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Jackpot! 3.5 rooms with balcony, a bus stop right in front of the door, a ten-minute walk from Zug train station and all for “only” 2,100 francs rent including additional costs. The best thing about it: I managed to get a viewing appointment.

The road here was long and rocky. Because Zug is probably the last canton where you would want to look for housing: nowhere else in Switzerland is the housing shortage as acute as here.

The housing shortage is increasing across the country

According to assessments by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), the housing crisis has increased throughout Switzerland in 2022 and 2023. In total, 6,731 fewer apartments were vacant than last year, which corresponds to a decrease of 10.9 percent.

According to the same figures, the housing shortage in Switzerland is nowhere as great as in the cantons of Zug and Geneva. Your vacancy rate is 0.42 percent. This value is calculated based on the ratio of vacant apartments to the total housing stock of the canton. The lower the number, the fewer vacant apartments there are.

On the BFS reference date for these statistics, June 1, 2023, there were only 254 empty apartments in Zug. In Geneva there were 1,041.

Are expats driving up prices?

A look at the community real estate platforms online shows a depressing picture for the canton of Zug: a 2.5-room apartment for 5,000 francs, a 3.5-room apartment for 7,700 francs, an attic apartment with 3.5 rooms for 10,400 francs. For the few vacant apartments that exist, landlords rarely charge less than 4,000 francs per month.

Casha Frigo is a real estate agent at Engel and Völkers in Zug and says:

Frigo can give some reasons for this initial situation. On the one hand, it is obvious: “The low taxes make Zug very attractive as a place to live, but also as a head office.”

Which brings us to the next reason: Zug is home to the headquarters of countless companies whose high-earning employees enjoy a short commute to work. And in the past, the company also paid for their apartments when they flew in a worker directly from abroad: the so-called 'expats'.

The latest structural survey of the BFS from 2022 gives an idea of ​​how many foreign workers live in the canton of Zug: 14.1 percent of the Zug population mainly speaks English. That's one in seven people. “No other canton has such a high share of a mainly English-speaking population,” the canton of Zug wrote in a press release in January 2024.

At the same time, the share of the German- and Swiss-German speaking population is decreasing: “Seven out of ten Zug residents speak Swiss German at home (70.2%). In 2012 this share was 77.9 percent.”

Have expats driven up rents in Zug? Real estate agent Casha Frigo only says this:

But that is no longer true today. Because companies would hardly cover the housing costs for their employees from abroad. And vacant apartments are now so rare that newcomers from home and abroad also have difficulty finding a rental home.

Another reason for the housing shortage: the potential for building new apartments is slowly but surely being exhausted. “The canton of Zug is relatively small and has many green spaces where construction is not allowed or allowed,” says Frigo.

Search begins: Fall 2023

I had the idea to produce a report in the autumn on the housing shortage in the canton of Zug. That is why I have set up a search subscription on all kinds of real estate platforms. It must be at least 3.5 rooms for a maximum of 2,400 francs per month including additional costs.

Where exactly? It doesn't matter, the most important thing is in the canton of Zug. New or old building? Does not matter. Number of square meters? Does not matter. Parking available? Does not matter. Washing machine, dishwasher, balcony? Does not matter.

The demands were not high. Not on purpose. Still, it took more than four months before I could go for a viewing.

On the one hand, because I sometimes received a notification less than once a week that a corresponding advertisement had come online. On the other hand, because I realized that you have to be able to drop everything at any time as soon as an ad is placed. Around the clock. Every day of the week. And I'm not exaggerating.

Chatbot talks to chatbot

The images of more than a hundred people queuing in the side street in front of the front door of a block of houses are largely a thing of the past. Neither tenants nor landlords have any desire for such horror-filled mass viewings. That is why the latter increasingly rely on online forms.

In principle nothing objectionable. But there is an unpleasant side effect: the search for an apartment turns into a frustratingly anonymous affair. There are no longer two people sitting opposite each other: the landlord on one side of the computer, the potential new tenant on the other. In fact, people no longer communicate with each other. Only two chatbots.

The search usually goes as follows: If I receive a notification of an advertisement, I send my “request” for a viewing as quickly as possible. I use the pre-generated text from the real estate platforms: “Hello, I am interested in the property…”. After a few seconds, an equally automated response follows:

I immediately click on the link and… can only select one option: “Cannot participate.”

All viewing appointments have already been “sold out”. The ad went online less than an hour ago.

New strategy, continued failure

After a few weeks I change my strategy. I have to be more active. That's why I activate the ringtone for email notifications and place my smartphone in my field of vision while I work, with the screen facing up.

I don't want to miss any ads. And then of course do it anyway.

Because I'm working on a report right now. Because I'm doing an interview. Because I leave my cell phone at home when I go for a walk. Because during the holidays I am busy with other, more fun things.

I can afford this negligence. I'm not really desperate for an affordable apartment. I can also avoid having to cancel appointments with friends and family in my spare time to make the last available viewing appointment. Yet my frustration level increases with every viewing appointment I miss.

And I wonder: how can a hospital nurse, a bus driver or a saleswoman get a viewing appointment under these circumstances?

Finally: a success!

At the beginning of February it finally works. My standardized request is not followed by an automated response from a chatbot, but rather an email. Written by a real person. A real estate agent who works for a foundation that aims to provide affordable housing in Zug.

The real estate agent thanks me for my interest and says that I am welcome to come and view the apartment. Words that feel good after this frustrating search. But then I read the following lines:

The broker has attached a list of viewing dates. There are a total of 21 slots spread over two days. A maximum of five interested parties can register per appointment.

My head immediately starts calculating. A maximum of 105 interested parties could participate. 105! I try to imagine 105 people and fail. But of course I will register.

The next day I can view the above-mentioned 3.5-room apartment from 3:45 PM to 4:00 PM for a rent of 2,100 francs per month. Together with many other interested parties. You can read how these people are doing, how long they have been searching, how desperate they are in the second part of this series.

And by the way: on the same street and at the same time as this cheap apartment, a 3.5-room apartment was advertised for 7,700 francs. How does a viewing proceed in this higher price segment? Who applies for such apartments? And what justifies this price? You will find the answer to this in the third part of this series.