Pandemic slows the housing market
The demand for rental apartments continued to rise between April 2019 and March 2020. With the lockdown, however, both the number of advertisements and the demand for apartments fell significantly. This is shown by the current online housing index.
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The coronavirus pandemic has left its first traces on the housing market, writes SVIT Switzerland in a message on the current online housing index ( OWI ). It is determined every six months by the Association of the Real Estate Industry in cooperation with the Zurich School of Economics ( HWZ ).
According to the current OWI, the number of advertisements for rental apartments placed on Swiss real estate marketplaces increased by 4 percent year-on-year to around 380,000 rental apartments between April 2019 and March 2020. A simultaneous decrease in the number of days on the market indicates a further increase in demand for rental apartments, explains SVIT.
However, the lockdown officially ordered in March to contain the coronavirus pandemic led to a 31 percent decline in the number of advertisements across Switzerland compared to the first half of March, SVIT further informs in the press release. “Despite this massive drop in supply”, the time on the market only fell by just under 5 days or 12 percent. This means that "the demand has also decreased by more than a third," writes SVIT.
In the twelve largest cities in Switzerland, the decline was "even more striking", explains the real estate industry association. In Lugano, the number of advertisements fell by 75 percent in the reporting period, while in Bern, Zurich and Winterthur there were 40 percent fewer advertisements than in the first half of March. A simultaneous only below average decrease in the time on the market shows that “the demand has collapsed even more or has come to a complete standstill,” writes SVIT. The association assumes that there could possibly be a catch-up effect in the second half of this year.
