Holiday apartment market normalises after pandemic boom
Keystone-SDA
The Swiss holiday apartment market has stabilised at a high level. According to the property experts at Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB), the pandemic-related boom in second homes has now subsided, but demand for traditional holiday homes remains high.
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According to the study published on Tuesday, Alpine regions are still particularly popular. The most popular holiday destination for the people of Zurich is canton Graubünden. Almost two-thirds of their holiday homes outside the canton are located in Graubünden.
Some municipalities are particularly popular with holidaymakers from the lowlands. In Lantsch, Falera and Obersaxen, for example, almost every 20th flat is financed by the ZKB as a holiday home for a Zurich resident.
According to ZKB, the price growth for holiday flats was sometimes in the double-digit range during the pandemic. The bank said that if a flat cost CHF1 million five years ago, it is now CHF1.4 million. This means that the market experienced a price increase of around 40% for second homes between 2019 and 2024.
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Own home and holiday apartment
At the same time, 70% of holiday flats were bought by people who already own their own home. In Herrliberg in Zurich, for example, almost one in ten households with their own home also owns a holiday flat.
In Zurich, however, the ownership of holiday flats is the domain of tenants. Around two-thirds of all holiday flats in the city of Zurich are owned by tenants. According to the data, most of these come from the more expensive neighbourhoods of Höngg, Ober- and Unterstrass, Hottingen, Enge and Seefeld.
However, prices have recently started to fall again. The price index for second homes calculated by the ZKB has shown a significant correction since 2024. This means that the second home market is now “back to normal”.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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