That cost of Switzerland

February 2022

Where in Switzerland are the rents the lowest? How much can you save on home or car insurance? In which canton do you buy the cheapest cars and what do the Swiss spend the most money on online marketplaces? The current study “That costs Switzerland” by the SMG Swiss Marketplace Group answers these and other questions. For this purpose, the data from 2021 on real estate, vehicles, insurance and general marketplaces was collected.

A significant part of the spending by Swiss people is in the areas of housing, mobility, insurance, leisure and sport. In its annual data analysis ” It costs Switzerland”, the SMG Swiss Marketplace Group provides comprehensive insights into the actual cost of living in Switzerland.

For this purpose, the figures for 2021 were collected on the online platforms ImmoScout24, Homegate, FinanceScout24, AutoScout24 , Car For You, MotoScout24, anibis.ch, tutti.ch and Ricardo . “As a digital pioneer, we want to simplify the lives of people in Switzerland with groundbreaking products,” says Gilles Despas, CEO of SMG Swiss Marketplace Group. “With our platforms, we give them the opportunity to offer and buy products and compare prices quickly and easily. Especially in an expensive country like Switzerland, price transparency is important to keep an eye on the cost of living.»

Real estate market: Condominiums in Zug are three times more expensive than in the Jura
Looking at real estate prices in Switzerland, there are large cantonal differences. While a 4.5-room apartment in the canton of Jura cost an average of CHF 516,000 in 2021, it was more than three times as much in the cantons of Geneva or Zug at over CHF 1,700,000. If you take the most sought-after type of apartment, the 3.5-room rental apartment, as a reference property, there will be differences in rental costs between the cantons of over 110 percent in 2021. While tenants in the canton of Jura paid an average of just 1,135 francs, this figure is more than twice as high in the canton of Zug at 2,428 francs. Overall, the rental prices for 3.5-room apartments remained the same or even fell compared to 2020 in most cantons last year.

The detailed results of the study on the individual areas can be found under “ The costs for Switzerland ”.

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