Vacant dwellings: Switzerland at 1.0 %, Thun at 0.05 %

One dwelling in a hundred stands empty in Switzerland

On 1 June 2025, the Federal Statistical Office counted 48’455 vacant dwellings across the country. The Swiss housing stock comprises 4’840’096 dwellings. The aggregate vacancy rate therefore stands at 1.0 %: of every hundred dwellings, just one is recorded as empty. The figure captures the state of the market on a single date, that of the FSO’s annual survey.

This national average conceals sharply contrasting realities across the country’s 2’110 municipalities. Among cities with more than 30’000 residents, the widest gap separates Thun, where 0.05 % of the stock is empty, from La Chaux-de-Fonds, which reaches 3.57 %. The same survey, on the same date, thus describes very different local markets.

The FSO counts vacant dwellings every year on 1 June. The 2025 survey therefore describes the state of the stock on 1 June 2025. Each municipality’s rate relates the number of vacant dwellings to its entire housing stock.

1’154 municipalities below the 1 % mark

More than one municipality in two sits below the national average: 1’154 of Switzerland’s 2’110 municipalities show a vacancy rate under 1 %. The scarcity of empty dwellings is therefore not confined to the major urban centres but extends across much of the country.

The survey even records 196 municipalities with no vacant dwellings at all. In these localities, not a single empty dwelling was counted on 1 June 2025. Conversely, 956 municipalities stand at 1 % or above.

Thun, the lowest rate among the larger cities

With 0.05 % of dwellings vacant, Thun records the lowest rate among cities with more than 30’000 residents. The Bernese city has 44’125 inhabitants. It comes in ahead of Zurich, the country’s largest city with 436’551 residents, where the rate stands at 0.10 %.

The Geneva region also features at the bottom of the ranking: Lancy shows 0.16 % and Vernier 0.18 %, level with Winterthur. Sion follows at 0.22 %, ahead of Chur (0.23 %) and Köniz (0.28 %). Eight larger cities thus remain below the national average of 1.0 %.

La Chaux-de-Fonds at the other end of the scale

La Chaux-de-Fonds posts the highest rate among cities with more than 30’000 residents: 3.57 % of its stock is vacant. The Neuchâtel city, home to 37’600 residents, thus exceeds the national rate of 1.0 % more than threefold.

Four other larger cities also exceed the Swiss average, according to the FSO survey:

• St. Gallen (SG): 2.30 %
• Bellinzona (TI): 2.27 %
• Lugano (TI): 2.08 %
• Emmen (LU): 1.47 %

Ticino thus places two cities in this group, Bellinzona and Lugano. Among cities with more than 30’000 residents, the range therefore runs from 0.05 % in Thun to 3.57 % in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Zurich and Geneva: ten years of change

In Zurich, the vacancy rate fell from 0.22 % in 2015 to 0.10 % in 2025, according to the FSO’s annual surveys. Still at 0.20 % in 2018, it dropped to 0.14 % in 2019, then touched a low of 0.06 % in 2023. A slight rebound brought it back to 0.10 % in 2025. Over ten years, the share of empty dwellings in the city has more than halved.

Geneva traces a different path. Its rate climbed from 0.50 % in 2015 to a peak of 0.68 % in 2021. It fell back to 0.47 % in 2022, then rose again to 0.54 % in 2024. The 2025 survey puts it at 0.36 %, the city’s lowest level of the decade.

In the 2025 survey, the other major cities fall between these values: Bern stands at 0.43 %, Lausanne at 0.58 % and Basel at 0.95 %, a level close to the national rate of 1.0 %.

The next FSO survey will describe the state of the stock on 1 June 2026. Until then, Civiora’s comparison tool shows the vacancy rate municipality by municipality, for each of Switzerland’s 2’110 municipalities.