BG Zurlinden: apartments and rental interest

Yes. You register your rental interest with a form. BG Zurlinden does not mention membership for this. Existing tenants have priority where possible.

The Statuten (articles of association) do not name tenants as members, but mainly people and companies that provide services for the properties (cooperative shares of at least CHF 100’000, exceptions possible).

Yes, in principle: up to 2.5 rooms 1 person, 3 and 3.5 rooms 2, 4 and 4.5 rooms 3. Single parents count like a parent couple.

BG Zurlinden does not state fixed limits. An appropriate ratio of rent to income is checked. For subsidised apartments, the Canton’s requirements apply.

BG Zurlinden registers expressions of interest by form. They expire automatically after six months; if you are still interested, you submit the form again.

For an apartment, you fill in the interest form (Formular Mietinteresse). The registration is recorded and taken into account as soon as a suitable apartment becomes available.

The expression of interest expires automatically after six months. If you are still interested, you submit the form again.

Applications are in principle assessed against five criteria: occupancy rule, urgency, ratio of rent to income, location and estate-specific additional criteria, and social mix.

The regulations in principle set a minimum and a maximum occupancy per apartment size. Minimum: up to 2.5 rooms 1 person, 3 and 3.5 rooms 2, 4 and 4.5 rooms 3, 5 and 5.5 rooms 4, 6 and 6.5 rooms 5 people.

Single parents are treated the same as a parent couple. Minor children count as one person if, under shared custody, they live in the apartment at least half the time.

For available apartments, existing tenants have priority where possible, especially if they need a new apartment because of a conversion, a replacement building or the occupancy criteria.

For subsidised apartments, the requirements of the cantonal housing subsidy scheme apply. The regulations do not state fixed income or asset limits of their own.

BG Zurlinden is an entrepreneurs’ cooperative (Unternehmergenossenschaft). As possible members, the Statuten (articles of association) name people and companies that provide services for the properties, people who show particular commitment to the cooperative, and staff pension foundations of cooperative members; tenants are not named in the list.

Each member takes on cooperative shares of at least CHF 100’000; the board can set a lower amount in exceptional cases. This concerns the cooperative members; we did not find any share capital for tenants.

BG Zurlinden publishes letting starts for new-build projects on the «Freie Mietobjekte» (available rental properties) page, each with its own form.

The route it describes is the interest form. Alongside that, the «Freie Mietobjekte» page shows individual properties: on 5 October 2026 a maisonette apartment in Oberrieden with a link to Homegate, plus commercial spaces and parking spaces. According to BG Zurlinden, registering by form is not a commitment to reserve or allocate an apartment.

BG Zurlinden endeavours to offer a suitable apartment within two years. You may decline an offer if you give reasons; after the second declined offer you must leave the apartment within one year, and likewise if it cannot offer a replacement apartment within four years. It does not require tenants over 80 to move. For tenancies from before 2025, the rule only applies from 1 January 2028.

Yes, using the «Interner Wohnungswechsel» (internal apartment change) form. One of the conditions is that you have lived in the same apartment for at least three years. Apartments with the same number of rooms in the same place are not swapped.

BG Zurlinden states that it has 33 cooperative members. On its website it lists mainly construction and trade companies, plus the City of Zurich. The cooperative was founded in 1923 by entrepreneurs.

Subletting requires permission, and the occupancy rules continue to apply. According to the Vermietungsreglement (letting regulations), subletting through rental platforms is not permitted.