Buyers of residential property in Switzerland had to dig deeper into their pockets last year, with average prices continuing to rise in almost all regions of German-speaking Switzerland and in Ticino.

However, the pace of growth slowed significantly as a result of repeated interest rate hikes, according to an analysis of residential property prices by the Swiss Real Estate Institute on behalf of the property portal Newhome.

Prices for single-family homes climbed by an average of 3.6%, which was higher than the general inflation rate of 2.1%. In contrast, flats did not become much more expensive (0.4%).

The analysis is not based on prices in the adverts but on the actual sales prices from the Swiss Real Estate Data Pool. This comprises homes financed by Credit Suisse, UBS and Zürcher Kantonalbank and covers around 40% of all transactions in Switzerland. In 2023, 6,631 owner-occupied homes changed hands in the six regions analysed.

Of the six regions analysed, a detached house in Central Switzerland is the most expensive, costing on average CHF 1.64m (£1.5m), which is 5.1% more than in 2022. The Zurich region ranked second with an average price of CHF 1.54m (up 1.3%). However, the biggest price increases were in Eastern Switzerland (8.2%) and Ticino (6.7%), ahead of Northwestern Switzerland (3.5%).