Zurich: how the world capital of housing shortages is tackling the problem 

In Zurich, only seven out of 10,000 apartments are vacant on average – the lowest rate in Switzerland and probably in the Western world. What’s the city doing about its housing crisis? Anyone looking for somewhere to live in Zurich has a big problem. People joke that the only place you can rest and catch some sleep is in one of the queues to look at the few vacant apartments.  These queues are an all-too-frequent sight in Switzerland’s economic powerhouse. A few months ago comedian Lara Stoll made a video that went viral, showing her queueing with about 300 other people to view an apartment.  The housing market in Zurich has dried up – at least if you go by the vacancy rate. It is calculated on a chosen day and includes all forms of unoccupied housing. At 0.07% Zurich has the lowest rate in Switzerland. Judging by the comparative data available, it may even be the lowest in the West.  SWI swissinfo.ch compared the figures for sought-after cities all over the world. The quality of ...