One in four Swiss tenants wants to move, but can’t

More than a quarter of tenants in Switzerland are unhappy with their accommodation, but are unable to move – especially for financial reasons.

A survey published by online price comparison portal comparis.chexternal link on Thursday has found that 26% of Swiss tenants consider their housing situation to be unsatisfactory. Of the 4,000 tenants surveyed, 67% said that they could not afford to move to a better place. Other reasons given for being unable to change addresses were: family (14%), job (13%), pets (10%) and education (8%).

+ In Swiss cities, 90% of people are tenants

The survey found that 37% of tenants living in French-speaking Switzerland were keen to move but could not. In German- and Italian-speaking Switzerland, it was 23%. Money was the main reason cited by French speakers (80%); this was less so for German- (60%) and Italian-speakers (63%).

Regardless of the potential hurdles, the Swiss are quite mobile. Over the past five years, 55% of tenants have moved house at least once. Within the past year alone, 22% have moved, and 26% are planning to do so within the next 12 months.

Conducted in April 2018, the online survey polled 4,175 tenants aged 18-74.

According to the most recent figures, about 60% of Swiss households are rentals. The average monthly rent across the country is just over CHF1,300 ($1,395).