Initial leasing at Buchwiesen Seebach: Over 60 apartments rented out in less than 90 minutes!

In the Seebach neighborhood, which together with Affoltern and Oerlikon forms District 11 of the city of Zürich, great new-build projects are repeatedly developed. Many of these new buildings are created by housing cooperatives and offered at cost-based rents. But getting such an apartment takes nerves and excellent timing, as today’s (1 July 2024) initial leasing of the Buchwiesen project by Baugenossenschaft Glattal Zürich shows.

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Preparation is everything

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About two weeks ago, our subscribers received the first “warning”: On 1 July it will be time—the leasing portal for the initial leasing of the Buchwiesen project in Seebach will be accessible to external interested parties. We had followed the project for months and visited the website almost daily to send the leasing start via our search subscription as quickly as possible. This because it is a highly sought-after development. Over 100 modern, spacious apartments on a green site in a good location in Seebach, near the outdoor pool—really great. It was clear that a considerable portion of the apartments would be allocated internally. And apparently that was the case (more on that later). Nevertheless, we were sure that on 1 July some apartments would be offered to external applicants.

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Only 90 minutes

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And so at 7:50 a.m. today we sent the reminder email to our subscribers: "Attention, the portal opens in 10 minutes. Get ready!" (see image on the right). When we tried to visit the website ourselves at 8:00, it wasn’t possible at first. The rush was, as expected, enormous. After a few minutes, we finally managed to open the initial leasing page. About half of the apartments had apparently been allocated internally, but you could apply for more than 60 units. Then it went in a flash. Before our eyes, the apartments disappeared one after another. After less than 90 minutes, it was all over: the following message appeared: "Due to very high demand, we are not accepting any further registrations. We also cannot provide any further information by phone.

Thank you for your understanding."

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With GenossenSchaffen right at the front

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That was a very impressive experience: demand for affordable housing—and thus also cooperative apartments—in Zürich is incredibly high. The apartments were not listed on Homegate or other portals. You could only find them on this totally “hidden” website. In Zürich, you have to know where to find such projects and then stay continuously up to date so you don’t miss the leasing start. With our list of new-build projects you’re therefore right at the very front. There is no other freely accessible source with the cooperatives’ new-build projects in Zürich. It’s even easier with our search subscription, because then you also receive reminder emails a few weeks as well as shortly before the leasing start. Because when such apartments are online for only 90 minutes, reminder emails are definitely worth their weight in gold. We hope many of our subscribers were able to snag an apartment!

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