Swiss home vacancies at 14-year high, cities still 'strained'

Zurich

THE number of empty apartments in Switzerland climbed to the highest since 2001, slowing the pace of rental increases.

The number of empty flats or residential houses rose 12 per cent to 51,172 as at June 1 from a year earlier, giving a vacancy rate of 1.19 per cent, Switzerland's Federal Statistics Office said in a statement on Monday. The census is carried out annually.