Get all the data you need about the real estate market in Zurich
We update this blog post regularly, so the numbers you see here reflect the Zurich rental market as of March 2026.
Zurich is one of the most expensive cities in the world to buy property, but that does not automatically mean great rental returns for landlords.
In fact, the relationship between price and rent in Zurich is surprisingly complicated, and knowing which neighborhoods and property types actually deliver the best yields can save you a lot of money.
And if you are planning to buy a property in Zurich, you may want to download our real estate pack about Zurich.
A quick summary table
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Zurich neighborhood with the best rental yield | Seefeld (studio, 4.32% gross) |
| Zurich neighborhoods with the weakest rental yields | Enge (studio, 1.37% gross) and Oerlikon (studio, 1.65% gross) |
| Average gross yield across Zurich neighborhoods | Around 2.2% |
| Average net yield across Zurich neighborhoods | Around 1.4% |
| Median purchase price in the Zurich sample | CHF 1,500,000 |
| Average monthly rent in the Zurich sample | CHF 2,500 approximately |
| Average occupancy across Zurich rental properties | 96.4% |
| Fastest leasing market in Zurich | Altstetten and Oerlikon (around 9 days on average) |
| Slowest leasing market in Zurich | Enge and Unterstrass (4-room) at around 17 days |
| Highest occupancy in Zurich | Altstetten (97.5%) |
| Best value high-yield segment in Zurich | Seefeld studio and Altstetten 2-room apartment |
| Yield gap between best and worst Zurich property | Nearly 3 percentage points (4.32% vs 1.37% gross) |
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Zurich neighborhoods and property types in 2026 ranked by rental yield
This table ranks the top neighborhoods and property types in the Zurich residential market by gross rental yield.
For each neighborhood and property type, the table includes average purchase price, average monthly rent, gross rental yield, net rental yield, annual fees, average occupancy, average time to rent, main rental demand, main risk, and investment profile.
By the way, you will find much more detailed data in our real estate pack about Zurich.
| # | Neighborhood | Property type | Gross rental yield | Net rental yield | Average purchase price | Average monthly rent | Ownership annual fees | Average occupancy | Average time to rent | Main rental demand | Main risk | Rental Investment Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seefeld | Studio | 4.32% | 3.54% | CHF 479,000 | CHF 1,723 | CHF 3,114 | 97.0% | 11 days | Single professionals | High entry price | Top Pick |
| 2 | Seefeld | 2-room apartment | 2.62% | 1.88% | CHF 1,300,000 | CHF 2,838 | CHF 8,450 | 96.7% | 12 days | Wealthy singles and expats | Premium pricing risk | Strong Potential |
| 3 | Unterstrass | 4-room apartment | 2.43% | 1.60% | CHF 2,000,000 | CHF 4,054 | CHF 14,400 | 95.3% | 17 days | Small families | Rent-regulation disputes | Good Potential |
| 4 | Wollishofen | 2-room apartment | 2.41% | 1.68% | CHF 1,100,000 | CHF 2,211 | CHF 7,150 | 96.4% | 13 days | Commuting professionals | Lakefront premium risk | Good Potential |
| 5 | Wiedikon | 3-room apartment | 2.40% | 1.63% | CHF 1,600,000 | CHF 3,200 | CHF 10,880 | 96.2% | 14 days | Professional couples | Renovation reserve needs | Good Potential |
| 6 | Altstetten | 2-room apartment | 2.40% | 1.76% | CHF 1,100,000 | CHF 2,200 | CHF 6,380 | 97.5% | 9 days | Young professionals and flat-sharers | New-build competition | Strong Potential |
| 7 | Aussersihl | Studio | 2.36% | 1.69% | CHF 697,000 | CHF 1,370 | CHF 4,182 | 97.3% | 10 days | Young urban renters | High tenant turnover | Good Potential |
| 8 | Wiedikon | 2-room apartment | 2.31% | 1.58% | CHF 1,300,000 | CHF 2,500 | CHF 8,450 | 96.4% | 13 days | Commuting singles | Competitive bidding on entry stock | Good Potential |
| 9 | Seefeld | 3-room apartment | 2.24% | 1.48% | CHF 1,900,000 | CHF 3,553 | CHF 12,920 | 96.2% | 14 days | Executive couples | Longer premium voids | Good Potential |
| 10 | Wollishofen | 3-room apartment | 2.22% | 1.46% | CHF 1,500,000 | CHF 2,779 | CHF 10,200 | 96.2% | 14 days | Couples wanting lakeside living | Older cooperative stock mix | Good Potential |
| 11 | Unterstrass | 3-room apartment | 2.14% | 1.36% | CHF 1,800,000 | CHF 3,217 | CHF 12,600 | 96.2% | 14 days | Academic couples | Older stock upkeep | Good Potential |
| 12 | Wollishofen | 4-room apartment | 2.12% | 1.31% | CHF 1,900,000 | CHF 3,353 | CHF 13,300 | 95.1% | 18 days | Small families | Slower family-ticket leasing | Good Potential |
| 13 | Oerlikon | 3-room apartment | 2.08% | 1.39% | CHF 1,600,000 | CHF 2,769 | CHF 9,920 | 96.7% | 12 days | Professional couples | Rent softening in new stock | Moderate Appeal |
| 14 | Schwamendingen | 2-room apartment | 2.07% | 1.43% | CHF 1,050,000 | CHF 1,810 | CHF 6,090 | 97.3% | 10 days | Budget-conscious singles | Tenant turnover | Moderate Appeal |
| 15 | Aussersihl | 2-room apartment | 2.07% | 1.39% | CHF 1,300,000 | CHF 2,240 | CHF 8,060 | 97.0% | 11 days | Service and tech workers | Regulatory rent pressure | Moderate Appeal |
| 16 | Altstetten | 3-room apartment | 2.06% | 1.40% | CHF 1,600,000 | CHF 2,746 | CHF 9,600 | 97.0% | 11 days | Working couples | Micro-location dispersion | Moderate Appeal |
| 17 | Aussersihl | 3-room apartment | 2.05% | 1.32% | CHF 1,700,000 | CHF 2,900 | CHF 11,050 | 96.4% | 13 days | City couples | Competition from new builds | Moderate Appeal |
| 18 | Enge | 3-room apartment | 2.05% | 1.27% | CHF 2,100,000 | CHF 3,580 | CHF 14,280 | 95.3% | 17 days | Executive couples | Older stock upkeep | Moderate Appeal |
| 19 | Höngg | 3-room apartment | 2.00% | 1.32% | CHF 1,600,000 | CHF 2,669 | CHF 9,920 | 96.7% | 12 days | Couples and young families | Hillside micro-market spread | Moderate Appeal |
| 20 | Oerlikon | 2-room apartment | 1.99% | 1.34% | CHF 1,300,000 | CHF 2,161 | CHF 7,800 | 97.3% | 10 days | Airport and office workers | Supply pipeline risk | Moderate Appeal |
| 21 | Schwamendingen | 3-room apartment | 1.98% | 1.32% | CHF 1,450,000 | CHF 2,397 | CHF 8,700 | 97.0% | 11 days | Working couples | Stock quality variation | Moderate Appeal |
| 22 | Höngg | 4-room apartment | 1.97% | 1.23% | CHF 2,000,000 | CHF 3,277 | CHF 13,000 | 95.6% | 16 days | Family renters | Slower family leasing | Moderate Appeal |
| 23 | Unterstrass | 2-room apartment | 1.95% | 1.20% | CHF 1,500,000 | CHF 2,434 | CHF 10,200 | 96.4% | 13 days | Students and young professionals | Turnover and reletting costs | Moderate Appeal |
| 24 | Enge | 2-room apartment | 1.90% | 1.17% | CHF 1,700,000 | CHF 2,685 | CHF 11,050 | 95.9% | 15 days | Finance professionals | Premium pricing risk | Moderate Appeal |
| 25 | Altstetten | 4-room apartment | 1.89% | 1.19% | CHF 2,100,000 | CHF 3,313 | CHF 13,230 | 96.2% | 14 days | Small families | Slower leasing above local budgets | Moderate Appeal |
| 26 | Höngg | 2-room apartment | 1.88% | 1.23% | CHF 1,300,000 | CHF 2,041 | CHF 7,800 | 97.0% | 11 days | Local professionals | Yield capped by entry pricing | Moderate Appeal |
| 27 | Schwamendingen | 4-room apartment | 1.87% | 1.16% | CHF 1,900,000 | CHF 2,963 | CHF 11,970 | 95.9% | 15 days | Value-seeking families | Slower leasing above local budgets | Moderate Appeal |
| 28 | Wiedikon | Studio | 1.87% | 1.17% | CHF 995,000 | CHF 1,550 | CHF 6,368 | 96.7% | 12 days | Young professionals | Compressed small-unit yields | Moderate Appeal |
| 29 | Oerlikon | Studio | 1.65% | 1.03% | CHF 936,000 | CHF 1,288 | CHF 5,429 | 97.5% | 9 days | Students and early-career renters | New-supply competition | Limited Appeal |
| 30 | Enge | Studio | 1.37% | 0.66% | CHF 1,300,000 | CHF 1,484 | CHF 8,450 | 95.6% | 16 days | Corporate pieds-a-terre | Severe yield compression | Limited Appeal |
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Key insights about rental yields in Zurich
Insights
- In Zurich, a tight rental market does not mean high landlord returns. The city's vacancy rate sat at just 0.1% in mid-2025, yet average gross yields across the ten neighborhoods analyzed are still only around 2.2%, because purchase prices have outpaced rent growth for years.
- Seefeld's studio is Zurich's rare exception where a premium district still delivers a strong yield (4.32% gross) because the ticket size (CHF 479,000) stays far below what larger units in the same neighborhood cost, while rents per square meter remain very high.
- Enge, one of Zurich's most prestigious addresses, produces the weakest gross yield in the entire sample (1.37% on its studio). Buying prestige in Zurich costs you more than one percentage point of annual return compared to more liquid neighborhoods.
- Altstetten, a working western Zurich district without the same cachet as Seefeld or Enge, actually rents faster (9 days on average) and achieves higher occupancy (97.5%) than most premium areas, while costing far less to buy into.
- The gap between gross yield (around 2.2%) and net yield (around 1.4%) in Zurich is significant. Annual ownership and maintenance costs eat between 0.6 and 1.0 percentage points off your return depending on property type, which matters a lot when starting yields are already low.
- Family-sized apartments (4 rooms) consistently take longer to rent in Zurich (15 to 18 days) compared to studios and 2-room units (9 to 13 days). Smaller units are simply more liquid in Zurich's rental market.
- Oerlikon rents extremely fast (9 days for studios) and has very high occupancy (97.5%), but its gross yield on studios is still only 1.65%. High demand in Zurich does not automatically translate into good landlord economics when supply is also growing.
- Moving one step west of central Zurich (Altstetten, Aussersihl, Wiedikon) consistently improves yield without a meaningful drop in occupancy. The occupancy difference between these western districts and premium lakeshore areas is less than 2 percentage points, but the yield improvement is real.
- In Zurich, premium neighborhoods raise purchase prices much faster than they raise achievable rents. A Seefeld 3-room apartment costs CHF 1,900,000 but rents for CHF 3,553 per month, giving a gross yield of 2.24%. An Altstetten 2-room costs CHF 1,100,000 and rents for CHF 2,200, giving a gross yield of 2.40% while being a simpler, faster-letting asset.
- Schwamendingen, Zurich's most affordable neighborhood in this sample, does not become a top-yield market just because prices are lower. Purchase prices there have also risen, and rents have not kept pace enough to push yields above those of better-located mid-market neighborhoods like Aussersihl or Wiedikon.
- Unterstrass benefits from proximity to university hospitals and academic institutions, which creates a reliable pool of professional and academic tenants. Its 4-room apartments attract small families and deliver a better yield (2.43% gross) than similarly priced 4-room units in other northern Zurich neighborhoods.
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About our methodology
Zurich is a particularly challenging market to analyze honestly, because published data at the neighborhood level is not always consistent, and because purchase prices and rental prices often come from different sources with different update cycles. We believe it is important to show our reasoning.
We also believe it is important to show our reasoning. It is one of the ways we make our work solid, transparent, and rigorous, just as you will see in our real estate pack about Zurich.
First, please note that this data is updated regularly, so what you see here reflects the current values as of today.
In order to get reliable data, we applied a strict source filter. We only used authoritative, verifiable sources, not random listings or unsupported figures. More on that point below.
For each neighborhood and property type, we then aggregated the freshest purchase price and monthly rent data available. When possible, we cross-checked multiple sources to confirm the same range.
This allowed us to estimate rental yield before costs. That is the gross yield, based on annual rent versus purchase price.
We then estimated rental yield after costs. That is the net yield, after recurring ownership and operating expenses.
These expenses can vary by neighborhood. That is why two areas with similar rents can still produce different net returns.
For example, larger Zurich apartments in older premium districts like Seefeld or Enge carry higher annual maintenance allowances than smaller, newer apartments in districts like Altstetten or Oerlikon. In high-turnover areas, tenant-related costs can also be higher.
We also estimated ownership annual fees by combining the main recurring costs linked to each asset. In Switzerland, this typically includes building maintenance reserves, ancillary running costs, insurance, and a usage-based upkeep allowance. We used Swiss banking guidance as a benchmark and then adjusted by property type and neighborhood age profile.
These estimates were not applied as one flat number across Zurich. They were adjusted by neighborhood and property type to better reflect local ownership conditions in each Kreis.
Occupancy and time-to-rent are estimates based on Zurich's citywide 0.1% vacancy rate, the Homegate and ZKB asking-rent trend for early 2026, and neighborhood-specific differences in rental liquidity. They are not direct official quarter-level observations.
This table should therefore be read as a structured market estimate, not as an exact guarantee of future performance. Honesty, quality, and rigor are at the core of our work, and they are also what you will find in our real estate pack about Zurich.
What sources have we used to write this blog article?
Whether it's in our blog articles or the market analyses included in our real estate pack about Zurich, we rely on verifiable sources and a transparent methodology.
We also aim to be fully transparent, so below we have listed the authoritative sources we used, and explained how we used them and the methods behind our estimates.
| Source | Why we trust it | How we used it |
|---|---|---|
| City of Zurich: Kreise und Quartiere | It is Zurich's own official statistical neighborhood framework, published by the city itself. | We used it to anchor the article in Zurich's official quarter structure. We then mapped that official geography onto the neighborhood names that buyers and renters actually use in practice. |
| City of Zurich: Vacancy Press Release | It is the city's own official vacancy figure, released directly by Zurich's statistics office. | We used it as the main anchor for market tightness, confirming Zurich's vacancy stood at just 0.1% in 2025. We then used that figure to calibrate our occupancy and time-to-rent estimates across neighborhoods. |
| Federal Statistical Office (FSO): Construction and Housing | It is Switzerland's national statistics authority, making it the most reliable macro-level reference available. | We used it to cross-check the broader Swiss housing context and avoid treating Zurich as if it reflected the national average. We also used it to confirm that Zurich is a structural outlier within Switzerland on vacancy and supply. |
| Homegate Rent Index / ZKB, March 2026 | It is a recognized Swiss asking-rent index produced jointly by Homegate and Zürcher Kantonalbank, two of Switzerland's most trusted real estate and financial institutions. | We used it to anchor the March 2026 asking-rent momentum across Zurich. We also used it to confirm that Zurich rents were still rising into early 2026, which directly supports our gross yield estimates. |
| UBS Switzerland: Ownership and Maintenance Costs Guide | UBS is one of Switzerland's largest banks and publishes standard Swiss homeownership cost guidance that is widely referenced by buyers and advisors. | We used it as the benchmark for annual ownership and maintenance cost assumptions across the sample. We then adjusted the rate upward or downward based on property type, size, and the age profile of stock in each neighborhood. |
| RealAdvisor: Zurich City Prices | It is one of Switzerland's leading property data platforms, with transparent listing-based indicators updated regularly. | We used it to establish the citywide Zurich price and rent baseline for March 2026. We also used it to compare each neighborhood's values against the overall Zurich market level. |
| RealAdvisor: ZIP 8008 (Seefeld) | It provides March 2026 asking prices and rents by apartment size for this Zurich micro-market. | We used it as the main pricing and rent data source for Seefeld. We also used it to identify why the studio segment in Seefeld stands out compared to larger units in the same district. |
| RealAdvisor: ZIP 8048 (Altstetten) | It provides March 2026 asking prices and rents by apartment size for Altstetten. | We used it as the main data source for Altstetten pricing and rents. We also used it to test whether west Zurich affordability produces better yield than central and lakeshore neighborhoods. |
| RealAdvisor: ZIP 8002 (Enge) | It provides March 2026 asking prices and rents by apartment size for Enge. | We used it as the main data source for Enge pricing and rents. We also used it to illustrate how much premium pricing in central Zurich can compress landlord returns even in a tight rental market. |
| RealAdvisor: ZIP 8050 (Oerlikon) | It provides March 2026 asking prices and rents by apartment size for Oerlikon. | We used it as the main data source for Oerlikon pricing and rents. We also used it to reflect how a district with fast leasing and high occupancy can still struggle to deliver strong yields when new supply is growing. |
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