Last year, 3,047 new apartments were built in Zurich – they are getting smaller and smaller

In the city of Zurich, 3,047 new apartments were built last year. That was 481 more than a year earlier. This means that the high level of the years 2015 to 2018 has been reached again.

The number of apartments currently under construction is also high, according to a statement from the City of Statistics Zurich on Tuesday. “We can expect continued high levels of housing activity in the coming years.”

More than half of the new apartments in 2023 will be built by private companies. About a quarter of all apartments were built by private individuals or as condominiums. The public sector and housing associations together also accounted for almost a quarter.

Compared to the 2010s, fewer families with children are settling in the new apartments, but more small households of working age are moving in, writes the Statistical City of Zurich.

There is also a trend towards smaller apartments: the share of one- to three-room apartments in new construction has risen to almost three-quarters. Households would become “fundamentally closer together”.

In new apartments, 51 percent of single households are now satisfied with one or two rooms, compared to only 41 percent ten years ago. And 68 percent of two-person households are now moving to new apartments with up to three rooms, compared to 58 percent ten years ago.

As in previous years, most new apartments were built in the west and north of the city. In Altstetten and Albisrieden (district 9), 795 units were created. 639 apartments have been completed in Oerlikon, Seebach and Affoltern (district 11). (pre/sda)