A home of your own: most expatriates in Switzerland rent their homes, but buying can be an interesting option. Swiss News looks into in the logistics of buying a house in Switzerland.

AuteurLittlejohn, Simone
Fonction Expert Advice

According to real estate specialists at Credit Suisse, purchasing a home in Switzerland has never been such a viable proposition. Historically low interest rates and reasonable property prices, coupled with high rents as compared with other European countries, are making it prudent for more people to become proud homeowners, according to the Credit Suisse website.

Yet very few people in this country own the home they live in--about 36 per cent, in fact. Though the rate of home ownership has been rising, from 30 per cent in 1990, Switzerland has the lowest rate of home ownership of all European countries.

People in Switzerland rent-Swiss and expatriate alike. And, according to an April 2005 swiss-info article, they pay the most expensive rents in all of Europe, spending about a fifth of their income on housing costs. Rental prices have skyrocketed by 85 per cent in the last two decades, to double the average paid by tenants in the European Union.

Vacancy rate

Rent is expensive due to an astonishingly low housing vacancy rate and very expensive construction costs. According to the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics, the housing inventory vacancy rate in 2003 was 0.91 per cent, meaning that only 33,400 housing units in the entire country were vacant at any given time that year. No wonder it's so hard to find a home around here!

Construction cost

In an interview with Swiss News, Maureen Reinertsen, Relocation Specialist and owner of h.o.m.e.s.--housing options for management, executives & spouses GmhH--said rents are high because Swiss labour and construction costs are high. A low level painter is billed out at SFr 70 per hour, an electrician at SFr 120 per hour.

Construction costs often include bomb shelters, which used to be required in all Swiss housing. Most Swiss roofs are sloped, load-bearing, the roofs which are very expensive to build. Flat roots require heavy, expensive construction because they need drainage. They must also be built to withstand the weight of plants on them, as planting is a common requirement to improve their appearance.

Windows, concrete and many other materials are manufactured in Switzerland. This makes the building cost higher, as it is a relatively closed market.

Home size

The vast majority of rental properties in the country are small apartments. In 2000 only three per cent of rental apartments were larger than 160 square metres and only 3.5 per cent had more than six rooms. According to Reinertsen, the average...

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