Contents
Key facts
- In districts 3 to 12, short-term letting leaves around CHF 2,310 a month against CHF 1,990 for long-term renting — 17 per cent apart.
- In the centre it is 11 per cent, by Lake Zurich 4; in the surrounding area long-term renting leads by 11.
- The lead grows with size: 12 per cent for a studio, 22 for four and a half rooms.
- Five things weigh more than those 17 per cent — and four of them favour long-term renting.
The short answer
For a well-kept 3-room flat on full service, around CHF 2,310 a month remains in Zurich districts 3 to 7 and 9 to 12, against CHF 1,990 from long-term letting — a difference of 17 per cent. In the centre it is CHF 2,970 against CHF 2,680, so 11 per cent. Around the lake the lead shrinks to 4 per cent. Outside the city it reverses: there long-term letting comes out 11 per cent above short-term letting.
All figures are net. For short-term letting after platform fees, after our commission and after cleaning; for long-term letting after five per cent property management. This matters, because most comparisons you find set the gross revenue of one side against the net rent of the other — and so show a lead that does not exist.
The second part of this article is the more important one: what these figures leave out decides the question more often than the figures themselves.
| Location | Short-term letting | Long-term letting | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zurich districts 1, 2 and 8 — Altstadt, Enge, Seefeld | CHF 3,210 | CHF 2,680 | +20 % |
| Zurich districts 3 to 7 and 9 to 12 — Wiedikon, West, Oerlikon | CHF 2,540 | CHF 1,990 | +28 % |
| Kilchberg, Rüschlikon, Thalwil and other lakeside communes | CHF 2,380 | CHF 2,080 | +14 % |
| Limmattal, Säuliamt, Glattal and the wider surroundings | CHF 1,680 | CHF 1,690 | −0 % |
Why the lead grows with the size of the flat
In the same districts 3 to 12 the lead is 12 per cent for a studio and 22 per cent for four and a half rooms. That is not a side effect — it is the cleaning.
It falls per stay, not per square metre. A studio changes guests as often as a four-room flat — with an average stay of three nights, around six and a half times a month — but earns considerably less per night. The same fixed item eats a larger share of the smaller revenue.
From that follows a rule of thumb that runs against instinct: short-term letting pays off least on small flats, even though demand is highest exactly there.
| Size | Short-term letting | Long-term letting | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio or 1 room | CHF 1,570 | CHF 1,280 | +23 % |
| 3 rooms | CHF 2,540 | CHF 1,990 | +28 % |
| 4.5 rooms or more | CHF 3,560 | CHF 2,660 | +34 % |
What none of these figures says
A sum in francs can be compared; a decision cannot. Five things weigh more than the 17 per cent, and four of them speak for long-term letting.
- Whether it is permitted at all. A flat that may not be let short-term has no short-term income — then the whole left-hand column is beside the point. Since the Federal Supreme Court ruling of 30 April 2026, what matters in the city of Zurich is whether anybody still lives in the flat. That is to be clarified before anything else.
- The capital before the first booking. Short-term letting presupposes a fully furnished flat, textiles in triplicate included. That money is tied up before the first franc comes in.
- The swing. July and January in Zurich run at 56 against 38 per cent occupancy. The monthly figure above is an average; anyone servicing a mortgage should budget for January.
- The workload — but only under self-management. Guest enquiries alone add up to around 180 hours a year. On full service that falls away; that is why the commission is already deducted in the calculation above.
- And in favour of short-term letting: the price stays at the market. In Zurich, sitting rents are around 30 per cent below new-tenancy rents. Anyone letting today at CHF 2,090 will not have the then-market rent in ten years — increases are tied to the reference interest rate and to cost rent. A nightly rate can be adjusted every week.
Your figures, not our examples
The calculator takes the number of rooms, the neighbourhood and the fit-out and shows you a range — with the arithmetic beside it, not as a single figure you have to take on trust.
Estimate the returnWhen long-term letting wins
We put this in writing because it is what the calculation shows, and because a comparison that always leads to one’s own offer is not one.
- Outside the city. There, by our calculation, long-term letting comes out 11 per cent above short-term letting — with considerably less work and no zoning risk.
- On small flats with a high rent. When the per-stay cleaning becomes large in relation to the nightly rate, little of the lead remains.
- In zones with a minimum residential share, as long as permissibility is unresolved. An income that can fall away is no basis for a purchase price.
- When predictable income matters more than the amount. The same figure every month is an argument towards a bank; an annual average is not.
- When the capital for furnishing is needed elsewhere.
How these figures come about
So that you can check them. Gross revenue is the nightly rate times the nights occupied, and the nights occupied are 30.4 times the occupancy rate. To that is added the cleaning fee charged to the guest. It is higher than the flat rate we charge you, by exactly the platform fee: Airbnb takes 15.5 per cent of the cleaning too, so the fee is calculated backwards — flat rate divided by 0.845. For three rooms the guest pays CHF 189.35, and the CHF 160 you are charged is what reaches us. From the total the platform takes 15.5 per cent. Our commission falls only on accommodation revenue after the platform fee, not on the cleaning. What remains matches the pure accommodation calculation exactly — the cleaning costs you nothing.
The cleaning therefore appears on both sides of the calculation: once as income from the guest, once as an expense to the service. Anyone who deducts the cost and forgets the fee arrives at a figure that is too low by the whole cleaning amount. That is the most common error in the income calculations owners show us.
On the other side stands the new-tenancy rent from the official rent survey, times a location factor from the same survey, minus five per cent property management. No vacancy deduction: the vacancy rate in the city of Zurich stood at 0.10 per cent on 1 June 2025.
What is assumption and not measurement: the average stay of three nights and the cleaning rate of CHF 95 for a 3-room flat. For neither do we know of a Zurich survey. Everything else has a source, and it is listed below.
Frequently asked questions
In the city yes, outside it not according to our calculation. For a well-kept 3-room flat on full service the lead is 17 per cent in districts 3 to 12, 11 per cent in the centre, 4 per cent around the lake and minus 11 per cent outside the city. More decisive than the percentage, though, is whether the flat may be let short-term on a permanent basis in its zone at all.
Because here both sides are net. The industry figure of «two to three times the long-term rent» generally compares the gross revenue of short-term letting with the net rent — before platform fees, before commission, before cleaning. Deduct those three items and what remains in Zurich is a lead in the low double digits. For the factor of two to three we found no evidence for Zurich.
No, and the difference is large. A new listing does not reach market occupancy at once; over the first year, revenue by our assumption sits at around 82 per cent of established operation. Long-term letting, by contrast, starts at the full amount in the first month. In the first year long-term letting is therefore ahead in all four locations — by 5 per cent in districts 3 to 12, by 9 in the centre, by 15 around the lake and by 27 outside the city. The lead of short-term letting only arises from the second year, and anyone running this calculation over twelve months alone necessarily reaches the wrong conclusion.
The commission of 25 per cent falls away and the income rises accordingly — and in exchange around 180 hours a year come in for guest enquiries alone, plus cleaning coordination and price adjustment. Whether that is a good trade depends on what your time is otherwise worth and whether you live nearby.
Yes. The calculator on this site takes location, size, standard and package and shows both routes side by side, with every intermediate step. It works with the same values as this article. If you would rather ask: district, number of rooms and floor area are enough for us to give a first assessment.
And for your property?
Sources
State of our research: 10 August 2026. Official rules change — check the current position with the competent authority.
- AirDNA MarketMinder: Zürich — Auslastung und Nächtigungspreise
- AirROI: Zürich Market Report (Juli 2025 – Juni 2026)
- Statistik Stadt Zürich: Mietpreiserhebung April 2024 (Datensatz BAU516OD5161)
- Kanton Zürich: Wohnungsmieten (BFS-Strukturerhebung 2022–2024)
- Stadt Zürich: Bundesgericht bestätigt Regelung zu Zweitwohnungen (Juni 2026)
