Zürich, Switzerland
 

Zürich and its Commercial Real Estate Market are unique in many respects. Did You Know...

•      Zürich, the largest city in Switzerland, is considered by many to have the best quality of life in the world. Zürich is the nation's main commercial and cultural center, and the world's primary center for offshore banking.

•       Art and culture are central to life in Zürich. The city has one of the most famous Opera Houses in Europe, is host to  the Street parade, which is the biggest electronic music parade in the world, and its Kunsthaus boasts one of the largest collections in Classic Modern Art in the world. In addition, Zürich is birthplace of the Dada movement.  

•       The University of Zürich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology are among the best universities in the world. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is widely recognized as being on par with the MIT, Oxford, Harvard, and Cambridge. The two universities combined have more than 58,000 students enrolled, building an impressive reservoir of highly qualified employees.

•       Zürich has one of the highest public transport traffic density ratings worldwide. It is said that no point exists on the ground floor within the CBD, which is farther than 490 feet from a bus, tram, or train stop.

•       Zürich International Airport, the busiest and most important airport in Switzerland, ranks as the world's 22^nd and Europe's 18^th busiest airport. Currently the airport serves 19 million passengers per year, but recent projects have made it capable to serve a greater number of people.

•       Most Swiss R&D is conducted in Zürich. It is therefore not surprising that Zürich has one of the world's highest R&D   expenditures per capita and is ranked second on number of Nobel Prizes per resident .  

•      The commercial real estate market has shown growth in all of its sectors in the last year. The market is strong and is expected to remain positive in coming years.

•      The sharp rise in employment over the last 12 month has promoted a recovery in regional office property markets leading to a reduction in the proportion of office space lying vacant from 6.5% to fewer than 5%. The resulting fall in vacant space will bring a marked rise in rents. 

•       High demand in central locations is causing higher rents. For example, on Bahnhofstrasse, one of the world's most exclusive and expensive avenues, rents as high as $38.11 per square foot have been recorded.  

•     Rents will continue to increase during the rest of the year as supply remains low; however, the supply is expected to increase next year, with the opening of new business parks on the peripheries of Zürich.