hi ef! yeh i was just wondering. i want to buy a place in zurich and actually, it seems to me that prices have increased quite a bit since 2018/19 when I was looking into buying a house the last time.

tbh im no expert or anything and just wondered a. is it me or have prices increased? and b. is it typical?

i was just reading a few newspaper articles that all say how swiss house prices have been going up up up for a decade and more, so maybe that's just what happens. i know switzerland is called a seller'smarket and that very few people want to sell anyway. you do a house search in the uk and 2000 houses come up. here, like 15!

In a word yes! The pandemic has seen a huge demand here & in other countries for houses - people want more space & to live outside the city. Saw something from UBS a couple of weeks ago suggesting 5% or more increases in last 12 months depending on location across Switzerland. In reality it’s probably a lot more given the lack of supply & huge demand.

Remember demand is the ability to pay rather than desire. I don't believe the ability to pay has increased over the last 12 months.

I am not surprised though how many people have money in this country.

I see more and more adverts in the local newspaper from "families seeking minimum 5.5 room" properties, with "komfortables" budget... We are talking CHF2m plus on the silver coast and at these prices I don't think these people take out full mortgages because the family would need to have an annual income of around 400k to pass bank's affordability tests. So they must have more than CHF400k of equity available.

I wouldn't agree with this - in a rich country like Switzerland, purely the ability to pay is often not a factor in financial decisions, even for property with a very tight market.

I think the value of properties which are better for home working have probably increased a little, and the value of those near big employers but in otherwise crappy locations have probably gone down a bit.

At least a couple of my younger employees have moved away from their parents earlier than planned because of home working (renting obviously). The affordability hasn't changed, it's still marginal, but the need has.

Ability AND willingness.

I can well imagine there are people who could afford to buy what has become a more desirable property on the city outskirts, but couldn‘t afford to buy the city centre apartment they rent. 2 years ago they didn’t want to live in the suburbs and beyond. With extended home working a reality, these people may have reassessed what they want from a property and realised that they could have it further away from the city.

There is no Swiss housing market. Each geminde is its own housing market. For example, there are probably >50 families in Thalwil who would love to own and can afford a 5.5 room apartment, and who have kids in the local school and who like their commute from Thalwil to Zurich. The supply of 5.5 room apartments is probably between 5-10 (that are actually advertised) and so in that particular geminde you will have a massive supply/demand imbalance. It's the same story in almost all of Zurich/Zug/Hofe region of Schwyz. Now if you want to own in Bern oberland or Thurgau it's a different story :-)

As I have pointed out before, when I came here in 1989 there were 6.7 million people living in Switzerland. Today it's over 8.6 million.

That's an increase of over 1.9 million or 28% - and every one of them needs a roof over their heads...

I can see a couple of reasons for increase:

- expectation of inflation
- expectation of increase in interest rate - makes sense only if one gets a fixed interest rate though
- need/wish for more space and inability to find appropriate rental property (my experience is that 5+ room rental places are very rare, especially if you have extra wishes)
- some people actually made substantial savings last year. There're people spending enormous money on going out...

There are people holding on cash for various reasons. I know people who consider that other financial investment options bring better return and refuse to buy RE. Another reason is if you want to be flexible with moves. Owning property is an extra binding factor for many people - it is a hassle to sell property for many.

thanks for the very enlightening replies tbh. really interesting baout the population increase and also about how every single gemeinde is a really tight sellers market. also maybe prices are going up and up coz as the world goes down the plughole, switzerland is going to be the best place to live and watch it all from the sofa. is there a better country in the world? safe, stable, clean, totally democratic, really lovely, and tbh, theres nowhere in swizterland where youd feel unsafe. at worst, swiztelrnad is like 'a bit drab'. anyway sorry for rambling, this ode to swiztelrand has almost definitnely nothing to do with the practical real world economic reasons why house prices go up

btw, i just thought id ask here as well, and thanks for any recommendations ... i want to get the house i live in now appraised. ive been reading the ef threads about selling a house and theyre a mine of info, including 'get your house appraised by a pro' and def not by an agent

anyone got any recommendations?

btw ive been on homegate these few days and i love the houses advertised 'price on request'. i wonder what thats about. maybe starting a cheeky auction, not in the spirit of ripping buyers off as such, but coz these houses look AMAZING and for sure someone will be prepared to fight it out. the new one today was a 20 room (or 12 i cant remember tbh, my head cant comprehend more than 10 anyway) villa on the lake! according to old ef threads ive read, it will sell in a flash.

“The price of a home has climbed 3.6% in the past year alone. Property prices have been rising faster than incomes for the last 10 years. Property around Zurich has increased 13% in three years.”

https://www.worldradio.ch/news/bites...despite-covid/

I just had a chat with a friend in Zug who told me house/flat prices have gone through the roof in Zug and are absolutely ridiculous.
I would guess Zurich is no different.

wowzers

The short answer is „yes, but relatively speaking not as much as other parts of Europe as Switzerland was crazy expensive before and had less space to rise as for example Germany or the BeNeLux“.

I was browsing through advertisements displayed on the windows of some estate agents in Lenzerheide and if places were just expensive a year ago, they are now ridiculous...

I guess Covid means that people with spare cash started to grab whatever weekend options they could find.

That’s a different story from the general housing prices: secondary homes in the mountains exploded in value in times of home office...

It's either that or you get divorced with kids running around 60m2 apartment in middle of the city and both do work from home ..so it may come out as better investment even so it doesn't seem like one now ...

Accompanied a friend to a flat he wants to buy in Stafa on Friday. The real estate guy told me he recently marketed a house at CHF3.5m nr Horgen and had 150 enquiries. The successful buyers then dropped another million renovating it

Along the lake 5 million is the new 2 million*.

And yes, even at these insane prices buyers should be prepared for the need to drop significant cash into updating whatever you buy.


*Except my house, which we recently had valued and had our suspicions confirmed that it has not appreciated in the 15+ years since we bought it. Lake view notwithstanding.

As always, the value is in the land. Any heap of junk that can be torn down and replaced with a luxury villa or rabbit warren of concrete boxes will be priced in the stratosphere. However if, like my house, you cannot re-build to what today's buyers want, the land price will likely not keep up with the general area rise.

There are two "difficult" house for sale in our road. They are 1960s builds with need of renovation with oil heating and radiators. Land areas 600 and 1000sq meters.

We are 22ish km for Zurich in a small village about 45mins by public transport - bus and train in te Zurioberland.

Priced at CHF1.2million and 2million, with typical low-key posts on Home gate.

Both have received over 100 enquiries each and I see no reason for them not to sell at the asking price. Both need at least ½ million spending on them or demolishing for two or more dwellings on the plots...

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