Geneva rental crisis, evictions meet a building boom

Five Geneva buildings changed hands for up to CHF 128.5 million, and 107 homes were served notice soon after. In the same weeks, the canton put more new housing on the market than in any of the past five years.

Five buildings bought, 107 notices served at once

Boulevard Carl-Vogt is the best documented case. Five buildings there were bought for up to CHF 128.5 million, and the 107 flats and 15 shops they hold were served notice in a single move, RTS reports. The stated reason fits in two words, necessary renovations.

Asloca, the association that defends tenants, places the practice well beyond one address. It says the same sequence repeats across some thirty Geneva buildings, a purchase at a record price, leases terminated in bulk, then a return to the rental market at twice the rent once the flats are empty.

Why does the notice arrive right after the sale?

Because the price paid only works with rents above the ones in place. Asloca describes a fixed sequence, claim necessary works, terminate the leases, relet at double once the building is empty.

For a tenant the practical consequence is plain. A renovation notice that lands a few months after a record resale deserves to be read line by line, since that is the exact profile the association documents at scale. The Geneva rental crisis now often starts at the notary rather than at the letting agency.

Geneva put 3,334 new homes on the market in a year

The same canton is also building at a pace it had lost. 3,334 new homes reached the market over twelve months, against 2,055 in the previous twelve, 62 percent more, according to OCSTAT figures published on 13 August 2026 and relayed by 20 minutes.

The second quarter of 2026 alone accounts for 1,232 of them, where the quarterly average of the past five years stood at 717.

A home delivered this year was permitted long before, so the rebound changes nothing for the tenants of boulevard Carl-Vogt. It does show that Geneva supply is moving again after years of shortage.

Switzerland permitted 52,000 homes in twelve months

The trend runs wider than Geneva. Around 52,000 homes obtained a building permit nationwide over the past twelve months, a level the country had not reached since late 2018, according to a Wüest Partner study published in late July 2026 and picked up by Le Temps.

Rental housing takes almost all of the gain, with roughly 32,900 rental units permitted, 11 percent more in a year, Blick details. The fall in the vacancy rate is slowing and rental supply is starting to steady. The market has stopped getting worse, which is not the same as a shortage that eases.

The Federal Supreme Court upholds Zurich's Airbnb quotas

In a ruling dated 30 April 2026 (1C_401/2024), the Federal Supreme Court confirmed the rules adopted in 2021 by the City of Zurich, RTS reports. They allow the city to ban business flats and short term lets in residential zones through quotas set building by building, for instance a minimum of 90 percent primary residences in a ten storey block.

An appeal by four companies running that type of accommodation was rejected, and the rules take effect in autumn 2026, EspaceSuisse notes. The rule stays municipal, the ruling is federal. Any city tempted by the same instrument now knows it survives an appeal.

In brief

Basel-Country, a CHF 92,000 building listed at nearly 5 million

In Oberwil, an uninhabitable house built in 1957 goes to forced auction with an opening price of CHF 4.92 million, 24 heures reports. The structure counts for almost nothing here, the value sits entirely in the right to build on the plot.

Valais tightens Lex Koller for foreign buyers

Since 26 January 2026 the canton requires a legal and effective domicile in Switzerland, meaning a residence permit and actual residence, before any deed on a primary home is signed, the canton states. A conditional sale agreement signed while the authorisation is pending no longer does the job, LivinCrans sums up.

Vaud, a condominium loses its appeal for lack of reasons

The Federal Supreme Court declared inadmissible a Vaud appeal against six decisions of a condominium general meeting, including renovation fund contributions, for lack of reasons specific to each one (ruling 5A_391/2026 of 5 June 2026). A condominium that objects has to attack every decision with its own arguments.