House prices down slightly by 0.11% during 2021

Switzerland’s housing market continues to stabilize. House prices fell slightly by 0.11% in 2021, following a y-o-y growth of 1.09% in 2020. During the latest quarter, house prices were down 0.25% q-o-q.

After about 15 years of uninterrupted house price rises, Switzerland’s housing market has stabilized in the past three years, mainly due to the Swiss government’s market-cooling measures.

 

The property market’s slowdown in recent years can be attributed to the Swiss National Bank’s stricter lending criteria, designed to lower housing debt (currently 90% of all household debt). The decision of the central bank to abandon its cap against the euro in 2015 also made Swiss real estate more expensive for foreign investors, thereby reducing demand.

Rents, rental yields: yields are lowish, at around 3.27% 

Zurich apartments are expensive, at around €11,467 per sq. m.  

Switzerland: typical city centre apartment buying price, monthly rent (120 sq. m)
	Buying price	Rate per month	Yield
Zurich	€ 1,446,840	€ 3,946	3.27%
Geneva	€ 1,377,120	€ 3,827	3.33%

Recent news. Switzerland's economy expanded by 3.5% y-o-y in 2021, an improvement from a 2.9% contraction in 2020 but below initial projections, amidst the resurgence of infections in late-2021 and restrictions were tightened across the region.

The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) forecasts Switzerland’s economic growth this year at 3%, amidst supply chain bottlenecks and the imposition of new health measures in response to the new Omicron variant.