immo!nvest – Die Plattform für Standorte und Immobilien

Tag: Preisanstieg

  • No easy task: marketing Swiss luxury properties

    No easy task: marketing Swiss luxury properties

    The price increase in the luxury segment in Switzerland, which reached almost 10 per cent in 2022, is coming to an end. Last year, prices for luxury homes rose by an average of around 2 per cent. Single-family homes in particular slowed down, with an increase of just over 1 per cent in 2023 compared to 8 per cent in the previous year. Growth in condominiums fell from 9 to 3 per cent. Overall, the luxury property market performed slightly weaker than the market as a whole, with prices currently 25 per cent higher than pre-coronavirus levels.

    Little support
    In the current geopolitical situation, Switzerland is considered a safe haven due to its stable institutions and high standard of living, which is a strong attraction. However, luxury property has become more expensive due to the strong franc and price trends, which has dampened international demand. The average wealth of Swiss households (excluding property) has remained unchanged in recent years. Economic growth is not particularly strong, which is affecting demand for high-priced property. According to UBS property economist Katharina Hofer, a slight decline in luxury property prices is expected for the current year.

    Three out of four of the most expensive locations are in the mountains. St. Moritz tops the list with prices per square metre of over CHF 42,000. Gstaad is close behind in the luxury segment (39,000 francs per square metre). Cologny on Lake Geneva records prices of over 35,000 francs per square metre, similar to Verbier. In other municipalities with a high proportion of luxury properties in the Geneva region and on Lake Zurich, luxury properties are priced from CHF 25,000 per square metre. For a property in good condition on 1,500 square metres of land, a purchase price of eight to ten million francs can be expected there. In Ticino, luxury prices start at just under 20,000 francs per square metre.

    Lower-cost locations are gaining ground
    A decade ago, the renowned luxury resorts of St. Moritz, Gstaad and Verbier already held their place at the top of the most expensive Swiss municipalities and were able to defend this position unchallenged. Katharina Hofer explains: “In general, luxury markets, especially traditional ones, show remarkable stability over a longer period of time. Short-term price corrections have been largely offset over the last decade.” In the Lake Zurich and Geneva regions, there have been few changes on average in the ranking of the 100 most expensive Swiss municipalities. The situation is quite different in Central Switzerland, where the municipalities analysed in the canton of Zug have moved up an average of more than 30 places within a decade. This illustrates how attractive the low-tax strategy has long made the location, particularly for people with high incomes and assets. However, the biggest winner of the last ten years is the up-and-coming municipality of Andermatt in the canton of Uri, which is increasingly being perceived as a luxury destination thanks to the construction of numerous high-priced properties. In Ticino, on the other hand, price levels have not been able to keep pace with the other municipalities due to an oversupply of luxury flats.

  • Prices for residential property rise despite interest rate turnaround

    Prices for residential property rise despite interest rate turnaround

    The market for owner-occupied residential property remains unaffected by the turnaround in interest rates, Raiffeisen Switzerland informs in a release on the current transaction price index of the cooperative banking group. According to the index, prices for single-family homes in the second quarter of 2023 were 1.3 per cent higher than in the previous quarter. A year-on-year increase of 6.1 per cent was observed. Prices for condominiums increased by 1.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 5.1 per cent year-on-year.

    “In the power struggle between thin supply and higher financing costs due to interest rates, the supply shortage currently continues to hold the upper hand,” Fredy Hasenmaile, chief economist at Raiffeisen Switzerland, is quoted as saying in the statement. The experts of the banking group have observed the greatest increase in central Switzerland. Here, prices for single-family homes increased by 18.8 per cent year-on-year. At the same time, prices for condominiums rose by 11.3 per cent. The smallest increases were recorded for single-family homes in Bern (+3.4 per cent) and northwestern Switzerland (+3.3 per cent). For condominiums, the smallest increase of 1.4 percent was observed in the Zurich region.

    Prices for single-family homes went up more in urban municipalities than in other types of municipalities, at 7.3 per cent. For condominiums, tourist communities led the way with a year-on-year increase of 7.9 per cent.

  • UBS sees holiday flats at a turning point

    UBS sees holiday flats at a turning point

    The prices for holiday flats in Switzerland have risen by an average of 7 per cent year-on-year in 2022, UBS informs in a press release on its current “UBS Alpine Property Focus“. The real estate experts of the big bank have identified the biggest jumps with increases of 15 to 20 percent in the destinations of Arosa, Hoch-Ybrig, Flims/Laax and Engelberg. With prices of around 20,500 Swiss francs per square metre, the Engadin/St.Moritz destination currently leads the ranking of the most expensive second homes in the upscale segment.

    Since autumn 2022, however, experts have observed a slowdown in the price increase. According to Maciej Skoczek, real estate economist at UBS CIO GWM and lead author of the study, it will continue in the coming quarters. “A period of stagnating prices is on the horizon,” Skoczek predicts.

    According to UBS’s findings, the demand drivers from the pandemic years have now lost their power. “Hybrid working, coupled with a relocation of the primary residence to the Alpine region” was only used during the pandemic, and the holidays shifted to the home country will be replaced by trips abroad again when the restrictions are lifted.

    The pandemic left behind around 20 per cent higher prices for two-flats, UBS writes. According to their surveys, the total cost of buying an average flat has also risen to twice the cost of 2019 due to higher interest rates. “Some holiday home owners will consider selling to realise capital gains while escaping the increased costs,” Skoczek says.

  • Swiss real estate market – turnaround in interest rates, so what?

    Swiss real estate market – turnaround in interest rates, so what?

    After years of oversupply, the signs on the rental housing market are now clearly pointing to a shortage. Although demand will continue to exceed the supply of housing in the future, the real estate industry has so far not reacted with higher housing production. As long as rents do not rise sharply, there will be no incentive to expand residential construction in the current market environment. “The remaining vacancy reserves will soon be exhausted. Because the demand from immigration, individualization and demographic aging continues to increase,

    while at the same time fewer and fewer new homes are being built. Significant increases in asking rents are therefore only a matter of time and the topic will move up the political agenda,” says Neff.

    Densification progresses slowly
    It's getting tighter and tighter in Switzerland. The new buildings in this country are getting taller, the apartments in them are getting smaller and more and more people live in the residential zones. So the scarce land is being used more and more economically. However, because land use per person continues to rise and more and more people are living in Switzerland, the pace of densification is far from sufficient to stop urban sprawl. “High hurdles stand in the way of the faster densification demanded by spatial planning. The construction costs of projects with higher density are significantly higher than for a new building on a green field. In addition, strict, inflexible and inconsistent building and zoning regulations limit, complicate or make densification efforts impossible. A very liberal objection practice increases the planning effort for projects with high consolidation potential and leads to ever greater administrative effort," says Martin Neff. For example, the average time from the submission of a building application to the granting of a building permit for buildings with more than three apartments has increased significantly in the last 20 years from 92 days to 150 days.

    Bursting bubbles in the virtual world
    Trading in digital assets based on blockchain technology has experienced a real hype in the course of the cryptocurrency boom. In the meantime, land and real estate can also be purchased in the digital world, the so-called metaverse. The more attractive a piece of digital soil is, the more people will pay for it. The relative attractiveness is strongly defined by how many players are in the vicinity of the property on average. The market for digital real estate has experienced enormous price increases. At the beginning of January 2021, for example, in one of the best-known Mataverses "The Sandbox", the average plot of land was still being traded for less than 150 US dollars. By the end of the year, the price had risen to over $16,000, an increase in value of almost 11,000 percent. By the end of June 2022, prices had collapsed to $2,500. Such a bubble formation with subsequent bursting has been observed in many Metaverse projects in recent months. Among other things, this is favored by the fact that many projects are tied to cryptocurrencies for technical reasons, the future of which cannot yet be estimated either. "Due to the extreme volatility, the obvious tendency to bubble and the questionable intentions of many providers, virtual real estate remains primarily a playing field for speculators who are very willing to take risks," says Martin Neff.

    The “Immobilien Schweiz” study offers a detailed quarterly assessment of the Swiss real estate market. The current study and further information are available at raiffeisen.ch/casa.

  • Homes are getting more expensive

    Homes are getting more expensive

    The real estate platform homegate.ch , which belongs to the TX Group , has published the “Home Market Price Analysis” report, which was drawn up jointly with the Swiss Real Estate Institute . It examines the price development of real estate in the four regions of Berne, Lake Geneva, Northwestern Switzerland and Zurich. According to the results , home sales prices have increased in 2021.

    In the Geneva region, the price increase for owner-occupied homes was the highest at 8.9 percent. However, prices have been falling in 2020. The increase is therefore described as a “catch-up effect”. At 8 percent, Zurich recorded the second largest price increase.

    When it comes to prices for condominiums, the Zurich region continues to be the most expensive. In contrast, the most expensive single-family homes are in the Lake Geneva region. However, the Northwestern Switzerland and Bern regions are also catching up. For example, average single-family house prices grew the most in Northwest Switzerland at 11 percent, followed by the Bern region (9.1 percent).

    On average, prices for single-family homes and condominiums rose by 9 percent and 8.3 percent respectively in 2021. According to the report, this is the highest price dynamic for residential property in the regions examined for ten years.

    Second home prices have risen particularly sharply by 35 percent in 2021 after falling by more than 20 percent last year. “Price increases for first homes are astounding, but for second homes, due to the strict supply restrictions imposed by the second homes initiative, a market has been created that is ideal for real estate speculation,” explains Peter Ilg, head of the Swiss Real Estate Institute.