How to Get Cheaper Housing in Switzerland

Your rent – and therefore the portion of your budget allocated to housing – may go up due to the climbing reference rate. But the rule of thumb in Switzerland is that you should never spend more than one-third of your available net income on housing. In this guide, moneyland.ch tells you how to reduce your housing expenses.

1. Check whether rent hikes are valid

Is your landlord raising the rent? Carefully review the price hike to make sure it is founded, as you can dispute rent increases in some cases. If your landlord cites changes in the Swiss mortgage reference rate as their reason for raising the rent, check whether or not they have also adequately lowered the rent when the reference rate has gone down. If your landlord cites inflation and general cost increases, they can only pass a maximum of 40 percent of these additional costs on to you as a rent increase.

Your landlord also has to observe the required notice periods, and you should make sure to check whether this is the case. Your landlord should inform you about the changes at least 10 days ahead of the required notice period so that you have sufficient time to give notice on your contract if you choose to.

You should also understand the dispute period: From the time you receive the notice about the rent increase, you have 30 days to file a dispute with the arbitration authorities. Note that the rules can vary between cantons and municipalities. You can get support from Swiss renters’ associations (Asloca in French-speaking Switzerland, Mieterinnen- und Mieterverband in German-speaking Switzerland, and Associazione Svizzera Inquilini in Italian-speaking Switzerland). You can also use a simple online calculator to double-check a rent increase.

2. Check whether you are eligible for rent reductions

If there is a problem with your rented home that you are not responsible for, you should inform your landlord about the issue. In some cases, you have the right to a rent reduction. This also applies if you are affected by noise resulting from construction work in your immediate neighborhood.

3. Move into a smaller home

As a general rule, the bigger your house or apartment is, the higher the rent will be. If your rent uses up a disproportionately large part of your budget, and your home has more space than you actually need, then moving to a smaller home is worth considering. According to data from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, the average rent for a three-room apartment was 1344 francs per month in 2021, while that of a 2-room apartment was 1131 francs per month.

But time also plays a major role in determining rents, so your ability to save by moving homes could be limited. The reason is that the amount of rent you pay often largely depends on how long you have been renting your home. In some cases, a smaller home being rented out to new renters at current prices could be more expensive than a large home which you have rented for many years.

4. Move to a cheaper location

Do you really have to live right in Basel, Bern, Geneva, or Zurich? Or could you get used to living in a more rural location? Even moving from the city to the suburbs can already drastically lower your housing costs. Of course, there are other factors that affect your overall costs which you should consider too. For example, if you move to a location which is far from the place where you work, commuting to work may cost you more time and money. Take time to check how well a location is connected to public transportation and road networks. Getting to Zurich from Olten, where housing is much cheaper, takes just 30 minutes by train.   

Average monthly rent by canton

Quelle: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/construction-housing/dwellings/rented-dwellings.html

5. Get a roommate

Do you have a spacious home? Why not share it with someone else – by subletting a room or turning your home into a shared living space, for example? This is also a good option if you are a social type and would enjoy having some company. There are a number of online portals that let you find roommates or subtenants. Or perhaps you have a romantic partner and both of you are open to moving in together.

Sharing housing not only provides financial relief, but also helps to ease the housing shortages that are ubiquitous in many Swiss cities. Do not forget to get your landlord’s permission. This is normally just a formality. You can find more tips and information in the guide to subletting in Switzerland.

Alternatively, you can also look for a room to rent in a shared home yourself. If you are willing to live in someone else’s home, you can often find good housing for relatively little money.

6. Cut your energy consumption

Your basic rent is not the only housing cost you can save on. The costs of electricity, heating, and hot water also have substantial savings potential, particular during periods of climbing energy prices.

By taking several simple and effective measures, you can save a lot of money on heating costs. According to the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC), lowering the room temperature by just one degree lowers your heating bill by 6 to 10 percent. Not leaving windows open when heating, and showering instead of bathing, are two more simple ways to save energy.

One difficulty with regards to saving energy costs is that in many apartment houses, energy costs are billed collectively for all apartments, rather than individually for each home. Energy bills are simply divided equally between all renters. Individual billing, as is common in the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft, not only encourages consumers to save energy, but also results in fairer billing because you only pay for the energy that you consume.

You can also potentially save money on electricity. A “typical” Swiss household (five-room apartment, electric stove, laundry dryer) pays 27 centimes per kilowatt hour of electricity in 2023, according to data from the Federal Electricity Commission (ElCom). For a household that uses 4500 kilowatt hours per year, that translates into an annual cost of 1215 francs. This amount is an estimate based on average spending. Actual power costs vary broadly between regions. Switch off electronic devices completely, instead of leaving them in standby mode. Many cantons have special lower rates for electricity in the evening and on weekends, so you can save money by scheduling your use of electrical appliances for times when the lower price applies.

Refrigerators consume a lot of electricity, so going without extra fridges (drink coolers, for example) can have a positive impact on your wallet.

7. Get a cheaper home Internet plan

Are you paying too much for your home Internet connection? Migrating to a cheaper plan with the same features is a simple way to lower your fixed living expenses. The home Internet plan comparison on moneyland.ch can help you find the best offers for your needs.

8. Use public transportation instead of cars

Whether or not using public transportation works out cheaper than owning a car depends on where you live and where you need to go. But there is one cost that only applies to cars, and that is the cost of parking. If your landlord charges you extra for your parking place, giving up your parking place can directly lower your monthly rent.

9. Use a security deposit account instead of security deposit insurance

Landlords in Switzerland can demand a security deposit equal to as many as three monthly rents. The alternative to putting down a deposit is to get security deposit insurance, but doing this is generally a poor financial move because you have to pay an insurance premium every year just so your landlord has a guarantee that costs will be covered. Money paid into a security deposit account at a bank is blocked until you leave your home, but most banks pay you interest on your account balance. You can find a comparison of security deposit accounts here.

So you can lower your overall housing costs by paying down a deposit for your rental home instead of using security deposit insurance.

More on this topic:
How to raise your chances of being approved for rental homes in Switzerland
The biggest expenses in Switzerland, and how to save
Security deposits on rental homes: Account or insurance?
Repairs needed in rental homes: Can you stop paying rent?
Damages to rental homes – who pays for what?