In 5 years, the number of rental apartments has decreased by almost 40%, while that of houses for sale has increased by 6%. Low and middle-income families are the most penalized, Ticino and Grisons follow the national trend.
Looking for a house in Switzerland is a task. Those who have tried it in recent years know it well: dozens of applications, queues for visits, rising prices. And the figures confirm this widespread feeling. In the last 5 years, free rental apartments have fallen by almost 40%: immediately after Covid there were over 60,000 on the market, while in 2025 there were just over 37,000. In practice, as the Confederation's statistics on free housing show, more than 23,000 apartments have disappeared from the rental market. And it is not that the need for housing has decreased in the meantime. Indeed, since the population in the same period grew by around 250,000 inhabitants.
This is not an isolated anomaly, but a continuous trend that affects almost all cantons. A spiral that makes every search more competitive, longer, more expensive.
Large centers under pressure
It is the cities that suffer the most. In the canton of Zurich, available apartments went from 4,686 in 2021 to 2,926 in 2025 (almost 1,800 fewer) with a decrease of 38%. In Bern the decrease exceeds 2,800 units (from 8,249 to 5,316). Vaud (-1,899) and Geneva (-412) also follow the same trend.
But even the smallest cantons are experiencing the same tightness. In Uri, Glarus and Appenzell Inland, for example, six out of ten housing units available in 2021 are no longer available today. Numbers that weigh, especially in territories with few alternatives. In Uri, the number of empty rental apartments has even decreased by 69% (from 314 to 38), reports RSI, transmits albinfo.ch.
According to the Wohnmonitor of the Federal Housing Office (UFAB), the market pressure in 2025 has reached the levels of 2014, so far considered the worst year in the last twenty years. The highest price is paid by low- and middle-income families, who are increasingly struggling to find housing within their means. Rents have increased by an average of around 10% in the past five years.
It's not just a matter of numbers. It's a matter of who can still afford to look for a home, given housing costs in a market where the vacancy rate in 2025 has dropped to 1%, competition is very high and pricing pressure is too.
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