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Residential property prices continue to rise 

apartment bloc
Swiss residential property may offer quality that is high, but so are the prices. Keystone / Arno Balzarini

Residential property prices in Switzerland rose sharply in the final quarter of 2020, and by an average 2.5% for the year as a whole, according to the Federal Statistics Office. 

This is according to the Swiss Residential Property Price Index published for the second time by the FSO on Tuesday. The new index climbed by 2.3% in the fourth quarter compared to the previous quarter, representing an overall increase of 3.1% on the same quarter of the previous year, the FSO saidExternal link

Prices rose by 3.1% for owner-occupied apartments, both compared to the previous quarter and the previous year. For single-family houses they rose 1.5% in the fourth quarter compared to the previous one. In both market segments, prices rose across all types of communities, whether urban or rural.  

The FSO’s residential property index measures the development of transaction prices for single-family houses and owner-occupied flats on a quarterly basis, with the data broken down by five types of municipality. The data for the calculation comes from the 26 largest and most active mortgage institutions in Switzerland. 

Concerns about property speculation and the rising cost of accommodation in Switzerland led to a popular vote in February 2020 on an initiative for “more affordable housing”. It won 42.9% of the vote nationwide, but was ultimately defeated by a majority of 57.1%. 

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