ZURICH. Advertised rents fell in July in 15 of the 26 cantons, an unusual midsummer dip in a market where monthly declines are rare, according to the Homegate Rent Index published on Thursday. Nationally, the index held steady at 134 points.
The steepest falls came in Nidwalden, down 4.0 per cent, followed by Schwyz at 1.9 per cent and Geneva and Uri, both down 1.5 per cent. Zurich recorded a 0.4 per cent decline. Homegate noted that Central Switzerland as a whole showed a downward drift, and that Nidwalden's sharp drop corrects several months of strong increases.
Rents continued to rise in St Gallen, up 0.7 per cent, and in Ticino, up 0.6 per cent. Among the cities surveyed, only Lugano recorded a monthly increase, a notable 1.9 per cent, while the city of Lucerne fell 2.4 per cent, twice as steeply as its canton.
The index, compiled by the property platform with Zurich Cantonal Bank, measures the quality adjusted monthly change in rents for new and re-let flats, based on current market offers. It tracks asking prices, not the rents sitting in existing contracts.
None of it reverses the annual trend. Every canton still shows higher asking rents than a year ago, with Graubünden up 7.1 per cent, Zug up 5.0 per cent and Lucerne up 4.2 per cent. Nationwide, advertised rents are 2.4 per cent above July 2025. One flat month does not unwind a 2.4 per cent year.
The figures land two days after separate data showed Zurich city asking rents rising 4.1 per cent in a year, their fastest pace since 2017. The two findings are less contradictory than they look: the city remains chronically short of vacant flats, and a single soft month does nothing to change that.
Tenants looking for actual relief are watching a different number. The mortgage reference interest rate, which governs most rent adjustments in existing contracts, is republished on 1 September and is expected to remain at 1.25 per cent, its historic low. Contracts still indexed to older, higher rates can in principle be renegotiated downward.
Bank economists expect the reference rate to hold through the year, though some warn it could rise in 2027 if the National Bank eventually lifts its policy rate from zero. For now, the direction of travel in rents is set less by interest rates than by the arithmetic of vacancy: too few flats, and too many people looking.
The Tenants' Association advised renters to check which reference rate their contract cites and to diary the September publication. Landlords' groups, for their part, argue that construction costs and regulation, not financing, are now the main drivers of advertised prices.
The next quarterly read on the reference rate arrives on 1 September. The next monthly rent index follows in mid September, and will show whether July was a pause in the climb or the top of the market. Few in the industry are betting on the top.