NEUCHATEL - Switzerland had 45,493 empty houses and apartments on 1 June 2026, the Federal Statistical Office said, a vacancy rate of 0.93 percent. The stock of empty homes fell 6.1 percent on the year. The rate had already slipped from 1.08 percent in 2024 to 1.0 percent in 2025. Crossing below 1 percent is the line many housing economists use for a national shortage.
Geneva remains among the tightest markets, with a vacancy rate near 0.31 percent. New buildings are often priced at CHF 320 or more per square metre per year, roughly CHF 2,670 a month for a modest family flat. Wuest Partner analyst Robert Weinert has pointed to land prices, construction costs and financing, not marble lobbies, as the reason new blocks sit at the top of the market.
Empty luxury, missing rooms
Since 2020 the number of genuinely affordable apartments has dropped by about 60 percent. Some new districts struggle to fill expensive units while waiting lists for older, cheaper flats barely move. The mismatch is political fuel in Zurich, where the cantonal council has just approved denser building near stations.
Mortgage pricing still tracks European rates. After the ECB held at 2.75 percent, cantonal banks have not rushed to cheapen ten-year fixed loans. More zoning will not, by itself, make those loans cheaper.