Rents across Switzerland dropped in July according to real estate website Homegate.ch. Since the index started in January 2009, average rents across the country had risen by 13.9% over the 7 and a half years up to the end of June 2016. By the end of July the total increase was 13.7%, a drop of […]
Tax breaks for Swiss home owners should be reduced, say experts
20 Minutes. A recently released report, put together by a group of experts, proposes measures to dissuade people in Switzerland maintaining high levels of debt, in particular home mortgages. The report says the current system encourages individuals to maintain unhealthy levels of debt. The level of home mortgage debt in Switzerland is very high by international standards and has […]
Swiss architect takes client to court to stop home alteration
24 Heures. In 2011, the owners of a home designed by EPFL trained Swiss architect Vincent Mangeat, decided to make some alterations. The modernist masterpiece has a large open terrace at the front, and the owners decided to close the opening to keep out the weather and reduce noise from the nearby road. The proposed change drawn up by another […]
Swiss property prices set to decline this year says report
Tribune de Genève. According to construction and property market consultants, Wüest & Partner, the Swiss housing market, for both renting and buying, should ease by 0.3% in 2016. In French-speaking Switzerland the declines should be higher with declines of 0.6% predicted in the Lake Geneva region and a fall of 2.1% expected in Valais. For the […]
How buying a house has become beyond the reach of most Swiss
20 Minutes. A couple with an annual income of CHF 100,000 won’t find anything in 65% of Swiss communes according to the newspaper. After looking at 800,000 property advertisements on the website Homegate, 20 Minuten calculated an average home price increase of 36% between 2002 and 2015, far more than the 15% rise in salaries between 2002 […]
No relief for Swiss renters despite falling interest rates
Every three months the rate of interest used to set Swiss rents is reviewed. If it goes down some renters have the right to request a decrease in rent. Unlike on 2 June 2015, when it was reduced from 2.00% to 1.75%, giving many a chance to reduce their rent, on 2 March 2016, it was left at 1.75% […]
Swiss real estate heads further towards bubble territory
Last week UBS released its real estate bubble index for the last quarter of 2015. According to the bank, the risk moved from 1.34 in Q3 2015, to finish the year at 1.41. Anything over 1.0 is considered risky and anything beyond 2.0 is bubble territory. Before property prices crashed in the 1990s, the index rose […]
UBS expects home prices to fall in Switzerland in 2016
This week the bank UBS and the consulting firm EY released their 2016 real estate reports. UBS says home prices are expected to fall for the first time in 17 years. EY is bearish on some sectors but more sanguine on home prices. UBS highlights affordability issue The main brake on home prices is affordability according to […]
Switzerland’s 117 metre vertical forest
In 2017 a vertical forest will begin to rise from a building site located in Chavannes in west Lausanne. The tower will rise to a maximum of 117 metres and be covered with trees equivalent to around one hectare of forest. The tower’s designer is Milan-based architect Stefano Boeri. Already in Milan Two similar towers, […]
Geneva’s housing shortage attracting fraudsters
Tribune de Genève. This week the Geneva daily went undercover and identified one of many fraudulent advertisements for apartments in Geneva. Responding to an advertisement on the website immostreet.ch, they were given a false name, told they couldn’t view the apartment because the owner lives abroad, and asked to send funds to a bank account […]
