The property professionals’ solution

The Swiss rental market is currently going through a distinctly paradoxical phase.

Never before have so many apartments been put up for rent in recent months, and yet listings are disappearing from portals faster than ever. A counterintuitive phenomenon that deserves closer analysis, as it reveals the structural tensions at work in the market.

More supply… but record absorption

Between October 2024 and September 2025, nearly 25,000 additional rental units were brought onto the Swiss market, representing an increase of around 6% year-on-year. This rise can be observed in 19 of the 26 cantons, with particularly strong growth in regions such as Valais, Vaud, and Graubünden. At the same time, however, the average listing duration has fallen to 24 days — a historically low level, comparable to the record lows seen in the mid-2010s.

In other words: more properties are being offered, but they are finding tenants even faster. The data used come from the Online Housing Index (OHI), developed by HEV Schweiz, SVIT, the newhome portal, and the Swiss Real Estate Institute.

Very pronounced regional disparities

Behind this national average lie substantial regional differences. In some cantons and cities, rental properties are absorbed at an impressive pace:

• Chur shows an average listing duration of just 10 days,
• Winterthur and Geneva follow with 13 days,
• Zurich stands at around 16 days.

By contrast, other markets remain significantly more relaxed. In Jura, a listing stays online for more than 50 days on average, while Neuchâtel, Lugano, or Basel regularly exceed the one-month mark.

These gaps highlight a key reality for professionals: the Swiss rental market is far from homogeneous. Local dynamics largely outweigh national averages.

A more mobile market, but still under pressure

How can this paradox be explained?

The authors of the study offer a clear interpretation: demand is growing faster than supply. The increase in available housing is not sufficient to absorb the pressure generated by population growth, professional mobility, and changing lifestyles. Moreover, the temporary expansion of supply appears to encourage many tenants to move, increasing market fluidity without sustainably easing overall tension.

The result: apartments are relet more quickly, but competition among applicants remains intense.

What does this mean for real estate professionals?

For landlords, property managers, and marketers, this situation entails several concrete challenges:

• Greater responsiveness in handling inquiries and applications,
• Fine-grained analysis of performance by property and by region,
• More transparent communication with owners in a context of high turnover,
• Optimization of reletting processes in order to capture demand at the right moment.

In a market where time on the market is shrinking despite growing supply, data becomes a strategic lever for managing marketing activities efficiently and anticipating local developments.

A paradox revealing a structural imbalance

This paradox of the Swiss rental market illustrates an underlying tension: as long as structural supply does not increase sufficiently, particularly in urban centers and agglomerations pressure on listing durations and rents will remain high, even during periods of apparent growth in supply. For professionals, understanding these dynamics is a key prerequisite for adapting strategies, advising clients effectively, and remaining competitive in an increasingly demanding environment.

Sources

24heures.ch - Article
watson.ch - Article