Anyone else know companies who systematically increase the rent each time a new tenant moves in even with interest rates rock bottom and not doing anything to renovate the apartment in question?

We all know the market is against the renter and if one refuses, another will "bite", but this only helps to further drive rentals up and up...

It's a an open market why not? Property has been a terrible investment in CH for the last 30 years, I have never understood why a change of interest should have any bearing on rent.
It's purely what somebody is prepared to pay, sometimes a landlord will make a profit with a heavily mortgaged portfolio, other times he will make a loss, it should be his risk & if he gets it wrong he should go bust like any other business.

Everytime I had a tenant move out from the rental property in London that I used to own the agency would reappraise the flat and market and let me know what they thought it should be marketed at. Sometimes it went up, sometimes it went down. Supply and demand.

It is capitalism and it's eating itself and the consumers till it all collapses someday...can't wait to see that

But it's London not Switzerland. I think it's a different ball game here where economics don't work fully. Changing flats in London is easy while the cost of moving out is expensive here. Low supply of property and competition among potential tenants is pushing higher rent and tenants needs to put up with this. not really so much choice.

You have just described the economics of it working perfectly: low supply of property in Zurich plus high demand=higher rents. In London where the rental market is more fluid the supply/demand balance can tip either way and sometimes rents go up, sometimes down.

The difference is the market is more fluid in London and the exit costs are different.

I'm not sure what your point is, how do exit costs affect whether the rent can be put up between tenants?
There are other differences between renting in Zurich and renting in other cities, such as the amount of legal protection a tenant has, but it doesn't change the fact that a crowd of people begging to live in your place means you can probably get more for it, wherever it is located.

The legal protection a tenant is the reason that you may seem huge increases on changeover. The existing tenant can not be charged a market rent, there rent is fixed except for a small adjustment. That is hardly 'fair' for the landlord is it?