More homes may finally begin to ease Switzerland’s housing shortage

Switzerland could add 95,000 homes over the next two years, according to a new analysis by property consultancy Wüest Partner. The forecast points to roughly 45,000 net additions in 2026 and 50,000 in 2027, a meaningful recovery after several years of weak construction.

The timing matters. On June 1, Switzerland had just 45,493 vacant homes, equivalent to a national vacancy rate of 0.93%, according to the Federal Statistical Office. The rate has fallen for six consecutive years and has dropped by 0.79 percentage points since 2021. For tenants, that has meant fewer options, stronger competition and rising rents, particularly in the largest employment centres.

Wüest Partner says the construction cycle has reached its lowest point. Switzerland added around 40,000 homes in 2024, while the consultancy estimates that only 39,000 were added in 2025, the weakest result since 2009. If the forecast holds, annual production will move above those recent levels and provide some relief by the end of 2027.

That relief will arrive gradually. The study describes the 2026 increase as sporadic across regions, with a broader recovery expected in 2027. The national figures therefore offer a direction of travel, rather than a guarantee of cheaper or easier housing for every household.

The forecast rises from 39,000 homes in 2025 to 50,000 in 2027, but the path to that increase began several years ago. Wüest Partner links the expected revival to a shift in market conditions that started around 2020.

Vacancy rates had been rising for years before they began to fall rapidly in 2020. At the same time, residential property values increased sharply. Those two developments changed the calculation for developers and investors, creating stronger incentives to prepare new schemes and seek planning approval.

Housing projects, however, move slowly in Switzerland. Developers have faced more complex planning procedures, additional building rules, higher construction costs and changing interest rates. Those pressures delayed some projects and made others harder to finance. A project can take several years to pass through design, approvals and construction.

Many schemes launched after 2020 have now completed those stages and are approaching delivery. That backlog explains why construction may accelerate even though the current pipeline does not point to another increase by 2028. The expected rise is therefore partly the delayed result of earlier decisions, rather than evidence that the underlying development process has become faster.

For households, the distinction matters. More completed homes can ease competition, but the number of homes delivered, their location and their price will determine who benefits.

Geneva’s vacancy rate stands at 0.31%, while Zug’s is just 0.20%, showing why a national construction recovery will not affect every part of Switzerland equally. The pressure is most severe in sought after urban and economic centres, where available homes remain scarce despite the prospect of more building.

Wüest Partner expects the 2026 upturn to be strongest in selected cantons in western Switzerland and the Alpine regions. In 2027, production is forecast to rise sharply in Thurgau, Geneva, Valais and Neuchâtel. Large parts of the Swiss Plateau are also expected to benefit.

The supply picture remains uneven. Around half of the cantons are likely to stay below their long term construction average. In the vacancy data, Jura recorded the highest rate at 3.35%, followed by Solothurn at 1.91%, Ticino at 1.78% and Neuchâtel at 1.64%. These figures underline the gap between places with available stock and the markets where workers and households are competing for a limited number of homes.

Greater Zurich was the only major region to record a slight increase in its vacancy rate, yet it remained very tight at 0.52%. Wüest Partner also says a broad easing is not yet in sight in the major urban centres. Location will determine whether the coming construction wave feels like relief or simply a modest improvement.