The short answer
No website holds every flat for rent in Switzerland. The reason is not technical: part of the market never reaches a public portal. What you can do is cover the advertised market from one place and reach the rest through the right doors. This page shows both.
Who is who. Homegate, ImmoScout24 and Flatfox are listing portals, and all three are brands of SMG Swiss Marketplace Group (checked on 5 October 2026). Comparis is a comparison site; rentals are one of its areas. newhome is a further Swiss property portal. Each portal shows the listings placed with it. For a comparison of these sites by coverage, application flow, dossier reuse, cost and languages, read which apartment website fits your search.
What one feed covers on aptari
aptari brings these sources together in one feed:
- Homegate, ImmoScout24 and Flatfox: their rental listings in one list, with a source filter when you want to see a single portal.
- Housing cooperatives: 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 with a "Cooperative" badge. That is not every cooperative in the country, and the feed cannot include flats a cooperative keeps for its members or its waiting list.
- aptari partner agencies: listings that agencies publish on aptari directly.
Browsing is free and needs no login. Listings that appear exclusively on other sites are not in the feed, so if you also use newhome or Comparis, keep checking them. Agencies sometimes advertise the same flat on more than one portal, so a flat can appear more than once.
How a listing opens. It depends on where the listing comes from:
- Listings from aptari partner agencies: you apply in one tap with your Tenant Passport, the dossier you prepare once. The free Basic plan includes 5 Passport Apply a month; on Pro it is unlimited.
- All other listings: the listing opens on the original portal or on the cooperative's own website, and you apply there, following that site's process. For a cooperative flat, the application goes to the cooperative. aptari is not a cooperative, does not hand out cooperative flats and does not manage waiting lists.
What no website covers, and how to reach it
These flats rarely or never appear on a portal, so no feed can show them. Here is how to reach each group:
- Cooperative flats for members and waiting lists. Many cooperatives fill flats from their members or a waiting list before they advertise, or instead of advertising. Pick the cooperatives in the area you want, read their rules on membership and waiting lists, and register wherever that is possible. The guide on finding a cooperative flat in Zurich walks you through it.
- City-owned flats. Some cities and municipalities own flats and let them through their own property office or website. Check the website of the municipality where you want to live, and ask how it allocates its flats.
- Shared flats (WG). Rooms in shared flats are mostly advertised on dedicated WG boards and in local groups rather than on the large portals. See how to find a WG room in Zurich.
- The outgoing tenant route. Tenants who move out before the end of their notice period often look for a next tenant (Nachmieter) themselves and pass the word around in their circle. Tell friends, colleagues and neighbours in the area that you are looking; some flats change hands before anyone advertises them.
- Company and student housing. Some employers offer flats to their staff, and universities run housing offices or work with student housing foundations. Ask HR or the housing office of your university.
- Your network. Word of mouth still matters in Switzerland. A short message to your contacts with the area, the size and your budget costs nothing.
A practical routine
Speed and a ready dossier matter more than the number of sites you open. A routine that works:
- One feed plus alerts. Search one feed instead of four tabs. On aptari Pro, new-listing alerts arrive every 30 minutes. Once a week, also work the doors from the section above: cooperative waiting lists, city offices, your network.
- A ready dossier. Prepare your ID, salary certificate (Lohnausweis), Betreibungsauszug and references before you find the flat. See which documents you need to rent. On aptari, the Tenant Passport keeps them in one place, and the AI check of ID, salary certificate and debt extract is included on every plan.
- Apply within hours. Popular flats draw many applications, and the ones that arrive days later often go unread. Apply the same day: on aptari for partner listings, on the source site for everything else.
- Check your fit before you spend time. The Match Score (0 to 100) shows how well you fit a listing, based on your income, your documents, the listing's requirements and your references, with the reasons shown. It measures fit, not your chance of getting the flat.
A note on scams
Fake listings turn up on open markets, and no site catches every one. Watch for these signs:
- You are asked to pay money (a deposit, a reservation fee, a fee for the keys) before a viewing or before a signed lease.
- The landlord says they live abroad and will send the keys by post once you have paid.
- The rent is far below similar flats in the same area, and you are pushed to decide today.
- You are asked for copies of your ID or your bank details before anyone has shown you the flat.
In Switzerland, the rental deposit is normally paid into a blocked deposit account in the tenant's name, after the lease is signed. If a listing asks for money before a viewing, walk away and report it to the site where you found it. The same caution applies wherever you search, aptari included.
In one line
No site has every flat. One feed for the advertised market, plus cooperatives, cities, WG boards and your network for the rest, gets you as close as you can get.
Last checked: 15 October 2026.