Interesting figures on available cooperative apartments in Zürich 2024

We can hardly believe it: another year has already come to an end. A lot has happened in the world. At GenossenSchaffen, the past 365 days naturally revolved around available cooperative apartments in Zürich. For a whole year, we diligently sent emails, wrote blog posts, photographed buildings, monitored new-build projects, and improved our website. In this blog post, we'd like to share some interesting figures from the past year with you.

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An average of 21 available cooperative apartments per week in Zürich

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The persistent myth remains that there are hardly any available cooperative apartments in Zürich and that you have to sit on waiting lists for years to get one. Our numbers show quite clearly that this isn't true. In 2024, there were an average of 21 available cooperative apartments per week in the canton of Zürich, advertised primarily on the cooperatives' websites. This figure does not include the cooperatives' new-build projects, where several hundred apartments were rented out this year. That's definitely not nothing! Accordingly, subscribers to the Suchabos were very successful as well. We have only been collecting this data since September 2024, but during that period about 5 users per week told us they had found a cooperative apartment thanks to us. The real figure is of course higher, since reporting is voluntary. By the way: because we send not only cooperative apartments but also municipal apartments in the Suchabo, we have some numbers on those too. In 2024, the City of Zürich advertised an average of 8 apartments per week. You need quite a bit of luck to get one of those. The city is also seeking to reassign under-occupied apartments (according to the city itself, about 15%!) and those occupied by high earners in the coming years. So there may be somewhat more listings in the next few years. We are watching developments with interest.

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Most available cooperative apartments were in Oerlikon and Unterstrass (8057)

Because we monitor all cooperatives in the canton of Zürich, we know exactly which quarters have the most apartment listings. In 2024, the most listings for available cooperative apartments were in postal code 8057 — that is, the quarters of Oerlikon and Unterstrass. Second and third were 8047 (Albisrieden) and 8051 (Schwamendingen). This ranking does not include apartments in new-build projects. A tip at this point: when searching for a cooperative apartment, it's worth avoiding overly narrow search criteria. It's best to be open to different quarters. That greatly increases your chances of finding an apartment.

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Average CHF 1832 per month for a cooperative apartment in the city

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A quick look around Homegate.ch makes it clear that this is an extremely good price. On the ‘regular’ market, you won't find a 3.5-room apartment in Zürich advertised for that kind of money. It's striking how large the price gap is between non-profit apartments and those rented on the open market. Rents there generate quite a profit. By the way, outside the city of Zürich a 3.5-room cooperative apartment is of course even cheaper. There, apartments were listed for an average of CHF 1612. That's another notable difference and perhaps something to consider.

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PWG had the most apartments

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Since we track not only cooperatives but also foundations, they naturally appear in our figures too. And indeed, in terms of listings in 2024, the PWG ranks first. Roughly every other day there was an available apartment! If you don't want to use our Suchabo, you should definitely check PWG's website daily. They rent (mostly) affordable apartments across the entire city of Zürich. Second and third place go to the Gemeinnützige Wohnbaugenossenschaft Winterthur (over 90 listings) and the Baugenossenschaft SILU (almost 60 listings). They are followed by the Siedlungsgenossenschaft Sunnige Hof (almost 60 listings) and the ASIG Wohngenossenschaft (over 50 listings). So if you're looking, it's worth visiting their websites regularly.

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Cooperatives rented out four great new-build projects in the city of Zürich

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This year there was a lot of hype around four cooperative new-build projects in the city of Zürich. That's understandable, since many apartments were rented out at once each time: GBL rented about 120 apartments to external applicants in Langgrüt, Sunnige Hof almost 80 apartments in Mattenhof 3, the Baugenossenschaft Glattal Zürich over 60 apartments in Buchwiesen, and the Baugenossenschaft Vrenelisgärtli 51 apartments in Tokeh and other buildings. In all four cases, we had been monitoring the projects for months and had also listed them publicly on our website (under the New-build projects section). Because we tracked the projects' progress very closely, users of the GenossenSchaffen Suchabo were kept fully informed. For all four projects, we sent information in advance and then, as soon as the letting portal opened, a notification (usually at 8:00 in the morning). We're very happy that many of our subscribers found an apartment in these new buildings. By the way: a number of new-build projects outside the city were also rented out, but we won't list them all here for reasons of space.

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Conclusion and outlook 2025

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A lot has happened regarding cooperative apartments in Zürich in 2024. All told, cooperatives in the canton of Zürich posted over 1’300 apartments (including new-build projects). Most of them at very affordable prices, especially compared with the ‘open’ market. What can we expect next year? We hope the City of Zürich follows through and that, by tackling under-occupancy in municipal apartments, even more people will be able to move into affordable housing. In addition, next year will also see several exciting new-build projects rented out in the city of Zürich and further afield. Of course, we'll be watching them closely and informing our subscribers when leasing starts. If you want to stay up to date, follow us on Instagram, read our blog regularly, and ideally subscribe to our Suchabo as well. Happy New Year!