The Gotthard pass is no longer open to traffic; prices for single-family homes have increased; and more news from Switzerland in our Friday roundup.
The Gotthard Pass is closed from today
This major north-south axis is shut down for the winter starting today, the Federal Roads Office said.
Traffic will be routed via the Gotthard road tunnel during the closure.
Already closed are, among others, the San Bernardino, Susten, Grimsel, Furka, Nufenen, Klausen, and Great St. Bernard passes.
The Sanetsch and Glaubenbielen passes are also impassable; the latter remains open, however, on the Obwalden side as far as Mörlialp.
However, the Oberalp, Julier, Bernina, Flüela, Albula, Brünig, Simplon, Sattel, Schwägalp, and Splügen passes remain open for the time being.
Prices for single-family homes have gone up in October
According to the purchase index published on Thursday by Immoscout24 together with real estate consultants IAZI, asking prices for single-family homes rose by an average of 0.3 percent to 7,800 francs per square metre.
Prices for condominiums, on the other hand, fell slightly by 0.1 percent to 9,202 francs.
Houses became particularly expensive in Central Switzerland (+4.2 percent). The increase was more moderate in the greater Zurich region and the Lake Geneva region (+0.6 percent each). Advertised house prices fell in Eastern Switzerland (-0.3 percent), but particularly in Ticino (-4.2 percent).
According to the data, advertised prices for condominiums rose the most in Zurich (+0.7 percent), followed by Northwestern Switzerland (+0.6 percent). In contrast, they fell in Central Switzerland (-0.8 percent), Eastern Switzerland (-1 percent) and Ticino (-1.5 percent).
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There is, however, also good news on the price front:
About 300 medications are now less expensive
As it does each year, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) has reviewed the cost-effeciveness of hundreds of drugs, cutting the price of approximately 300 of them by 12 percent on average.
They include medicines for cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, and infectious diseases.
You can see which meds are now cheaper on the FOPH site, here.
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Switzerland continues to attract more and more cross-border workers
Approximately 410,000 people held a G permit at the end of the third quarter of 2025 – that is, between July and October, according to data published on Thursday by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).
More than half of them come from France (57.6 percent), followed by Italy (22.7 percent) and Germany (16.5 percent).
Over the last five years, the number of cross-border workers has risen from 342,000 to 410,000, an increase of nearly 20 percent.
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