by THO
As many as 3000 leaders from across 130 countries are expected to converge in Davos, Switzerland, for the next five days starting today for the high-profile 55th World Economic Forum (WEF). Like every year, the high-profile event leads to all hotels and rental apartments getting booked much in advance.
This time around, too, hotel rents and apartment rentals have hit the roof as property owners try to capitalise on the annual event held in Davos, which is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Ranges.
While most hotel rooms are ‘sold out’ from January 20 to January 24, rentals quoted on Airbnb ranged from $22,426 (more than ₹19 lakh) a night for a three-bedroom penthouse, $1526 (around ₹1.32 lakh) a night for a two-guest camper van, $1351 (around ₹1.16 lakh) a night for a room in a shared apartment with a shared bathroom, $17432 (around ₹15 lakh) a night for a luxury two bedroom apartment close to the Davos Conference Centre and studios going for $3352 (around ₹2.90 lakh) a night during the event and $250 (around ₹21,000) the following week.
According to listings on Booking.com, a 2BHK luxury apartment in Davos, located within a five-minute walk to the Congress Centre, is going for ₹47.39 lakh plus taxes for four nights. The amount is non-refundable. A studio apartment located 0.8 km from the Davos Congress Centre is available for ₹7.58 lakh plus taxes for four nights. A furnished 1BHK apartment 0.7 km from the DCC is rentable for ₹11.37 lakh plus taxes.
Can Davos be compared with other world events?
Real estate experts say the global annual meeting can be compared to the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in India and the Expo 2020 Dubai. Hotel rentals had touched the roof during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit. Most big hotels in Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad commanded rentals that were 3X to 10 X more than the regular rack rates. Some five-star hotel properties commanded anything from ₹15000 to ₹50000 per key compared to regular prices of ₹5000 to ₹10000 per key.|
How ski resorts fare in terms of property rankings
Knight Frank’s Ski Property Index revealed that Swiss resorts like Davos have led the rankings over the years. A lack of stock and infrastructure improvements in each resort are increasing prices.
Several media reports have said that Switzerland is a country of tenants. According to one report, almost 2.4 million households live in rented accommodation, compared to 1.4 million households that are owners.
According to a report by JLL, as of 1 June 2024, 40,423 unoccupied flats were offered for rent. This corresponds to a year-on-year decline of 3,790 rental flats or a drop of 8.6%. The decline in the supply of vacant rental flats that began in 2021 thus continued, albeit to a lesser extent than in previous years (-13.5% in 2022; -15.9% in 2023). On the other hand, the number of unoccupied flats for sale rose by 999 units or 9.5% to a total of 11,551 flats within a year.
At the end of 2023, Switzerland had 1.79 million residential buildings and 4.79 million dwellings. More than a million of these buildings were single-family homes, and more than half of the occupied single-family homes (55%) had only one or two occupants, the report said.
