On 12 February 2017, Vaud voters decide on the Law on the Preservation and Promotion of the Rental Housing Stock (LPPPL), passed by the cantonal parliament in May 2016 and challenged by referendum. The canton is then suffering a chronic housing shortage, with one of the lowest vacancy rates in Switzerland.
The law aims to give municipalities tools for an active housing policy: a right of pre-emption to buy land first for public-utility housing (LUP), and controls on demolition, conversion and renovation in districts facing shortage.
The real-estate lobby, behind the referendum (14,535 signatures), denounces an attack on private property. The left, the tenants' association Asloca and the centre defend a parliamentary compromise meant to relieve tenants. The vote pits two visions of the housing market against each other.
▲ The law passes The LPPPL is accepted with 55.5% yes (108,040 to 86,635). Turnout: 48.3%. | ▼ The No camp Opponents (the real-estate lobby) gather 44.5% of the vote — not enough to defeat the law. |
The actors involved
▲ Yes camp • Asloca (tenants' defence) • Vaud Socialists and Greens • The centre (Christian Democrats), which carried the compromise • A broad parliamentary majority (law of 10 May 2016) | ▼ No camp • Vaud Chamber of Real Estate (CVI) and USPI Vaud • The real-estate lobby (referendum, 14,535 signatures) • The Liberals (PLR) and part of the SVP • Centre patronal (employers) |
Arguments and verdicts
▲ Arguments FOR (Yes camp) The law will arm municipalities against the shortage 'The law must let the canton escape an unacceptable shortage lasting nearly 20 years' (supporters, 2017). ✓~ Partly confirmed. In force since 1 January 2018, the LPPPL gave municipalities a pre-emption right that has indeed been used (Lausanne, Renens) to create public-utility housing. But the shortage did not vanish: Vaud's vacancy rate stayed persistently low. Source: Canton of Vaud (vd.ch). Pre-emption will be tightly framed Supporters insisted it was not blanket expropriation. ✓ Confirmed. The law subjects pre-emption to strict cumulative conditions: creating LUP, a district in shortage, a plot of at least 1,500 m² (except in dense perimeters). The tool stayed targeted, far from market control. Source: Canton of Vaud (vd.ch). | ▼ Arguments AGAINST (No camp) Pre-emption is an attack on property For the real-estate lobby, the law opened the door to 'creeping statism'. ✗~ Partly disproven. The right was indeed exercised and fed litigation, but its use stayed bounded by legal conditions: no nationalisation of the market. The lobby nonetheless still demands a tighter 'framing'. Source: USPI Vaud; Centre patronal. The law will choke renovation and inflate bureaucracy Opponents feared a construction freeze and administrative overload. ✗~ Largely disproven. No collapse in building or renovation was observed. Administrative friction persists, and calls to 'encourage renovation work' continue — but without the announced freeze. Source: Centre patronal. |
The outcome, since 2018
In force since 1 January 2018, the LPPPL mainly made headlines through its pre-emption right. Genuinely used by several municipalities, it remains hemmed in by strict conditions — without curing the shortage that justified it.
12.02.2017 Date of the vote | 55.5% Yes (accepted) | 48.3% Turnout | 01.01.2018 Entry into force |
Few Vaud laws reconcile the tenants' association with the centre while making the real-estate chamber leap from its chair. The LPPPL managed it — the fruit of a parliamentary compromise the referendum failed to undo.
The 55.5% yes reads less as a landslide than as an arbitration: voters endorsed the idea of a state that helps tenants, without signing a blank cheque. The modest turnout (48.3%) is a reminder that housing mobilises mainly those who suffer from it.
Seven years on, the law kept its minimal promises — a tool exists and is used — but not the big one: the shortage remains. As for the 'creeping statism' foretold, it amounted to a handful of tightly framed pre-emptions and some muffled litigation.