Locals driven out by luxury homes in Swiss mountains

In the mountain village of Pontresina, near the upscale resort of St Moritz, secondary residences now account for 58% of all housing. Long-time inhabitants are having to leave the valley, as they cannot find affordable housing. “We’ve just been turned down for another flat. It’s so discouraging. We've been looking for a new, affordable place to live for over a year now, but keep on drawing a blank,” says Marcel Schenk, a mountain guide in Pontresina, a village with just over 2,000 inhabitants in the canton of Graubünden, in eastern Switzerland. Schenk, a father of three young children, lives with his family in cramped conditions in a two-and-a-half room flat. But they are unable to move out. Many other people are in the same boat, says the 40-year-old, who has lived in the village for 18 years. “We get contacted by acquaintances who want to take over our lease once we’ve gone,” he says. “But we’re nowhere near finding anywhere to go to.” Pontresina – in the Upper Engadine valley ...