In Switzerland, like in many wealthy countries, rents are only heading in one direction. What’s next for the land of tenants? The situation – rising rents ahead This Friday, some expect the Swiss mortgage reference rate to be bumped up, from 1.5% to 1.75%, to reflect a previous hike of the Swiss National Bank’s policy interest rate. The small shift could have a big impact: a quarter percentage-point rise legally allows landlords to lift rents by 3%. And with the rate having already climbed from 1.25% to 1.5% in June, after years of steady decline, the government warns that rents could now jump by 15% in the next years – after increasing by over 8% since 2016. As prices also rise elsewhere – such as in healthcare – the rental market is coming into the political spotlight. Especially since Switzerland (as the New York Times recently discovered) is a tenant’s nation par excellence; 58% of people here are renters. However, nobody seems to agree on what the major cause of the trend...
