Where in Switzerland are property prices falling?
Housing is expensive in Switzerland, but the declining real estate prices are making home ownership just a tad more affordable.
While many tenants in Switzerland will see their rents go up from October 1st, there is good news for people who want to purchase property: after steadily reaching record highs since 2022, the prices of single-family houses are declining.
"The days of record prices for single-family homes are over,” Donato Scognamiglio, head of IAZI real estate consultancy, told Swiss media on Sunday.
This means that if you have been hoping to purchase property but weren’t able to afford it, now could be a good time to buy.
Why have the prices dropped?
According to digital real estate valuation platform Realadvisor, “this drop is the consequence of the increase in interest rates by the Swiss National Bank since mid-June 2022.”
Each time the central bank had upped the rate — the last time to 1.75 percent in June 2023 – mortgages became more expensive. As a result, the demand for real estate plummeted, and the prices have dropped subsequently as well.
“Homeowners who want to sell their properties now will lower their price by 5 percent or more,” according to Scognamiglio.
Where have the prices dropped, and by how much?
While the decrease is modest, it still means housing is becoming a bit more affordable, even in the high-cost, high demand areas.
For instance, according to Realadvisor, prices in Zurich and Lausanne fell by 0.7 percent in past months, and in Geneva and Basel, they declined by 1.3 percent, on average.
Now, this doesn’t mean that buying property in these cities has suddenly become ‘cheap.’ Prices for homes there still mostly exceed 1 million francs.
There are, however, regions where you can purchase property for less than that.
They include Jura, Valais (outside of ski resort areas), Solothurn, Fribourg,Thurgau, Schaffhausen, Appenzell Ausserhoden, St Gallen, Neuchatel, Bern, Uri, Aargau and Ticino.
In all of these places homes can still be purchased for under a million francs.
Will the real estate prices remain lower?
For the immediate future, yes.
But as the housing market is volatile and largely depends on the fluctuation of interest rates, as well as other factors like construction activity, experts doubt the situation will continue into 2024.
So if you are serious about purchasing property, you should strike the iron while it’s hot.
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While many tenants in Switzerland will see their rents go up from October 1st, there is good news for people who want to purchase property: after steadily reaching record highs since 2022, the prices of single-family houses are declining.
"The days of record prices for single-family homes are over,” Donato Scognamiglio, head of IAZI real estate consultancy, told Swiss media on Sunday.
This means that if you have been hoping to purchase property but weren’t able to afford it, now could be a good time to buy.
Why have the prices dropped?
According to digital real estate valuation platform Realadvisor, “this drop is the consequence of the increase in interest rates by the Swiss National Bank since mid-June 2022.”
Each time the central bank had upped the rate — the last time to 1.75 percent in June 2023 – mortgages became more expensive. As a result, the demand for real estate plummeted, and the prices have dropped subsequently as well.
“Homeowners who want to sell their properties now will lower their price by 5 percent or more,” according to Scognamiglio.
Where have the prices dropped, and by how much?
While the decrease is modest, it still means housing is becoming a bit more affordable, even in the high-cost, high demand areas.
For instance, according to Realadvisor, prices in Zurich and Lausanne fell by 0.7 percent in past months, and in Geneva and Basel, they declined by 1.3 percent, on average.
Now, this doesn’t mean that buying property in these cities has suddenly become ‘cheap.’ Prices for homes there still mostly exceed 1 million francs.
There are, however, regions where you can purchase property for less than that.
They include Jura, Valais (outside of ski resort areas), Solothurn, Fribourg,Thurgau, Schaffhausen, Appenzell Ausserhoden, St Gallen, Neuchatel, Bern, Uri, Aargau and Ticino.
In all of these places homes can still be purchased for under a million francs.
Will the real estate prices remain lower?
For the immediate future, yes.
But as the housing market is volatile and largely depends on the fluctuation of interest rates, as well as other factors like construction activity, experts doubt the situation will continue into 2024.
So if you are serious about purchasing property, you should strike the iron while it’s hot.
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