Empty dwellings count
bfs-vacancy
- Publisher
- OFS/BFS
- Access method
api- Table id
T 09.03.04.01 (je-d-09.03.04.01)- Licence
- opendata.swiss terms of use "terms_by": "Open use. Must provide the source."
- Coverage
- Geography national (1984–), cantons (1995–), communes (latest year only) · referenceDay 1 June · from 1984 · to 2026
- Gaps
- National series from 1984 (counts on 1 June; until 1983 the count was on 1 December and there was no count in 1983). Cantonal series start in 1995; DF_LWZ_1 publishes no rates for 1995 and 1996 (empty cells). Commune values only for the latest year. Holiday homes are not counted (BFS definition).
- Used on
- PROB housing.vacancy-rate, STORY-05, STORY-09, PROB housing, AGORA-20, AGORA-22
- Known limits
- Vacancy rate = empty dwellings ÷ total dwelling stock. Until 2010 the rate was computed on the approximate total stock of the previous year; since 2010 on the stock of the Buildings and Dwellings Statistics (GWS) — a method break (T 09.03.04.01, footnotes 2 and 6). Results for 2012–2015, 2017 and 2019 were revised (footnote 7). Counts are reported by the communes on 1 June; only dwellings offered for permanent rent or sale are counted, holiday homes are excluded.
- Verification
- verification date: 2026-10-31 · method: Fetched T 09.03.04.01 (XLSX) and DF_LWZ_1 (SDMX), cross-checked national counts 1995–2026 between both (identical), and compared 2026 values with the BFS press release of 10.09.2026 "Leerwohnungsziffer fällt unter 1 Prozent im Jahr 2026" (45 493 empty dwellings on 1 June 2026, 0,93 %; Zug 0,20 %, Genf 0,31 %, Obwalden 0,38 %, Solothurn 1,91 %, Jura 3,35 %). · checkedValue: 2026: CH 45493 (0.93 %); GE 0.31; ZG 0.20; JU 3.35 · checkedAgainst: https://www.admin.ch/de/newnsb/kgvqAd91MYZr
- Processed file
- data/processed/bfs-vacancy.csv
How current is this data?
- Freshness
- Up to date
According to its update rhythm, no newer edition is expected yet.
- Period covered
- 1984–2026
- Last change of the data
- Last check of the source
- Update rhythm
- Yearly
Ledger note (in English): Yearly. Reference day 1 June; BFS publishes in September (2026 count — press release of 10.09.2026; T 09.03.04.01 "Stand der Datenbank 10.09.2026").
- Votara checks the source
- Every week, and every day from 3 days before to 14 days after an announced publication date
The state is computed each time the site is built; this page shows it as of . Results of the accuracy checks
Transformations
- National rows (geo_level ch, 1984–latest): BFS table T 09.03.04.01 "Leer stehende Wohnungen. Entwicklung" (XLSX, current edition via the DAM orderNr URL). Columns located by their labels "Total" and "Leerwohnungs-ziffer". Script: scripts/fetch/bfs-vacancy.ts
- Cantonal rows (1995–latest) and commune rows (latest year): stats.swiss SDMX dataflow CH1.LWZ/DF_LWZ_1 version 1.1.0 (https://disseminate.stats.swiss/rest/data/CH1.LWZ,DF_LWZ_1,1.1.0/…), measures OBS (vacant dwellings) and RATE (%), totals over number of rooms (_T) and type of vacant dwelling (_T). The commune query uses the latest year that has cantonal counts.
- The national rows of DF_LWZ_1 are only used to cross-check T 09.03.04.01; any difference is reported as a warning in the nightly summary (none on 2026-10-31).
- Rates rounded half-up to 2 decimals (the precision of the BFS publications; some XLSX cells hold unrounded quotients such as 1.8488 for 1998). Counts copied as published.
- geo_name = German label of the BFS codelist (e.g. "Genf", "Biel (BE)"); official commune names are in bfs-communes (join on geo_code = bfs_number). Communes are those of the dataflow's commune state (snapshot 2026); districts and greater regions are dropped.