The quaint 2-room apartment with wooden exposed beams. The beautiful 3,5 room old building apartment with the high ceilings. The urban 5-room loft with roof terrace in the city. Or would you prefer the 10-room house in the countryside? It's all a question of taste, space - and above all money. Yes, when it comes to living, there is often the vexed issue of finances. And if you read the latest market report for the region from Bonaduz to Maienfeld (including Chur) from Ginesta Immobilien, you might get the feeling that living has become a luxury. In Haldenstein, for example, a single-family home today costs 50 percent more than it did 20 years ago. And a condominium is even 90 percent more expensive today than it was at the turn of the millennium. Incidentally, this picture is not only evident in Chur, but also in the Imboden region, in the Bündner Herrschaft and in the district of Five Villages. So is housing really a luxury today? "Not housing per se, no," says real estate expert Sascha Ginesta. But home ownership, that very well has its price, even if this depends strongly on the region in which the property is located. "At the moment, health resorts are booming extremely. Central regions have always been popular. And that also has a lot to do with migration from the valleys," he says. Basically, he says, you can also say that there is more rental housing in urban areas. And the more rural the area, the higher the proportion of home ownership. This has a corresponding effect on the supply. But the corona virus has also shaken up the real estate world. Because with the directive to stay at home, the home has greatly increased in importance - for well-being and as a place to work. "Since March, we have experienced a real 'run' on second homes," says Sascha Ginesta. Many have noticed that it is also possible to work well from there and not have to commute every day, he says. "Home offices can therefore also be an opportunity for peripheral areas that are struggling with out-migration." Apartments and houses with a garden are also particularly popular at the moment, he said. How sustainable these developments are remains to be seen, says Sascha Ginesta. Many trends have already been predicted in the real estate industry. At the moment, for example, sustainable buildings are a particularly hot topic. And precisely also the idea that living, working and living should take place under one roof. "Today, many have at most an improvised desk in a corner of the guest room. New living models may function differently in the future," says the expert.

The so-called Tiny Houses also function differently, i.e. houses that are tiny and usually have less than 50 square meters of living space. "People have been talking about this movement for a while, but it hasn't really arrived here. Maybe not yet," says Sascha Ginesta. The statistics support his statement. Quite the opposite is the case, because per person, not less space is needed, but more every year. On average, every Swiss person had 46 square meters of living space to themselves in 2019. And the people of Graubünden have even a bit more space, namely 47.3 square meters. In addition, there are also more and more one-person households. A development that is at odds with effective space and the sustainability trend. "By now, we know that land is limited. Finding building land has become enormously difficult. Chur is a good example. The city is no longer growing outward, but practically only inward," explains Sascha Ginesta. This was not the case 20 years ago. Today, dense building is all the more of an issue. "Where there used to be three single-family houses, there is now a house for at least eight families." Somehow, at least when it comes to housing, we are masters of the contrarian. That's because even dense building is taking place only to a limited extent in Switzerland. "If you believe the numbers, Switzerland is still a cottage-building nation," says Sascha Ginesta. The proportion of homeowners in this country is disproportionately high, he said. This is mainly because the Helvetic middle class is very large. "And somehow it's also a cultural issue." Add to that population growth and immigration. The bottom line, he said, is that all of this leads to real estate prices rising every year and to the question of whether prices are healthy at all. "As long as there is no significant increase in supply or a collapse on the demand side, prices will continue to rise. But as long as wages and prosperity continue to rise, housing prices are still healthy," explains Sascha Ginesta. Real estate is still a good value investment that people like to finance and invest in, he says. "The fact that you don't spend more than a third of your income on housing still works for most people." And we're back to money and the question of what you can afford and what sacrifices you're willing to make. Whether you opt for a cute little apartment in the city, a modern loft in a metropolitan area, or a spacious house in the country, supply and demand are there.

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