What a housing cooperative is
A housing cooperative (Wohnbaugenossenschaft in German, coopérative d'habitation in French, cooperativa di abitazione in Italian) belongs to its members. It lets its flats at cost rent: the rent covers the costs, and nobody makes a profit. Tenants are normally members too.
According to Wohnbaugenossenschaften Schweiz, about 7.5 percent of Swiss rental flats belonged to housing cooperatives in 2023 (a small sample; 2021 to 2023 average: 7.8 percent). The association counts about 2,000 housing cooperatives (2025). There are two umbrella associations: Wohnbaugenossenschaften Schweiz, with almost 1,300 members and more than 174,000 flats (website, checked 15 October 2026), and WOHNEN SCHWEIZ in Lucerne.
What it costs
Joining usually means buying share capital. Three examples, each according to the cooperative's website, checked 15 October 2026:
- ABZ (Zurich): share capital from CHF 3,500 for 1.5 rooms to CHF 8,500 for 6.5 rooms.
- Kraftwerk1 (Zurich): membership costs CHF 550, and you need it before you can apply.
- Codha (Geneva and Vaud): a membership share of CHF 100 per adult plus a yearly fee, and an own-funds contribution of about CHF 5,000 to 6,000 per room of the flat.
In return, rent is lower: across Switzerland, non-profit rents average 8 to 20 percent less for the same number of rooms (Federal Office for Housing BWO, 2024). The City of Zurich says non-profit rents are about 25 percent lower than free-market rents (city website, checked 15 October 2026).
The rules
- Membership. You join and buy shares; some cooperatives accept applications from members only.
- Occupancy. Cooperatives set a minimum number of occupants. A common Zurich rule is at most "persons plus one" rooms, so a couple gets up to three rooms (wbg-zh). In Geneva, GCHG lists the occupancy rate (taux d'occupation) and the rent-to-income ratio (taux d'effort) among its rules.
- Income and assets. There are no general income limits on cooperative flats; only subsidised flats have them (Wohnbaugenossenschaften Schweiz FAQ). Example: Canton of Zurich, subsidised flats in buildings from 2006, 2026 limits on 2025 taxable income: CHF 53,400 for one person at move-in, CHF 63,000 for two or more, assets of at most CHF 200,000, at least two years in the canton, a C permit for foreigners, and flats of four or more rooms for families only.
- Residence and permit. Some cooperatives and aid schemes also ask for residence in the town or canton, or for a particular permit.
Two ways cooperatives let flats
1. Waiting list or seniority. In Geneva, GCHG explains that you must join a cooperative to get a flat, that joining does not guarantee a flat soon and that some waiting lists are long. Codha, active in Geneva and Vaud, allocates by seniority: the date you joined counts, and it says to expect 3 to 7 years. Here, joining early matters more than reacting fast.
2. Publish and apply fast. According to the Zurich regional association wbg-zh, most Zurich cooperatives no longer keep waiting lists. They publish vacancies on their own websites, often briefly, and on portals such as Homegate, Flatfox and newhome, where listings are often gone within 15 to 30 minutes. Here, speed and a ready dossier decide.
Check which way each cooperative works before you invest time.
Region by region
- Zurich: at the end of 2023, 27.0 percent of rental flats in the City of Zurich were non-profit, about 58,100 of 215,000. In the canton the share is about 9 percent (wbg-zh). Details: Find a cooperative apartment in Zurich.
- Geneva: 128 cooperatives with nearly 12,000 flats, about 7 percent of rental flats (Canton of Geneva, 31 December 2021). GCHG, the group of Geneva housing cooperatives, publishes its member list.
- Vaud, including Lausanne, and the rest of Romandie: the regional association is ARMOUP, the association of non-profit housing builders in French-speaking Switzerland; it does not publish vacancies. Codha allocates by seniority in Vaud too.
- Basel: according to wbg Nordwestschweiz, cooperative flats make up about 11 percent of flats in the city; the association counts about 210 cooperatives with about 17,000 flats and lists its members (website, checked 15 October 2026).
- Bern and Solothurn: the regional association wbg-beso has more than 200 members with more than 25,000 flats (website, checked 15 October 2026); it publishes no vacancies, so go through its members.
- Ticino: start with CASSI, the regional association for Italian-speaking Switzerland.
- Central and eastern Switzerland, Winterthur and Schaffhausen: wbg Zentralschweiz, wbg Ostschweiz and wbg Winterthur-Schaffhausen.
A practical routine
- Make your list. Use your regional association's member list to find cooperatives where you want to live, and note how each lets flats.
- Join early where membership counts. With seniority, as at Codha, every month counts.
- Subscribe to newsletters. Some cooperatives announce vacancies to members or in their newsletter only.
- Check vacancy pages daily, ideally at a fixed time: some cooperatives always publish at the same hour.
- Keep your dossier ready: ID, salary certificate, Betreibungsauszug (debt-collection extract) and references, see what documents you need. Set aside the share capital too.
- Apply within hours when a vacancy fits.
Tools that help
- The cooperatives' own websites and newsletters: the source itself, and where members-only offers appear.
- Member lists and the member map: the regional associations link to their members, and Wohnbaugenossenschaften Schweiz offers a map of its members.
- Alert services: wohnschaft.ch (free search and a daily email, paid options), genossenschaftsscout.ch and genossenschaffen.ch (paid, Zurich cooperatives), and mietradar.ch and laos.io (paid, Switzerland-wide by their own account) watch cooperative websites for you. Compare which cooperatives each covers.
- aptari: aptari checks the websites of about 800 Swiss housing cooperatives and other non-profit housing providers every day and shows the open flats it finds in its free feed, no login, with a "Cooperative" badge and a source filter, next to listings from Homegate, ImmoScout24 and Flatfox. A cooperative listing opens the cooperative's own website, and your application goes to the cooperative. aptari is not a cooperative: it does not hand out flats or manage waiting lists, does not cover every cooperative, and cannot show flats offered only to members or in newsletters. One-tap Passport Apply works only on listings from aptari partner agencies, not on cooperative listings; your Tenant Passport still keeps your documents ready. New-listing alerts on saved searches come with Pro (CHF 9.90 a month, launch price), Ultra and the 14-day free Pro trial; browsing stays free. A daily check can miss a flat let within hours, so also watch the pages of the cooperatives you want most.
Last checked: 15 October 2026.