Price rise dampens demand on the Swiss housing market

Price increases dampen demand on the housing market Keystone-SDA

There has been a slight easing on the Swiss housing market. This is not due to an increase in supply, but to a price increase and the resulting dampening of demand.

This situation applies to both the owner-occupied and rental housing markets, the Federal Housing Office announced on Tuesday. This not only affects low-income households, but increasingly also the lower and upper middle classes. The proportion of gross rent to gross household income when moving in is just over half for low-income families. For the lower middle class, it is a third. This is reflected in the lower moving rates of single-person households.

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According to the Housing Market Monitor, the housing shortage primarily affects the canton of Aargau, central Switzerland and areas around the city of Zurich and in eastern Switzerland. The situation in the mountain regions is worrying. The Bernese Oberland, Graubünden and Upper Valais are all suffering from a tight market situation. The Jura and Ticino are well supplied.

In the short and medium term, the Housing Office does not expect the situation on the market to improve quickly with a sharp increase in the number of households. The projected construction activity indicates insufficient increase in the number of new apartments. Progress in the densification of living space is barely keeping pace with current population growth. Even with low household growth, the expected residential growth cannot meet demand. In 2022, there were around 470,000 moving households for just over 500,000 apartments on offer. In 2023, the number of apartments on offer will be around 460,000.

Adapted from German by DeepL/ac

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