GenossenSchaffen: Helping you find affordable housing in Zürich

Zürich, a city that seamlessly blends traditional charm with modern living, can be a paradise for expats. However, finding affordable housing there is a well-known challenge, with rents being amongst the highest in the world.

Cooperative housing (Genossenschaftswohnungen) offers a solution. The rents are, on average, 800 Swiss francs cheaper per month than other properties. The problem, however, is that most housing cooperatives only publish new apartments directly on their websites, making finding these properties extremely time-consuming. This is where the subscription service GenossenSchaffen can help.

Find affordable housing with GenossenSchaffen

What are cooperatives?

Cooperatives (Genossenschaften) are non-profit organisations that own and rent out properties. These cooperatives were part of Zürich's response to past housing shortages. Due to these organisations' non-profit nature, they receive favourable land policies as well as reduced equity requirements​​. This directly translates into significantly lower rents for tenants.

Interestingly, Zürich is the canton with the highest number of these properties, making up 20 percent of the area's housing market (including both houses and apartments).

A vibrant community

Cooperatives are not just about affordable living, however. They also offer vibrant social networks and community activities. Upon signing a rental agreement and paying the deposit, tenants become members of the respective cooperative. Not only does this mean that they are involved in decisions regarding various aspects of the property, but they also join a neighbourly community. In this way, expats are also able to integrate into Swiss society - a task many find very challenging!

How to find a cooperative property

While a few cooperatives in Zürich advertise their offers on well-known Swiss housing platforms, the majority of them publish new listings only on their own websites (there are 73 such sites in total!). In addition to this, cooperative ads only remain online for a short period of time - sometimes less than 12 hours. In order to apply for one of these flats, you would have to continually monitor all of these websites, which is incredibly time-consuming.

That's where GenossenSchaffen's time-saving subscription comes in!

GenossenSchaffen: Your cooperative property search tool

GenossenSchaffen is a subscription service that surveys these websites in real-time, immediately alerting subscribers as soon as a new flat advert is published. The best part is that the emails are personalised, so you only receive notifications about the flat sizes you want.

GenossenSchaffen offers subscriptions at five Swiss francs per month - the price of a coffee in Zürich - or 50 Swiss francs per year. An analysis of all the properties found on GenossenSchaffen has shown that moving from a privately-owned accommodation to a comparable cooperative can mean saving nearly 10.000 Swiss francs per year.

Subscribe now to find your cooperative home

Looking for affordable housing and a gateway into Swiss society? Join the people who have already successfully found a cooperative home with GenossenSchaffen, where you can benefit from huge savings and a great community feeling delivered straight to your inbox!