Mid-term let, furnished for a season or Airbnb? What pays off in Zurich

The short answer

For a well-kept 3-room flat in Zurich districts 3 to 12, short-term letting on full service leaves around CHF 2,310 a month, unfurnished long-term letting CHF 1,990 — both net, after every deduction. For furnished letting for a fixed term of three to twelve months, no comparable net figure can be given: there is no official survey of furnished rents in Zurich, only asking prices on the portals.

That is not an evasion but the most important point of this comparison. Set the three routes against each other and you find verified figures for two of them and listings for the third — and an asking price is not what remains at the end of the month.

What «furnished for a fixed term» means in Zurich

This means letting a fully furnished flat to a single party for a fixed period, usually three to twelve months. The demand comes from employees posted by international companies, from new arrivals still looking for a flat, from visiting doctors and lecturers, from people between two homes. In the market this goes by several names — mid-term let, temporary housing, serviced apartment — the same thing under three labels. A large part of the demand runs through relocation services looking for temporary housing for their clients.

Legally it is a tenancy like any other, only fixed-term — and expressly not accommodation. That is why the zoning risk is small here: the Zurich rule following the Federal Supreme Court ruling of 30 April 2026 attaches to the type of use, and a flat let for a fixed term with somebody living in it remains residential use.

Economically it sits between the other two routes: a higher rent than unfurnished, less income than a well-occupied short-term let, but no cleaning turnover every three nights and no guest communication.

Why there is no solid figure for furnished-for-a-term

The City of Zurich rent survey covers unfurnished flats. For furnished rents no corresponding survey exists in the canton of Zurich — neither official nor from an association. What exists is listings.

On ImmoScout24, furnished offers in the city of Zurich start at around CHF 2,030 a month; on Nestpick more than 580 furnished flats are listed from CHF 1,599. But an offer is not a conclusion: how many of these listings are let at what price, and how long they stand to achieve it, no portal publishes.

On top of that, a gross price for furnished says little. To be deducted are the furnishing over its useful life, the vacancy between two tenants — with three- to twelve-month contracts that arises one to four times a year — and the cost of each changeover. In short-term letting those items are in the calculation; here they are missing from the figure you find.

So we do not write down a net figure we cannot substantiate. Stating a number where none exists does make you more quotable — until somebody checks.

Which route fits when

The decision hangs on three questions, and none of them is which pays most.

• May the flat be let short-term on a permanent basis in its zone? If not, the first route falls away entirely — and then furnished-for-a-term is the obvious version, because it remains residential use.
• Do you need the flat yourself now and then? Short-term letting can be blocked out by the day; a fixed-term tenancy cannot.
• How important is predictability? A twelve-month tenancy brings the same figure twelve times. Short-term letting in Zurich swings between 56 per cent occupancy in July and 38 in January.

What we take on — and what we do not

We run short-term letting and holiday letting. Furnished letting for a fixed term and long-term letting are not part of our offer, and we do not broker them either.

That is stated here because otherwise this article promises something we do not deliver. If, after weighing it up, your flat is better let for a fixed term, that is a good outcome — we are simply not the right people for it.

If the weighing-up leads to short-term letting, the calculator on this site works through your case with your figures: location, size, standard and package, with every deduction and the long-term rent alongside. It uses the same numbers as this article.