Prices for single-family homes fall – apartments more expensive
Published: Wednesday, Jan 10th 2024, 09:30
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The residential property market presented a mixed picture in the last quarter. According to a recent analysis by Raiffeisen Switzerland, single-family homes became cheaper, while more had to be paid for condominiums.
Specifically, prices for single-family homes fell by 1.0% in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the third quarter of 2023, the bank wrote on Wednesday. By contrast, prices for condominiums rose by 1.7 percent. Over the year as a whole, single-family homes still cost 2.2 percent more than in 2022, while condominiums rose by as much as 5.9 percent.
"The falling prices for single-family homes at the end of the year provide a foretaste of 2024," says Raiffeisen chief economist Fredy Hasenmaile. In the current year, negative signs in price momentum in both segments of the owner-occupied housing market can certainly be expected in one quarter or another. Overall, however, price declines are likely to remain within narrow limits, "also because mortgage interest rates have already peaked," says the expert.
Large regional differences
There are some major differences between the individual regions and types of municipality. While prices for condominiums rose year-on-year in all regions - particularly strongly in Central Switzerland (+13.5%) and Zurich (+9.6%) - the picture is more mixed for single-family homes. In 2023, prices rose by 7.9% in the Lake Geneva region and by 6.3% in Central Switzerland. By contrast, they fell in Zurich (-0.5%), southern Switzerland (-0.5%) and north-western Switzerland (-0.4%).
Broken down by municipality type, condominiums in urban municipalities were the most popular with a price increase of 6.6 percent, while the lowest increase of 3.8 percent was registered in the centers.
On the other hand, house prices in tourist communities fell by 2.7% within a year. In other types of municipality, however, home buyers had to dig deeper into their pockets, with prices rising in the centers in particular (+6.3%).
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