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Home ownership in Switzerland booms while rentals stagnate

Ownership booms, rentals plateau
Lake Geneva Keystone-SDA

Residential property prices in Switzerland continued their ascent last year, albeit at a slower pace towards the end of the period. Rents, on the other hand, stalled after two years of high inflation.

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“Thanks to the sharp drop in financing costs and the very good prospects for a further fall in interest rates, demand should continue to rise at the start of the new year, and price trends should thus accelerate once again,” anticipates Fredy Hasenmaile, chief economist of the St Gallen banking cooperative Raiffeisen.

Over the past ten years, prices for both detached houses and owner-occupied apartments have risen by half. While the phenomenon was still alive and kicking nationwide in 2024, it was less pronounced in the urban hubs of Zurich (+3%) and, above all, the Lake Geneva region (+1%).

+ Swiss property market shows no signs of correction

On the rental front, the Swiss Real Estate Offer index compiled by the Swiss Marketplace Group (SMG) and Cifi shows a 0.4% decrease, albeit due to a cumulative increase of more than 8% over the years 2022 and 2023.

The authors of the report also note a narrowing of the wide range of prices offered by region, with a decline in the most expensive areas such as Zurich (-3.1%) and the Lake Geneva region (-0.8%), and inflation in more affordable areas.

Translated from French by DeepL/ts

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