The furnishing: what it eats each month and when it is paid back — location by location

Our yield calculator shows the operating result: revenue less platform fee, commission and cleaning. The furnishing is not in it — and neither is it in any other calculator we know. That is not carelessness but a limit: a calculator does not know your budget, and most flats are already partly furnished.

The item does become visible as soon as you spread it over the useful life. The Federal Tax Administration sets 25 per cent declining balance for furniture and fittings, and half of that where depreciation is taken on the acquisition value — 12.5 per cent straight-line, so eight years. On CHF 15,000 that is CHF 156 a month.

That is the amount by which the calculator’s result looks too good. For a 3-room flat in districts 3 to 12, CHF 1,080 of lead becomes CHF 920. Outside the city it shrinks from CHF 340 to CHF 190.

Both tables show the same fact from two angles, not two separate costs. Either you treat the fit-out as an initial investment that comes back out of the surplus — that is the first table. Or you spread it over eight years and read the monthly result — that is this one. Deducting both at once would be counting it twice.

No survey exists of what it costs to furnish a Zurich flat for short-term letting — neither official nor from an association. CHF 15,000 is a working figure so the tables have a reference point, not a measurement.

Your own figure is more useful than an average anyway, because the range is wide and turns on three things: how much is already in the flat, how big it is, and how high the listing aims. The table below translates budgets into months so that you can insert your own amount.

What it shows: the payback period rises almost in step with the budget, because the monthly lead stays the same. Spending CHF 25,000 instead of CHF 8,000 means waiting 29 months rather than 13 in districts 3 to 12 — unless the better fit-out lifts the nightly rate. That is precisely the question to answer before buying, and it is set out in the article on initial furnishing: beds, textiles and kitchen lift the rate, designer furniture does not.

In three cases the question of payback does not arise, and then these tables say nothing about your situation.

• The flat is already furnished. Then the money is spent and irrelevant to the decision — only what is missing counts. What usually has to be added is textiles in triplicate, blackout blinds and an electronic lock.
• Long-term letting is not an option. If you need the flat yourself from time to time, or intend to sell before long, the tables compare against an alternative you do not have. The furnishing is then the price of entry and not an investment against something else.
• Short-term letting is not permitted in your zone. Then the whole calculation 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; binding information comes from your municipal building authority.

The furnishing does not decide whether short-term letting is worthwhile — location decides that. It decides how long it takes to become worthwhile, and in the borderline cases it tips the result.

• In the city of Zurich and on Lake Zurich, the furnishing is an initial investment with a manageable horizon — around one and a half to two years at CHF 15,000, and the lead remains afterwards.
• For small flats outside the city the horizon is long. A 2-room flat there brings in around CHF 230 a month more than long-term rent; at CHF 15,000 that is almost seven years.
• Outside Zurich the budget decides. Furnishing cheaply, or with furniture already in place, pays back in three to four years; furnishing new and expensively means waiting six years or more.
• If you have an amount in mind, put it into the third table. And work through your case in the calculator — it uses the same figures as this article, only with your size, location and fit-out.