Why do expats pay more in rent than Swiss citizens?

Both long-term expats and new arrivals to Switzerland pay more to rent a house or apartment than citizens, a new study from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) has revealed. Here are the reasons behind the differences:

Expats pay 10 percent more on rent than Swiss citizens

According to data given exclusively to the Tages-Anzeiger, on average, migrant households pay 10,5 percent more in rent than Swiss citizens. This is regardless of how long members of the household have held a residence permit.

The differences were most pronounced in the Lake Geneva region, where expat households pay an average of 16 percent more than their Swiss neighbours. Canton Zurich (15 percent more), Central Switzerland (12 percent) and the region around Basel (9 percent) followed. 

The rental gap between expats and Swiss nationals has been widening in recent years. In Zurich, the worst-affected city in Switzerland, expats have gone from spending an average of 16 percent more than citizens in 2012, to spending 24 percent more in 2023.

Why do foreigners in Switzerland pay higher rents?

According to the Tages-Anzeiger, there are several reasons why expats pay more. Speaking to the newspaper, Federal Housing Office (BWO) official Marie Glaser noted that expats tend to live in cities like Zurich and Geneva (at least initially), where rental costs are higher than the rest of the country. Low-income expats are also most vulnerable to being evicted due to renovations, which means they must seek out property more frequently.

In addition, expats are more reliant on the rental market as comparatively few internationals buy homes in Switzerland. 12 percent of foreign national households own their home, compared to 44 percent of Swiss families. "Owning your own home is expensive, and access to mortgages is difficult for foreigners because it requires a corresponding residence permit," Glaser explained, adding that for many internationals on short-term work contracts, owning a home just isn’t worth it.

Relocation agent and migration expert René Rey added that expats are less able and less inclined to wait for more affordable homes to come along. "Many expats would like to have an apartment as soon as they've signed a work contract in Switzerland," he noted. A lack of knowledge of the rental market and differences in salaries were also possible reasons for the gap.

Discrimination does play a role in rental disparities

Finally, there is the matter of discrimination. The Tages-Anzeiger wrote that “foreign citizenship, a lack of language skills, or one's physical appearance can lead to someone being denied housing in Switzerland or having access to a smaller selection of apartments, thus being discriminated against and forced to take a more expensive apartment.”

This isn’t conjecture either, with a 2019 study from the BWO noting that those with foreign-sounding names were less likely to be chosen as new tenants by landlords. Glaser confirmed that the BWO would be conducting a similar study on housing discrimination in the near future.