Buying property in Thun: prices, scarcity and rules

Average asking prices for apartments in Thun stood at €8,350.3/m² in Q3 2026, according to indicative EUR-converted listing data from CASAFARI Area Insights. Yet the defining feature of the Thun property market is not price movement, but acute scarcity: the municipal vacancy rate reached just 0.05% in June 2025 against 1.00% across Switzerland. Demand comes overwhelmingly from Swiss primary residents, while non-resident foreign buyers require cantonal Lex Koller authorisation.

A couple relocating to the Bern region for work often begin their search in the federal capital, only to widen the map once they see the train timetable. Thirty minutes south along the Aare, Thun offers a historic island town centre, a castle above the roofs, and direct access to Lake Thun and the Bernese Oberland. When they ask local agents to show them three or four apartments, however, they quickly discover the real hurdle in this market: the challenge is not negotiating the price, but finding a home available to view at all.

Where is Thun, and who is actually buying there?

Thun sits where the Aare flows out of Lake Thun, serving as the urban and economic hub of the western Bernese Oberland. According to municipal population statistics from Stadt Thun, the city had 44,663 residents on 31 December 2025, of whom 7,681 (17.2%) were foreign nationals. Fast rail connections on the Lötschberg axis put Bern roughly 20 to 30 minutes away, drawing steady commuter demand alongside employees of the local hospital, the Swiss Armed Forces and defence and engineering firms such as RUAG.

Because of this employment base, the buyer profile is overwhelmingly domestic and focused on primary residences. Typical buyers are Swiss households from Thun and the Bern agglomeration moving from rental flats into ownership, or older homeowners trading detached houses for step-free condominiums (Stockwerkeigentum). Foreign residents in Thun are largely working professionals rather than holiday-home owners, and the municipality remains well below the 20% threshold of the federal Second Homes Act.

What do apartments cost in Thun?

In Q3 2026, the average asking price for apartments for sale in Thun was €8,350.3/m², based on Area Insights, the price series behind this guide (location ID 3683073, queried on 23 October 2026). Over the four quarters from Q4 2025 to Q3 2026, the average asking price was €8,552.3/m², with the latest quarter showing a mild 2.8% dip from €8,589.1/m² in Q2 2026.

These figures are indicative asking prices from indexed online listings, with outliers excluded, and are converted into euros from Swiss francs. Because properties in Switzerland are marketed and transacted in CHF, any movement in the CHF/EUR exchange rate feeds directly into the euro series. In a compact market with very low turnover, quarterly averages also react to the specific mix of flats listed in a given three-month window.

Reading the historical chart requires a candid look at sample depth:

• Q1 2023 to Q1 2025 (sparse coverage): The series repeats a static placeholder of €8,420.8/m² across nine quarters. This reflects an absence of new indexed data rather than two years of perfectly flat prices.
• Q2 2025 to Q3 2025 (thin-sample spike): Active readings begin in Q2 2025 at €9,468.0/m² and jump to €10,198.2/m² in Q3 2025. That Q3 2025 peak is a classic thin-sample effect caused by a handful of high-priced lakeside or new-build listings.
• Q4 2025 to Q3 2026 (gentle drift): From Q4 2025 (€8,662.6/m²) through Q1 2026 (€8,607.1/m²), Q2 2026 (€8,589.1/m²) and Q3 2026 (€8,350.3/m²), asking prices have settled into a narrow band. The headline year-on-year figure of −18.1% between Q3 2025 and Q3 2026 is an artefact of the Q3 2025 spike, not a market correction.

Official national transaction data confirms the underlying stability of Swiss residential values. According to the BFS Residential Property Price Index, Q2 2026 (published by the Federal Statistical Office on 30 July 2026), transaction prices across Switzerland reached 127.7 points (Q4 2019 = 100), rising 0.7% quarter-on-quarter and 3.5% year-on-year, with condominiums up 1.6% on the quarter. Because city-level averages in a thin market cannot capture micro-location or lake views, advisers should always value a specific flat with Comparables and a market study before advising on a bid.

Why is there almost nothing for sale or rent?

According to a Stadt Thun on the 0.05% vacancy rate (June 2025) press release citing the federal count of 1 June 2025, only 0.05% of the city's housing stock was vacant—one of the lowest figures in the country. By comparison, the Swiss vacancy count 2025, Federal Office for Housing (BWO/BFS) recorded a national vacancy rate of 1.00% on the same date, down from 1.08% a year earlier.

Area	Vacancy rate (1 June 2025)	Source
City of Thun	0.05%	Stadt Thun / BFS
Switzerland	1.00%	BWO / BFS

The municipal government describes the housing shortage across all price segments as a core planning challenge. Because Thun is hemmed in by the lake, the river and established neighbourhoods, adding supply relies on complex inward densification and multi-year area developments such as the Siegenthalergut project. Permitting and construction cycles take years, ensuring that supply will remain tight.

For a private buyer, the practical consequence is that desirable apartments sell quickly, often through local networks before they sit long on public portals. Relying on Property Sourcing for catching new Thun listings early gives buying agents and relocating families a distinct advantage when a rare listing appears. For those exploring how investors use CASAFARI data, this extreme scarcity underpins capital values, even though it restricts the volume of available deals.

Can a foreign buyer purchase a home in Thun?

Whether an international buyer can purchase residential property in Thun depends on citizenship and Swiss residency status under the Federal Act on the Acquisition of Immovable Property in Switzerland by Foreign Non-Residents, known as Lex Koller (BewG):

• EU/EFTA nationals resident in Switzerland and C-permit holders: Buyers in these categories have the same legal standing as Swiss citizens. They may purchase a primary residence, rental investment property or second home without Lex Koller authorisation.
• Third-country nationals resident in Switzerland (B permit): Non-EU/EFTA citizens who hold a valid B residence permit and live in Switzerland may purchase a single primary residence without authorisation, provided they occupy it personally.
• Non-residents (persons abroad): Buyers living outside Switzerland require cantonal Lex Koller authorisation. Under federal rules, holiday homes can only be authorised in cantonally designated tourist municipalities subject to strict annual quotas and a net living-area guideline of 200 m². Thun is an urban centre rather than a designated resort municipality—buyers should confirm the current cantonal list with the Canton of Bern, as acquiring a holiday home here as a non-resident is generally not feasible.

Prospective buyers should also monitor federal legislative changes. In a Federal Council proposal to tighten Lex Koller (April 2026) announced on 15 April 2026, the Swiss government proposed making main-residence purchases by third-country nationals living in Switzerland subject to authorisation and further restricting holiday-home acquisitions by persons abroad. As of October 2026, this remains a draft proposal rather than enacted law, so the realistic route into the Thun market for an international buyer remains relocating and establishing primary residence.

What taxes and costs apply in the Canton of Bern?

When buying residential property in Thun, the principal transaction levy is the cantonal property transfer tax (Handänderungssteuer). According to the Canton of Bern land registry on transfer tax (Kantonales Grundbuchamt Bern, rules in force since 1 April 2023 under Art. 11 and 11a–c HStG BE), the tax is set at 1.8% of the purchase price and is payable by the buyer upon filing with the land registry.

Buyers purchasing a home for their own occupation benefit from a substantial relief: on the first CHF 800,000 of the purchase price, the 1.8% transfer tax (up to CHF 14,400) can be deferred at registration and is fully exempted once the buyer has lived in the property continuously as a main residence for two years. Any portion of the price above CHF 800,000 is taxed at the standard 1.8% rate immediately.

In addition to the transfer tax, buyers pay statutory notary fees for the public deed and land-registry fees according to the cantonal tariff. Ongoing ownership in Switzerland also involves municipal and cantonal wealth taxes and the taxation of imputed rental value (Eigenmietwert), for which relocating buyers should take local tax advice before completion.

Which rules could change: short-term lets and the Second Homes Act

Under the federal Second Homes Act (ZWG), municipalities where second homes exceed 20% of the total housing stock are barred from authorising new holiday homes. According to the ARE housing inventory and second-home shares published annually by the Federal Office for Spatial Development (latest inventory 31 March 2026), Thun lies comfortably below the 20% threshold, so federal second-home building bans do not apply.

However, municipal rules on commercial short-term letting are moving quickly in response to the 0.05% vacancy rate. In October 2024, the Thun city parliament (Stadtrat) passed a cross-party motion by 26 votes to 13 instructing the municipal executive to draft a regulation curbing the use of second homes for short-term platforms, with a draft expected by the end of 2026.

Separately, a report on the Thun short-let initiative (May 2026) details the municipal popular initiative 'Wohnraum schützen – Airbnb regulieren', launched on 1 May 2026 by the local SP, Juso, tenants' association and trade-union council. With signature collection running until the end of April 2027, the initiative demands a 90-night annual cap on commercial short lets, a five-night minimum stay and a mandatory primary-residence share. For a primary resident these measures change very little, but any investor modelling holiday-let income in Thun must price in imminent regulatory limits.

How to check the numbers yourself

Advisers, analysts and family offices who wish to compare Thun with wider CASAFARI's property market trends across Europe can inspect the underlying series directly. In CASAFARI Area Insights, Thun is indexed under location ID 3683073, and the apartment asking-price series corresponds to the sale_apartment_psqm metric. Technical teams building automated valuation or market-monitoring workflows can review the Area Insights API documentation (location id 3683073) and the Comparables and valuation API documentation, where API and Casafari MCP calls are metered in tokens.

Because Thun's listing sample is small and converted from CHF to EUR, treat area-level averages as an initial benchmark and verify individual properties against recent local comparables. You can create an account on the CASAFARI platform to explore Area Insights, run property-level valuations with Comparables, and track live inventory across Switzerland.