Asking rents continue to rise
The Homegate rental index shows that asking rents increased by 0.3 percent in June as well. They have thus risen steadily by a total of 1.3 percent since the beginning of the year. The reason for this lies in the declining building applications combined with brisk demand.
The Homegate rental index now stands at 117.9 points. This means that asking rents increased again by 0.3 percent in June, and by 1.3 percent since the beginning of the year. According to a media release from the real estate marketplace, this is “in stark contrast to the rental price development before the COVID 19 pandemic, when rising vacancies in the Swiss rental apartment market caused nervousness among investors”.
Because the net rents have also become more expensive, the increased energy costs alone cannot be held responsible. In fact, building applications have been declining for the last two years. At the same time, there is brisk demand for rental apartments. “So just a few years ago there was concern about an oversupply of rental apartments, but these are again extremely scarce in sought-after locations.”
Homegate describes the half-year increases in the cantons of Zug (5.4 percent) and Graubünden as well as in Appenzell (4.3 percent each) as remarkable. The increases were lowest in the cantons of Basel-Landschaft (0.6 percent) and Ticino (0.5 percent).
In the cities, demand has increased again since the infrastructure started up again after the first phases of the pandemic, particularly in Zurich (4.8 percent). Lausanne (2.5 percent) and Lugano (1.8 percent) were also above the national average. Only in St.Gallen were rents slightly down (minus 0.2 percent).