Airbnb or long-term letting in Zurich? The numbers for a 3-room flat, location by location

In the same districts 3 to 12 the lead is 48 per cent for a studio and 61 per cent for four and a half rooms. The reason 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 seven 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.

A sum in francs can be compared; a decision cannot. Five things weigh more than the lead in francs, 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.

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 the lead of short-term letting is smallest, at 20 per cent, and in the first year both routes are level — with long-term letting needing considerably less work and carrying 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.

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 flat rate of CHF 160 for a 3-room flat. For neither do we know of a Zurich survey. Everything else has a source, and it is listed below.

Vertiefung und nächster Schritt:

• Beide Wege im Ertragsrechner vergleichen
• Ersteinschätzung für Ihre Adresse

In der Stadt und am See deutlich, im Umland knapp. Für eine gepflegte 3-Zimmer-Wohnung im Vollservice liegt der Vorsprung in den Kreisen 3 bis 12 bei 54 Prozent (rund CHF 3'060 gegen CHF 1'990), im Zentrum bei 44, am Zürichsee bei 59 und im Umland bei 20 Prozent. Entscheidender als die Prozentzahl: ob dauerhafte Kurzzeit in der Zone zulässig ist. Für Eigentümer und Mieter mit Vermieterlaubnis gilt dieselbe Netto-Logik.

Weil hier beide Seiten netto stehen. Der Branchenfaktor «zwei bis drei Mal die Dauermiete» vergleicht oft Bruttoumsatz mit Nettomiete - vor Plattformgebühr, Provision und Reinigung. Nach diesen Abzügen bleibt in Zürich ein Vorsprung von 20 bis 60 Prozent, je nach Lage. Für den Faktor zwei bis drei haben wir für Zürich keinen Beleg gefunden. Eigentümer und Mieter mit Vermieterlaubnis vergleichen deshalb immer Netto gegen Netto.

Nein. Ein neues Inserat erreicht die Marktauslastung nicht sofort; über das erste Jahr liegt der Umsatz nach unserer Annahme bei rund 82 Prozent des eingespielten Betriebs. Die Dauermiete beginnt ab Monat eins voll. Im ersten Jahr ist der Vorsprung deshalb kleiner: Kreise 3 bis 12 plus 30 Prozent, Zentrum plus 21, See plus 34, im Umland liegen beide gleichauf. Der volle Vorsprung entsteht ab Jahr zwei.