Prices of owner-occupied homes rose markedly again in Switzerland in the third quarter of 2026. According to Raiffeisen's transaction price index, published on Monday 12 October, single-family homes became 2.0% more expensive than in the previous quarter, and owner-occupied apartments 1.7%. Year on year, the increase reaches 3.6% for houses and 5.9% for apartments.
An index based on actual sales
Every quarter, the Raiffeisen index measures changes in the prices of owner-occupied residential property. It is not based on asking prices in listings, but on purchase prices actually paid, drawn from data from Raiffeisen and the Swiss Real Estate Datapool. The figures published on Monday are therefore observations of completed transactions, not projections.
Two readings depending on the time frame
The two segments do not tell quite the same story depending on the period observed. Over the quarter alone, single-family homes are rising slightly faster than apartments (2.0% versus 1.7%). Over twelve months, the order is clearly reversed: apartments show 5.9%, more than two points higher than houses (3.6%).
By comparing these two series, the last quarter can be placed within the year's trend (editorial calculation). For houses, the cumulative increase over the three previous quarters comes to barely more than 1.5%: more than half of the annual increase was therefore concentrated between July and September, a sign of a recent acceleration. For apartments, the increase over the three previous quarters is around 4%, or on average slightly more than 1.3% per quarter; the 1.7% in the third quarter is slightly above that pace. In both segments, the trend therefore shows no sign of running out of steam.
Zurich and Western Switzerland lead for houses
Regional differences are pronounced. For single-family homes, the strongest year-on-year increases were recorded in the Zurich region (+4.8%) and in Western Switzerland (+4.6%), at least one point above the national average of 3.6%. Eastern Switzerland (+3.5%) and Southern Switzerland (+3.3%) remain slightly below this average.
The picture is different for apartments. Southern Switzerland leads with +7.4%, while the Lake Geneva region rose by only 0.4%, far from the Swiss average of 5.9%. For readers in French-speaking Switzerland, the nuance matters: the index distinguishes Western Switzerland from the Lake Geneva region, and it is in the latter that apartment prices have almost stagnated over the year.
Urban centres and tourist municipalities
The type of municipality also plays a role. Single-family homes rose most in urban centre municipalities, with +5.2% over one year, compared with 3.6% for the country as a whole. For apartments, tourist municipalities show the strongest increase (+7.9%), while urban centre municipalities are limited to +1.6%, more than four points below the national average for the segment.
Rising rates that are not yet slowing prices
The rise in fixed-rate mortgage rates has not yet slowed the increase in prices. For Fredy Hasenmaile, chief economist at Raiffeisen, this moderate rise in rates is not enough to reverse the strong upward momentum: the supply of owner-occupied homes remains too scarce. This is the bank's assessment of the current situation, not a quantified forecast.
To put these figures into perspective, it should be remembered that Swiss mortgage rates do not depend on a single lever. SARON-based mortgages closely track the policy rate of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), while fixed-rate mortgages reflect more the long-term rates of the capital market. It is this second segment that Raiffeisen mentions. The data published on Monday specify neither the level of rates nor the SNB's recent direction; they only indicate that the rising cost of credit remains, for the time being, insufficient to offset the shortage of supply.
What this means for households
For households considering a purchase, the combination is demanding: prices that keep rising, particularly for apartments, and fixed-rate financing that is becoming more expensive. In Switzerland, access to home ownership depends heavily on available equity and on the ability to bear the costs of the loan; a simultaneous rise in prices and rates raises both of these thresholds.
For tenants, the index says nothing directly, since it covers only owner-occupied homes. But the factor cited by Raiffeisen, the scarcity of supply, is an issue that goes beyond the purchase market alone. Finally, the regional variations are a reminder that a national average masks very different realities: an apartment buyer in the Lake Geneva region did not face the same trend as a buyer in Southern Switzerland or in a tourist municipality.
