Posted Mon Jul 20 17:23:00 UTC 2009

Ueli Schnorf - owner of Wetag Consulting Immobiliare in Locarno, Ticino - outlined his thoughts and some general information about Switzerland’s position and important aspects involved with purchasing real estate in Switzerland. He is talking about some key issues which has been heavily discussed within the last recent months such as lump-sum taxation and right of residence. His report will be featured as a series of four episodes in total, beginning with this on - a general overview about Switzerland’s past and present.

Switzerland is arguably the world’s oldest and most successful democracy, and regardless of what your opinion may be of it, there can be no denying the success that has been achieved by a small land locked, mostly mountainous country with no raw materials, no colonies and no agricultural land space. This developed over the centuries through individual fight for freedom and local control. The resistance to outside authority, has helped bring together the different regional and linguistic backgrounds. Switzerland’s modern constitution of 1848, of a federalist approach is based on the idea that the state is organized so that matters are dealt with at the lowest possible level. The advantage being that decisions are made by those affected, but the disadvantage is that general changes are difficult to implement.

Despite this unique system of government and lack of resources, Switzerland has managed to become the richest country in the world within 200 years, with the highest quality of life and the happiest people (as annual worldwide surveys confirm). It is not surprising that most Swiss consider their countries’ state institution as be superior to most other governments. This means they tend to disregard advice of how to improve their state institutions or criticisms from representatives of inferior systems.

Switzerland has moved from a country of emigrants to having the highest proportion of immigrants in the industrialized world (2008: 21.1%). Beginning in the 1830s, the favorable legal framework led to rapid industrial development, which in turn led to significant levels of immigration. Initially Germans, Italians or people from southern Europe, then later followed by people from Hungary and the Czech Republic. In the 1970s, there followed immigrants from Sri Lanka and in the 80s and early 90s from Ex-Yugoslavia. Currently most immigration is from Germany. Integration has occurred relatively quickly, in most cases within one generation. Generally, ethnically closed off districts are not found, in contrast to neighboring countries of France, Germany and England.

To be continued…

Posted By: Ueli F. Schnorf