A Strong Performer

Originally published by IFLR.

The Swiss real estate market has been very robust over the last two years, in particular the housing market where apartment prices according to market specialists went up by roughly 5% in 2009, 10% in 2010 and another 2-3% in the first half of 2011.

Despite the worldwide financial turmoil and the economic outlook remaining highly volatile, bargain hunters have had a hard time in Switzerland's real estate market in recent years: this is especially true in areas that had already experienced a substantial increase of price levels in the past five to 10 years (such as the Zurich or Geneva region). Even during the economic crisis in 2009, hardly any significant price corrections occurred, which was clearly below what had been predicted by real estate experts and feared by some real estate owners.