Real estate industry anticipates rising prices for residential properties
KPMG's Swiss Real Estate Sentiment Index shows a positive trend in the Swiss real estate sector. Prices for residential real estate in particular are expected to rise, while prices for commercial and specialist real estate are set to fall further.
“Confidence is back in the real estate sector and is displacing the negative expectations of the two previous years,” is how KPMG introduces a press release on the latest edition of the consultancy firm’s Swiss Real Estate Sentiment Index. Specifically, the index is now back in positive territory at 29.9 points. However, the approximately 400 real estate experts and valuers surveyed for the index only expect prices in the residential real estate market to rise. They believe that prices for commercial and specialist properties will continue to fall.
The assessment of economic development is also currently positive again at 21.5 points after two clearly negative years. “The optimistic economic outlook is linked to the easing of interest rates on the one hand and the progress made by the central banks in combating inflation on the other,” Beat Seger, real estate expert at KPMG, is quoted as saying in the press release. In terms of risk perception, stricter regulations have pushed interest rate risks into the background.
The real estate experts surveyed expect prices to rise, particularly in the Zurich, Lucerne/Zug and Geneva regions. For the Lugano and Basel regions, however, they expect prices to continue to fall. The majority of respondents are also of the opinion that the current political initiatives are exacerbating the shortage of affordable housing.