Just wondering - on rentals of around 2k a month do estate agents ever offer first month free contracts provided a deposit is provided?
Have seen it elsewhere but so far not come across it in Zurich ads at least.

I heard about first year free, first month is not uncommon. A friend of mine got the first decade, they begged him to take more but he just was too polite.

You pay something like two months deposit up front for security, you will be paying high rent for a nice place, and they throw in the sweetener.

Genuinely trying to find out if estate agents do this here. There are a lot of new builds so it's possible.

I believe you will find it is two months deposit, plus a month's rent up front, i.e. you pay three months before moving in.

This is Saturday, you should have started this thread yesterday.

This is a line up of people waiting to look at an apartment in Zurich. Why would anyone offer a month free?
And round here 2k is not particularly high.

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In a city where demand far exceeds supply? Dream on

I see it outside cities every now and then, but it's extremely rare. I've been looking for an apartment recently (not in Zurich itself) and seen exactly one ad that offered the first month free.

Outside the city it exists, particularly when there has been a complete renovation and they are looking to fill the apartments quickly.

It may also happen when an apartment is available outside the usual notice periods and the owner/landlord does not want the apartment to sit empty.

If the rent is too high & you sign for a minimum of 5 years, you night get such a deal. More common with commercial properties rented in an unfinished state.

It is, but I've only seen it after if they couldn't rent it for a while.

In my newly built building an apartment on my floor still wasn't rented out after almost a year. It didn't surprise me - it had a much bigger area than mine (hence the much higher rent), but the floor plan was so weird that you couldn't really take advantage of it.

Only after that time did they offer the first month free, and even then it took a few more months to find someone.

Even if you're planning to stay just for a year, one month free on a 3000/month rent is only a 250 CHF/month discount... If the price is highly inflated to begin with - and if there were no renters, it likely was - that's very likely not a big enough discount to convince prospective renters.

I have actually seen such offers. Note that you may only get it when the apartment is extremely unattractive or someone is (very) desperately looking for someone to take over the contract.