­cip­al home as defined in Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 let­ter a or a home in­ten­ded as man­aged tour­ist ac­com­mod­a­tion as defined in Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 let­ter b in con­junc­tion with Art­icle 7 para­graph 2 let­ter a or b and the rel­ev­ant au­thor­isa­tion re­quire­ments are met. The build­ing au­thor­ity shall or­der a cor­res­pond­ing re­stric­tion on use in the build­ing per­mit and in­struct the land re­gistry to note the re­stric­tion on use in the land re­gister as soon as the build­ing per­mit be­comes leg­ally ef­fect­ive.⁵

⁴ The fore­go­ing is sub­ject to any oth­er re­quire­ments of fed­er­al and can­ton­al law. Out­side build­ing zones, the per­miss­ib­il­ity of changes to struc­ture and use shall be de­term­ined in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the spa­tial plan­ning le­gis­la­tion.⁶

¹ The can­tons and com­munes shall take the meas­ures re­quired to pre­vent cases of ab­use and un­desir­able de­vel­op­ments that may res­ult from the un­res­tric­ted use of homes sub­ject to the pre­vi­ous law as second homes.

² To this end, the can­tons may im­pose more strin­gent re­stric­tions than those con­tained in this Act on the change of use of homes pre­vi­ously used as prin­cip­al homes to second homes to­geth­er with the pos­sible changes in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 11 para­graphs 2–4. If these changes in use and struc­ture do not re­quire a build­ing per­mit, the can­tons may in­tro­duce a build­ing per­mit re­quire­ment.

The amend­ment of the fol­low­ing re­stric­tions on use re­quires a build­ing per­mit:

a.

a change in use un­der Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 let­ter a to use as a home in­ten­ded as man­aged tour­ist ac­com­mod­a­tion;

b.

a change in use with­in the cat­egor­ies of use un­der Art­icle 7 para­graph 2.

¹ At the re­quest of the own­er, the build­ing au­thor­ity shall sus­pend a re­stric­tion on use un­der Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 for a spe­cif­ic peri­od if:

a.

the re­stric­tion on use can­not be com­plied with tem­por­ar­ily due to spe­cial cir­cum­stances, such as death, change of res­id­ence or change in civil status; or

b.

the own­er provides proof that the home has been pub­licly ad­vert­ised but the at­tempt to find per­sons who would make ad­equate pay­ment in or­der to use the home in ac­cord­ance with the law has been un­suc­cess­ful.

² The au­thor­ity shall ex­tend the sus­pen­sion un­der para­graph 1 let­ter b if the own­er provides proof that the re­quire­ments there­for con­tin­ue to be met.

³ In or­der­ing the sus­pen­sion in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 let­ter b and on any ex­ten­sion there­of, it shall also or­der a re­as­sess­ment of the of­fi­cial value of the home at the own­er’s ex­pense.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the dur­a­tion of sus­pen­sions and their ex­ten­sions as well as the de­tails of the proof to be provided in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 let­ter b, in par­tic­u­lar the re­quire­ments for pub­licly ad­vert­ising the home.

Each can­ton shall ap­point an au­thor­ity to su­per­vise the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act.

¹ The au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the res­id­ents’ re­gister of­fice in a com­mune with a pro­por­tion of second homes in ex­cess of 20 per cent shall no­ti­fy the build­ing au­thor­ity of per­sons who:

a.

move home with­in the com­mune;

b.

move out of the com­mune; or

c.

re­lo­cate per­man­ently to an­oth­er com­mune.

² The land re­gistry shall no­ti­fy the build­ing au­thor­ity of the re­cord­ing in the land re­gister of any trans­fer of own­er­ship of prop­erty loc­ated in a com­mune with a pro­por­tion of second homes in ex­cess of 20 per cent in re­spect of which a re­stric­tion on use has been noted in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 7 para­graph 1. The can­tons shall reg­u­late the no­ti­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ure.

³ The in­form­a­tion re­quired from the res­id­ents’ re­gister of­fices and the land re­gister in or­der to im­ple­ment Art­icles 4 and 7 may be re­cor­ded in the Fed­er­al Re­gister of Build­ings and Dwell­ings. The in­form­a­tion shall be re­cor­ded by the au­thor­ity com­pet­ent for up­dat­ing this re­gister.

¹ If a home with a re­stric­tion on use un­der Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 is not used in ac­cord­ance with the law, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall set a dead­line for the own­er to re­store the law­ful po­s­i­tion un­der no­tice of sub­sti­tute per­form­ance and the pen­alty un­der Art­icle 292 of the Crim­in­al Code⁷ in the event of fail­ure to do so. The au­thor­ity may ex­tend the dead­line at the re­quest of the own­er in jus­ti­fied cases.

² If the own­er fails to re­store the law­ful po­s­i­tion with­in the rel­ev­ant dead­line, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall pro­hib­it the use of the home and or­der it to be sealed.

³ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall take the meas­ures re­quired to re­store the law­ful po­s­i­tion. In par­tic­u­lar, it may rent out the home sub­ject to com­pli­ance with the re­stric­tion on use un­der Art­icle 7 para­graph 1.

⁴ If mem­bers of the com­pet­ent build­ing au­thor­it­ies or their em­ploy­ees be­come aware of of­fences in the course of their of­fi­cial activ­it­ies, they are re­quired to re­port the same im­me­di­ately to the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 15.

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall have all the rights and ob­lig­a­tions that it re­quires to re­store law­ful use on be­half of the own­er.

² It may in­struct third parties to carry out the re­quired meas­ures.

³ The rent­al in­come in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 17 para­graph 3 shall be paid to the own­er un­der de­duc­tion of the ad­min­is­trat­ive costs in­curred by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity and any third parties in­struc­ted.

¹ The Fed­er­al Of­fice for Spa­tial De­vel­op­ment, work­ing with the State Sec­ret­ari­at for Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs, shall reg­u­larly re­view the im­pact of this Act. It shall in par­tic­u­lar re­view its im­pact on tour­ism and the eco­nomy in the re­gions con­cerned.

² The rel­ev­ant de­part­ments shall re­port to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil peri­od­ic­ally. If re­quired, the re­ports shall also pro­pose fur­ther meas­ures, par­tic­u­larly in re­la­tion to loc­a­tion pro­mo­tion. The first re­ports shall be filed four years after this Act comes in­to force.

¹ The as­sess­ment of ap­plic­a­tions for build­ing per­mits and no­ti­fic­a­tion of de­cisions on build­ing per­mits shall be gov­erned ex­clus­ively by the rel­ev­ant can­ton­al pro­vi­sions. Art­icle 112 para­graph 4 of the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court Act of 17 June 2005⁸ is re­served.

² In ad­di­tion and sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of this Act, jur­is­dic­tion, pro­ced­ures and rights of ap­peal are gov­erned by the Spa­tial Plan­ning Act of 22 June 1979⁹ and the re­lated can­ton­al im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully dis­reg­ards a re­stric­tion on use in terms of this Act shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² If the of­fend­er acts through neg­li­gence, he or she shall be li­able to a mon­et­ary pen­alty not ex­ceed­ing 180 daily pen­alty units.

³ If the re­stric­tion on use is sub­sequently re­voked, the of­fend­er shall be li­able to a mon­et­ary pen­alty not ex­ceed­ing 90 daily pen­alty units.

⁴ Pro­sec­u­tion shall be de­ferred un­til a leg­ally bind­ing de­cision has been taken on the sus­pen­sion or amend­ment of a re­stric­tion on use.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully provides the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies with in­cor­rect or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion on mat­ters that are rel­ev­ant to the au­thor­isa­tion, sus­pen­sion or amend­ment of a re­stric­tion on use un­der this Act or who de­ceit­fully ex­ploits an er­ror on the part of those au­thor­it­ies shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² Any per­son who provides in­cor­rect or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion through neg­li­gence shall be li­able to a mon­et­ary pen­alty not ex­ceed­ing 180 daily pen­alty units.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions un­less the law de­clares the can­tons to be re­spons­ible there­for.

The fol­low­ing acts are amended as fol­lows:

…¹⁰

¹ This Act ap­plies to ap­plic­a­tions for build­ing per­mits that are con­sidered at first in­stance or on ap­peal after this Act comes in­to force.

² If a build­ing per­mit that was gran­ted and took leg­al ef­fect be­fore 11 March 2012 re­quires the ex­e­cu­tion of the work to be post­poned pending a de­cision re­lat­ing to quotas, the com­pet­ent build­ing au­thor­ity may au­thor­ise the work to be­gin at the latest with­in two years of this Act com­ing in­to force provided the build­ing per­mit did not spe­cify a peri­od with­in which the work must start or post­poned the start of the work for a peri­od that ends no later than two years after this Act comes in­to force.

³ If the pro­por­tion of second homes in a com­mune falls to 20 per cent or less, the build­ing au­thor­ity shall, at the re­quest of the own­er, re­voke any re­stric­tion on use un­der Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 and in­struct the land re­gister to de­lete the rel­ev­ant note on the land re­gister fo­lio for the prop­erty con­cerned.

⁴ Build­ing per­mits that were gran­ted and took leg­al ef­fect be­fore 31 Decem­ber 2012 un­der the rel­ev­ant can­ton­al pro­ced­ur­al law shall re­main val­id.

⁵ Build­ing per­mits that were gran­ted and took leg­al ef­fect in ac­cord­ance with rel­ev­ant can­ton­al pro­ced­ur­al law after 1 Janu­ary 2013 but be­fore this Act came in­to force shall re­main val­id provided they are based on the Or­din­ance of 22 Au­gust 2012¹¹ on Second Homes.

¹ In com­munes with a pro­por­tion of second homes in ex­cess of 20 per cent, homes that are the sub­ject of a pro­ject-re­lated spe­cial land use plan that at least to a sig­ni­fic­ant ex­tent in­volves the con­struc­tion of second homes may be au­thor­ised without any re­stric­tion on use un­der Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 if this plan:

a.

re­ceived ap­prov­al which took leg­al ef­fect be­fore 11 March 2012; and

b.

stip­u­lates the es­sen­tial ele­ments of the build­ing per­mit re­lat­ing to loc­a­tion, lay­out, size and design of the build­ings and in­stall­a­tions as well as nature and ex­tent of their use.

² Amend­ments to spe­cial land use plans in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 are per­mit­ted provided there is no in­crease in the pro­por­tion of homes without re­stric­tion on use un­der Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 and in the pro­por­tion of main us­able areas oc­cu­pied by such homes.

Ir­re­spect­ive of the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 7 para­graph 2 and Art­icles 8, 9 or 26, a build­ing per­mit ap­plic­a­tion for a new home may be au­thor­ised without re­stric­tion on use un­der Art­icle 7 para­graph 1 if:

a.

the com­pet­ent build­ing au­thor­ity, in re­sponse to a suf­fi­ciently de­tailed pre­lim­in­ary re­quest, provided a writ­ten an­swer be­fore 18 Decem­ber 2007 which:

1.

con­tained the es­sen­tial ele­ments of the build­ing per­mit as defined in Art­icle 26 para­graph 1 let­ter b,

2.

con­firmed that the pro­ject was eli­gible for au­thor­isa­tion;

b.

it was not pos­sible to grant the build­ing per­mit be­fore 11 March 2012 be­cause the own­er was pre­ven­ted from sub­mit­ting a build­ing per­mit ap­plic­a­tion on time through no fault of his or her own; and

c.

the oth­er re­quire­ments for grant­ing the build­ing per­mit are ful­filled.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Janu­ary 2016¹²