The canton records a slightly higher number of vacant apartments.
2500 apartments were built in the city of Zurich last year.
Anyone looking for an apartment in Zurich is not to be envied. It was never an easy task, but the situation has worsened considerably in recent years. The gap between supply and demand is widening ever further.
The vacancy figures published annually are an indicator of the situation on the housing market. They show how many apartments and single-family homes are advertised, i.e. which ones are not rented out or resold.
On Wednesday, the canton of Zurich published the latest figures, as did the cities of Zurich and Winterthur.
Few empty apartments in the cities
Compared to the previous year, the statistics at cantonal level show a slight increase in the number of empty apartments. At that time, there were around 4,100 empty apartments in the entire canton. This year, there are 4,400. The number of empty apartments has therefore risen slightly from 0.53 to 0.56.
There are also slightly more vacant apartments in the city of Zurich than there were a year ago. However, the increase is manageable at just over two dozen (from 144 to 169) residential units, and the vacancy rate has risen from 0.06 percent to 0.07 percent.
The city explains the small change by saying that population growth and housing construction are at a similar level to the previous year.
Newly built apartments in particular are usually sold out before they come onto the market. Within a year, 2,300 new apartments were completed in the city. By the deadline of 2024, all but 18 had been allocated.
In Winterthur, the canton’s second-largest city, the housing market is under similar pressure to Zurich, according to the latest vacancy figures. While there were still 113 apartments available in 2023, there were only 83 on June 1, 2024. The vacancy rate has therefore fallen from 0.19 percent to 0.14 percent.
In both cities, family apartments with more than five rooms are very popular – and are accordingly rare. There are currently seven apartments with more than five rooms in Zurich and Winterthur that are not rented. The best chances are if you are looking for a three-room apartment. There are currently 52 unrented apartments in Zurich and 29 in Winterthur.
The Glatttal and the Zurich Oberland have the highest vacancy rates at 1.1 and 1.07 percent respectively.
Has the turning point been reached?
After the canton’s vacancy rate has declined sharply in recent years (in 2020 it was still at 0.9 percent), the situation is now showing signs of stabilization. The canton attributes this to the fact that in 2023, more new apartments were built than demolished.
However, the canton says that it is not possible to say whether this is the turning point and whether the number of vacant apartments will rise again in the coming years. The data currently available suggests that housing construction will stagnate or even decline in the coming years.
