Switzerland's Housing Vacancy Rate Falls Below 1% for the First Time

Switzerland counted 45,493 empty homes on 1 June 2026, a vacancy rate of 0.93% — the first reading below one percent, and a sixth straight annual fall.

Switzerland had 45,493 vacant dwellings on 1 June 2026, equal to 0.93% of its total housing stock. It is the first time the national vacancy rate has fallen below one percent in the history of the survey. The count, published by the Federal Statistical Office on 10 September 2026, is 2,962 units lower than a year earlier, a drop of 6.1%.

Rental stock is vanishing faster than homes for sale

The shortage is sharper on the rental side. Of the empty units, 34,690 were being offered for rent, 6.7% fewer than in 2025, while 10,803 were on the market for sale, down 4.1%. Swiss tenancy law links most existing rents to a national reference mortgage rate rather than to market conditions, so a tightening supply of empty flats does not translate into an immediate across-the-board rent rise. It does, however, concentrate the pressure on newly advertised units, where landlords reset the rent between tenancies.

Zug is sixteen times tighter than Jura

The national average hides a wide spread. The canton of Zug recorded the lowest rate at 0.20%, roughly one empty dwelling in every five hundred. At the other end, Jura stood at 3.35% and Solothurn at 1.91%. Fifteen of the 26 cantons came in below 1%, which means the sub-one-percent reading is not a quirk of the large urban cantons but a condition shared across most of the country.

A six-year squeeze, not a one-year shock

The 2026 figure extends a run that has now lasted six consecutive years. Since 2021 the vacancy rate has come down by 0.79 percentage points — a slow, compounding tightening rather than a sudden turn. Two forces sit behind it: population growth concentrated in the economic centres, and a building pipeline that has not kept pace with it.

For an investor, the Swiss case is a reminder that scarcity and income are separate questions. Glopra's own market data puts Switzerland's gross rental yield at 2.91%, the lowest of the 69 markets it tracks. A buyer entering this market is being paid very little in rent for the capital committed; the return has to come from price stability and currency strength instead. That trade has worked for a decade, but it leaves little cushion if financing costs rise.

One caveat is worth stating plainly. A vacancy rate measures unlet or unsold homes on a single reference day. It captures friction in the market, not the depth of unmet demand behind it, and it says nothing about whether the homes that are empty are in the places people actually want to live.

Sources: Swiss Federal Statistical Office https://www.wbf.admin.ch/de/newnsb/kgvqAd91MYZr; SRF https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/wohnungssuche-bleibt-schwierig-leerwohnungsziffer-sinkt-2026-erstmals-unter-1-prozent

Market data: Switzerland