After reviewing hundreds of neubau flats, I noticed an interesting pricing structure. You pay to be higher up, but you also pay for more sunshine.
It even works similarly with rentals. People pay more money to have a sunnier location and sunshine seems to be very important for the Swiss. How else will you grow your herb garden?
But at times it seems a bit ridiculous.
Say you have a flat on the 1st floor. It costs 600k. If you want to live on the 2nd floor above, it will cost you 630k. 3rd floor? 660k. Yep. They raise the price around 10-40k per level. The higher you go, the more you pay. It looks something like this:
Notice that the ground floor (garden flat) is usually more expensive than the 2nd floor flat. You pay to have access to the land and a bigger outdoor area than the other flats. Prices also skyrocket at the top floor. Even outside Zürich it’s almost always a million or more to get the top floor. Usually this is because not only are you on top but attics often occupy the whole roof and have extended terrace areas.
In addition to that, you pay for sunshine. Sunny flats can be anywhere from 100-300k more expensive. I’m not even joking.
Sun is so important, that the showroom we visited even had a model of the city set up with moving lights to show how the sun would fall throughout the day from spring to winter in order to help you decide which flat to buy. It was pretty fancy.
It helped me realize that most of the flats that had been purchased in Building A were on cheaper “the dark side”. These were two sides of the compound that do not really get direct sun on the balcony/terrace side. This would maybe be OK if you have windows, but some flats like below are on the inner rectangle and the entire side of the house that should be getting sun is actually sharing walls with other flats.
After studying the floor plan for a bit knowing where the sun comes from, I realized this would be an incredibly dark flat. The windows are all recessed and there would never be direct sunlight pouring in through them. In the afternoon and evening your garden would be cast in shadow from the height of the building. All that indoor space with no windows… it would be like living in a cave!
If you want to save money in Switzerland, buy a flat on the 2nd floor sandwiched between two others with little sunlight. It will save you pennies, but it’s not going to be an attractive flat for other people later on.
We thought about it more and decided that we were glad we didn’t pick one of these flats with shady balconies or windows facing a noisy street. It was better that all these flats were taken so that we could focus on buying a flat that would enjoy as much evening sun as possible. After all, we do both work during the day!
How important was sun in deciding where you live?
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Sunshine is not something I’d ever considered until I worked for an apartment rental company. People would actually request direct sunlight and ask questions about what direction the buildings/apartments faced. It took me a while to catch on what the big deal was. We lived in an apartment that literally had two windows that got direct sunlight and they were in our roommates’ bedroom. I am so grateful for our new open, airy place!
Yeah! My SIL also started a job in real estate for awhile and when she and my brother were looking for a house they were very concerned about sunlight. It is a big deal apparently. 🙂