LAUSANNE - Students returning to the University of Lausanne and EPFL this week found the usual scramble: Facebook groups, noticeboards, and a short list of rooms that vanished by lunchtime. City and cantonal officials concede that purpose-built student housing has not kept up with enrolment, especially among international master's programmes.
Vaud's lakefront towns from Morges to Vevey are not cheaper alternatives. Commuter flats there serve Geneva salaries as much as Lausanne ones. The result is a long triangle of pressure from Geneva airport to the Riviera.
A western shortage, not only a Zurich one
National vacancy figures due this month, later confirmed in our shortage story, were already expected to show western Switzerland near the bottom of the availability table. Lausanne's answer so far is modest infill and arguments with communes that do not want taller blocks near the vineyards.
EPFL staff point out that lab hours do not match the last metro. Night buses help, but they do not create bedrooms. For contrast with the German-speaking approach, see Zurich's station-density reform.