Canton has fewest unoccupied homes in the country

Statistics compiled by the Wüest Partner property advisory company show that Zug is the canton with the fewest unoccupied homes in the whole country and that house prices here are rising.

Indeed, as of June 2018 only 0.4 per cent of flats or houses here in Zug were unoccupied, compared with 1.6 per cent nationally. When looking at flats for rent only, the percentage amounted to 0.6, compared with 2.6 nationally.

Peter Bucher, the head of property at the Zuger Kantonalbank, looked at the situation from a different perspective. “Just imagine, if ten per cent of the 40,000 people who commute here would like to live here, then we would need 4,000 new homes, whereas between 500 and 700 only are built each year.” The situation is unlikely to change, either, with no new areas for building earmarked in the near future, developers having to be content with those areas already designated for such. “On the other hand, it can be said the Zug property market is extremely stable and is likely to remain so in the future,” he added.

While rents have remained stable in this sector, the prices for flats to buy have increased. “At present developers are building more flats to rent than to sell, this lack only fuelling a price increase,” explained Bucher further, citing a price increase of some three per cent in the medium-price-range sector, meaning four-room flats are going for CHF 1.6 million. Of note, too, is that the number of applications for permission to build flats to buy from the middle of 2017 to the middle of 2018 amounted to 160 only.

As a result of restrictions on land use, fewer new detached houses were being sold, the prices of medium-sized ones increasing by 3.5 per cent when compared with 2017, if not by 4 per cent for those within the city boundary and plain of the River Lorze. “It is easier to find a detached house in the higher-lying areas of the canton,” he said, adding that these were often bigger and hence more expensive.