ZURICH - In a city where the vacancy rate has been squeezed toward zero and a reasonably priced flat is the rarest of finds, Zurich is buying what it cannot build fast enough. The municipality has purchased 64 apartments in the Seebach district, adding a ready-made block of low-rent homes to its nonprofit housing stock.
The buildings date from 1952 and are largely in good condition, the city said. They currently house at least 156 people. The longer-term value lies in the land: the residential floor space on the site could be more than doubled in a future redevelopment, which would turn a single purchase into a much larger pool of affordable flats.
One third, one purchase at a time
The acquisition is a step toward Zurich's one-third goal, the target under which a third of all rental apartments in the city should be nonprofit. That policy, backed by voters, has made the city an active buyer whenever suitable properties come to market, competing with private investors for exactly the kind of solid post-war stock that Seebach offers.
The context is unforgiving. The national vacancy rate has fallen below one percent, and in Zurich the effective figure is a fraction of that. The canton has responded with new density rules that planners say could yield 12,000 apartments by 2030, but tenant advocates note that construction takes years, while a purchase like Seebach protects tenants this winter.
What tenants can expect
Existing tenants keep their homes under city ownership, with rents set on the cost-based principle that governs nonprofit housing rather than on what the market would bear. For the city, the arithmetic is strategic: every block bought today is a block that cannot be renovated into luxury rentals tomorrow, and every site with reserve density is a down payment on the next decade of construction.