Letting a flat in Zurich short-term: the order in which to decide
Five questions, and the first is not the one about yield. Ask them in the wrong order and you spend months costing a property that is not allowed to do it.
How do I let my flat in Zurich short-term?
Letting a flat in Zurich short-term means handing it over furnished to changing guests for days to weeks, usually through Airbnb or Booking.com. Five questions have to be settled in order: admissibility, your right to dispose of the flat, its suitability, yield against long-term letting, and whether you run it yourself. Between decision and first booking lie around two weeks if the flat is furnished.
1. Is the flat allowed to be let short-term at all?
This question comes first because a negative answer makes all the others pointless. What governs it is your municipality’s zoning law — not tenancy law and not the platform.
In the city of Zurich, since the Federal Supreme Court ruling of 30 April 2026, what matters is whether anybody still lives in the flat. A flat let exclusively and permanently short-term is judged differently from one you live in and let at times. With condominium ownership, the association’s rules come on top.
Binding information for your address comes from your municipal building authority. We do not advise on permit questions — and we would not start before that information exists.
2. Are you entitled to dispose of the flat?
If you are the owner, yes. If you are a tenant, you need your landlord’s consent under Art. 262 CO before subletting. They may refuse it on three grounds only: if you do not disclose the terms, if those terms are abusive compared with your own contract, or if they suffer material disadvantages.
Subletting without consent risks the termination of your own tenancy. That is the commonest mistake in short-term letting by tenants, and it is not theoretical.
3. Is the property suitable?
Not every flat carries short-term letting, and that is decided less by the fittings than by four circumstances: how noise-sensitive the neighbourhood is, access and key logistics, size relative to demand, and whether same-day cleaning can be organised.
The commonest disqualifier is none of those: it is a location outside the city. There, long-term letting is ahead even in established operation, by around 11 per cent — and that is before the furnishing is counted.
4. Is it worth it against long-term letting?
For a well-kept 3-room flat in Zurich districts 3 to 12, full service leaves around CHF 2,310 a month, unfurnished long-term letting CHF 1,990 — both net, after all deductions. In the centre it is CHF 2,970 against CHF 2,680, on Lake Zurich CHF 2,180 against CHF 2,080, outside the city CHF 1,500 against CHF 1,690.
Two items are missing from those figures and belong in your calculation: the ramp-up year, in which a new listing has not yet reached market occupancy, and the furnishing. The calculator on this site takes your size, location and fittings and shows both.
5. Run it yourself or hand it over?
The question is decided by one figure: around 78 arrivals a year at an average stay of three nights. Each with communication, handover, cleaning and laundry, and none at a time you choose.
Anyone living nearby, with a reliable cleaner and able to answer the phone in the evening, sensibly runs it themselves or with the basic package. Anyone without that is not buying convenience with full service but the avoidance of bad reviews — and a bad review depresses the price for good.
With us, around two weeks lie between the go-ahead and the first booking if the flat is furnished: visit, photography, listing, pricing, keys, cleaning schedule.
Frequently asked questions
- How quickly can I let my flat short-term?
- With a furnished flat, around two weeks between the go-ahead and the first booking — visit, photography, listing, pricing, keys and cleaning schedule. If the flat is empty, the delivery time of the furniture sets the date. Before all that comes the information from the building authority: we do not start without it.
- What do I need to get started?
- Four things: proof of identity, evidence that you are entitled to dispose of the flat, bank details for the payout, and access to the flat for photography and survey. Everything else — listing, pricing, registering the tourist tax — we do.
- Can I use the flat myself in between?
- Yes, and that is one of the main advantages over long-term letting. You block the calendar for the times you need. With a long-term tenancy that is not possible: in Switzerland, needing the flat yourself is a ground for termination with notice periods and a right of challenge, not a switch.
- What if short-term letting is not permitted in my zone?
- Then fixed-term letting to one party over months remains — it stays residential use and is unproblematic in zoning terms. It has other risks instead: the tenant’s right to an extension, the mandatory form for the initial rent, and the question whether the fixed term has an objective reason. We do not operate that, but the article on it says what matters.
- Do I have to furnish the flat?
- It does not work without full furnishing — that is not a question of fittings but the precondition. That money is tied up before the first booking comes in. For a 3-room flat in the city, a furnishing costing CHF 15,000 has paid for itself after around five years, measured against long-term letting; on Lake Zurich it takes longer than the furniture lasts.
Your question is not answered?
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