Summary

The population of Bern has changed by 1.63% over the last 3 years and totals 136’988 inhabitants.

Demographics

On average, people earn CHF 73’065 annually. Of the population, 37.82% have a university degree, 13.87% have completed higher vocational education, 33.25% have an SEK II qualification (school-leaving certificate or apprenticeship) and 15.07% of residents are currently completing compulsory schooling. The unemployment rate is 1.24%.

Taxes

Overall, the tax rate in the region is 14.79%. The individual percentage of tax actually paid varies and is determined by factors such as specific income, marital status, the total amount of deductions and so on. In Bern, the rate of taxation is 19.54% for an unmarried person without children. On average, a married couple on a pension (over 65) pay 18.72%, a married couple with two children 10.21% and a childless couple 14.28%.

New buildings

Bern has gained 1725 new apartments in the past 5 years. Of these new builds, a total of 445 apartments have exactly one room to live in. More 2-room apartments have also been created; 416 apartments of this size were added in total. 422 apartments with 3 rooms and 334 4-room apartments were also constructed. Investments were also made in more spacious apartments: 91 5-room apartments were built, offering lots of living space; 17 apartments with a minimum of 6 rooms were also built.

Housing stock

Bern now has a total of 82’105 apartments, following further expansion of the housing stock as a result of the construction of new dwellings. There are a total of 9301 1-room apartments available in the area. The number of apartments with 2, 3 and 4 rooms is 18’529, 30’538 and 16’169 respectively. A total of 5079 5-room apartments and 2489 spacious apartments with a minimum of 6 rooms are also available on the market.

Empty apartments

The 0.43% vacancy rate in Bern is 0.43%. Of this total, 0.5% of 1-room apartments, 0.48% of the 2-room apartments, 0.5% of the 3-room apartments, 0.25% of 4-room apartments and 0.34% of apartments with 5 rooms are presently uninhabited. The vacancy rate for apartments with more than 5 rooms is 0.16%; 0.16% of those unoccupied properties are apartments with at least 6 rooms.

Property market (rental only)

Rent prices for rental properties average 1570 CHF per month. In terms of the rents on the market, a quarter of them are equivalent to or lower than a monthly rent of 1294 CHF. Additionally, 75% of all monthly rents are cheaper than or equal to 1900 CHF.