Locals are being priced out of housing market

Switzerland’s housing market is tightening dramatically. The national vacancy rate has slipped to just one percent – close to an acute shortage.

Nowhere is the pressure more visible than in the canton of Zug.

Locals say rents there have surged 30 percent since 2020, with increases of up to 40 percent in some municipalities.

Wealthy newcomers are pushing prices even higher, while the supply of available homes has shrunk by a third. 

Average earners are increasingly being priced out. 

And buying a home isn’t easier: a new study shows residential property prices have jumped 26 percent nationwide in five years, with typical single-family houses in Zurich now costing well over three million francs.

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