Your community is so popular with families

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In cities, high rents are charged even for apartments with few rooms. Even more surprising is the increasing proportion of families in rental apartments in seven of Switzerland’s ten largest cities. In Zurich, for example, the proportion of families rose to almost 20 percent. This means that one family lives in every fifth flat. This is demonstrated in the latest real estate survey by Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB).

Other cities such as Lucerne or Basel are also becoming increasingly popular with families. Terse, St. Gallen doesn’t mean the city isn’t welcoming to families. There are enough affordable apartments in the surrounding area.

Short distances and less noise

Why are cities attractive enough for families to accept high rents and small spaces? Ursina Kubli, 43, head of real estate research at ZKB and co-author of the study, says: “If you can walk the kids to daycare, that’s a big plus. The closest kindergarten in the country is sometimes 10 kilometers away.”

The city is no longer as noisy and polluted as it used to be, so it has become attractive again for families, because “short travel times mean more time for the family.”

Unlike the Swiss centres, things are getting better in the countryside. The small Seehof community in the Bernese Jura raises the back of the assessment. The proportion of families there has dropped 18 percent since 2014. In general, well-developed areas are more popular with families than areas that are difficult to access.

More and more small apartments

Ursina Kubli says about growth in cities: “It’s getting harder and harder for families to fulfill their dream of owning their own house in the country, so more and more they are staying in the city.” Housing in the city is scarce and rents are high, so families often rent apartments that do not have their own rooms for all children. As a result, more and more children are forced to share their room with a sibling.

Strikingly, the number of newly built large apartments with four or more rooms has dropped significantly in recent years. But there are more and more new 1-3-room apartments. “This reflects the trend towards individualization and population aging: the demand for smaller apartments has increased sharply,” explains Robert Weinert, 44, real estate specialist at Wüst Partner.

Lack of space in the nursery

Also, the return for investors with three 2-bedroom apartments is probably higher than a 6-room apartment. Weinert adds: “Smaller apartments are often built where there is little building land or where construction density is high.” I mean, in cities.

An assessment of the housing situation of families in Switzerland’s ten largest cities shows that Basel, Geneva, Lausanne, Biel and Bern have the fewest rooms per family. Every third family with more than two children lives there in a three-room apartment. One in five in Zurich and Lugano. The condition still affects one in ten families in Winterthur, Lucerne and St. Slightly less dangerous in Gallen. According to Ursina Kubli, the situation in the country is the opposite: “There usually every child has at least one room for himself.” And a garden or green space to play outside.

Source :Blick