20 hours ago
Living With 12 Strangers to Ease a Housing Crunch
This article is part of the September 1, 2025 issue of businessweek.
With its lakefront setting, medieval center and proximity to the Alps—not to mention tens of thousands of bankers—Zurich can be astronomically expensive, ranking as the world's third-priciest city last year.
Yet Hansjörg Temperli pays about 870 Swiss francs ($1,100) a month to live in a 440-square-meter (4,736-square-foot) apartment. The place features two balconies, a vast living room with three couches and a video projector, an even bigger kitchen and dining area, and a nook with hundreds of board games. The catch? He and his girlfriend have a bedroom, bathroom and small sitting room that's theirs alone, but they share the rest of the space with eight other people. 'It might be cheap in terms of rent,' Temperli says, 'but you need to invest a lot of time and effort with the people living there.'
