4410 francs for 2.5 rooms Even residents are amazed at the prices in Zurich's new district

With rents of up to CHF 4,410 for a 2.5-room apartment, a Swiss Life AG construction project in the heart of Zurich Altstetten is raising eyebrows among local residents.

The "Tilia" development, designed by Swiss star architects Herzog & de Meuron, is being built on Lindenplatz in Zurich Altstetten. Completion is planned for 2025. The apartments will not be cheap.

According to "20 Minuten", a 1.5-room apartment will cost around 1,900 francs per month. 2.5 rooms are available for 3180, but can cost up to 4410 francs per month. Even more expensive are 3.5 rooms (4170 francs on average) and 4.5 rooms (5260 francs).

According to the report, the most expensive apartment costs 5350 francs per month. The cheapest place to live is a 1.5-room apartment for 1700 francs. The trade-off: a new-build apartment directly on Lindenplatz in Zurich Altstetten.

"This is a disaster"

Residents are concerned that these are very high rents for the area and fear that they will no longer be able to afford the neighborhood in the future if prices rise like this. "I don't even get 2,000 francs a month on my pension. How are older people supposed to afford such prices?", "20 Minuten" quotes a 59-year-old resident.

"This is a disaster. We are normal citizens here, rather poor. Who is supposed to pay for this?" asks another tenant from the area. "It's been a big development recently. Many heirs are selling their houses because they don't know what to do with them." The fact that many old buildings that are still in good condition are being demolished for new buildings is also a cause for concern.

Swiss Life has commissioned St. Gallen-based Senn Development AG with the construction. The company defends the "Tilia" project. The demolished buildings were commercial, office and residential premises. The few apartments that belonged to it were "mostly in a poor condition", "20 Minuten" quotes.

The aim is to "significantly upgrade" a previously underutilized site with 72 new apartments and "create new living space in the city of Zurich".

Steadily rising rents

The Altstetten neighborhood association is monitoring the situation, but is somewhat reassuring. "Altstetten is a densely populated area in the city. As long as this happens in a balance for apartments of all classes, we hope that the diversity of the Altstetten population will change little," they tell the news portal.

However, rising rents are an ever-increasing problem, as in the rest of the city of Zurich. "We are observing that the rents per square meter for the many new buildings, including those from the city and cooperatives, are steadily rising," says the neighborhood association.

Swiss Life AG merely told "20 Minuten" that prices are in line with the market.