Housing will soon become even more expensive

class=”sc-3778e872-0 cKDKQr”>

In the real estate barometer published on Friday, Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) assumes that the reference interest rate will be increased by 0.25 percentage points from 1 June. The housing loan reference interest rate, which was implemented as 3.5 percent in 2008, has known only one direction until now: down.

It has since dropped to 1.25% in March 2020, where it is now. The reference interest rate is one of the criteria for the level of apartment rents and is collected quarterly by the Federal Housing Authority (BWO) based on average domestic mortgage receivables from Swiss banks.

Net rent increased by three percent

Tenants who lease at a 1.25% reference interest rate will now have to wait for landlords to increase their net rent by three percent. With the additional balancing of inflation and overall cost increases, it should rise above even 4 percent.

After evaluating the Federal Statistical Office’s (BfS) rental price index data from 2016 to 2022, ZKB concluded that rental relationships could be affected by an increase of up to 50 percent. The next increase that ZKB expects in 2024 will be up to 60 percent.

Clean up regional differences

“This will be the case for tenants who have benefited from reductions in the reference interest rate in the past,” writes ZKB. There are likely to be significant regional differences. Zurich tenants have been particularly active in demanding rent payments in the past. But this also applies to tenants who have just moved into their homes and pay a high initial rent.

According to ZKB, German-speaking Swiss tenants residing in a new building and owning a corporate home are more likely to receive an unsolicited letter from the landlord in the near future. (pbe/SDA)

Source :Blick