The Gstaad
Real Estate Market is totally different from the
Swiss Market. Nevertheless, the following
article found in the
Finacial might be interesting:
Over the past ten years, investments
in real estate have put in a very robust and attractive
performance compared with other asset classes. But it
wasn’t until the international financial markets
suffered their major corrections that real estate was
really rediscovered as an investment vehicle. Since then
it has won back its place alongside equities and bonds
in the portfolios of many of those private and institutional
investors who had ditched real estate in the wake of
the property crisis of the early 1990s.
Real estate investment has received a considerable boost
not only from short-term cyclical forces, but also from
long-term trends. These have included rising demand among
institutional and private investors for greater income
and value stability, as well as much more transparent
markets.
In recent months, however, some cyclical factors – such
as interest rates – have been starting to turn
the other way, and people are already beginning to express
concerns about a fresh property crash in Switzerland.
Memories of the 1990s collapse are still painful. This
study clearly shows, however, that today’s conditions
are very different indeed to the ones that prevailed
fifteen years ago.
The current economic environment is poles apart from
the pre-crash scene of 1990/91. As well as the obvious
tendencies towards overheating, i. e. high inflation
and economic growth rates and low unemployment, the late
eighties also saw a breathtaking rise in short-term interest
rates. By contrast, we only expect economic growth of
1.6%, unemployment of just under 4% and barely any inflation
this year.
Short-term interest rates may rise slightly but will
remain low by historical comparison. There is no sign
today that the Swiss economy is in danger of overheating.
Another major consideration is the fact that Swiss real
estate markets have become much more transparent in recent
years. This fifth edition of our real estate study aims
to point up the latest facts and trends relating to the
Swiss real estate market and to deepen our knowledge
of market mechanisms even further.
As usual, you can find facts and trends relating to
Switzerland’s 26 cantonal real
estate markets in the regional section of our real estate study, which
is published online at www.credit-suisse.com/research
The Credit Suisse Real Estate Research team hopes you
enjoy reading this study. More...
Real Estate
Gstaad
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