Swiss home ownership rate over 37 percent
The home ownership rate in Switzerland remains the lowest in Europe. As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), the overall share was 37.4 percent in 2014.
According to the FSO structural survey, in 2014 the cantons of Valais and Appenzell-Innerrhoden, for example, had an above-average ownership rate of more than 50 percent. By contrast, it is well below average in Basel-Stadt and Geneva, at just 16 and 18 percent respectively. The number of owner-occupied homes in Switzerland as a whole rose by more than a quarter between 2000 and 2014 to 1.34 million, according to the FSO. 930,000 of these are owner-occupied homes, while the rest are in condominium ownership. The stock of rental apartments increased by around ten percent to two million in the same period.
According to the FSO, the proportion of homeowners in Switzerland has grown steadily over the past four and a half decades: While the rate was 28.5 percent in 1970 and 31.3 percent in 1990, it rose to 34.6 percent by 2000. In a Europe-wide comparison, where an average of 70 percent of the inhabitants live in residential property, Switzerland is thus still in last place. The lowest rates in the EU are in Germany (53%) and Austria (57%), and the highest in Romania (96%). (mr)
