Swiss Construction Industry Grows Against the Odds in 2025, with Steady Prospects for 2026

Recently, data released by the Swiss Entrepreneurs' Association (SSE) on Wednesday showed that despite Switzerland facing a challenging economic situation, its construction industry maintained a steady growth momentum in 2025, with turnover increasing by 2.1% year-on-year. Among them, the revenue from the building and civil engineering sector rose by 2.1%, reaching approximately 23.9 billion Swiss francs for the full year, demonstrating strong resilience in the industry.

In a statement, the SSE pointed out that the solid performance in the fourth quarter of 2025 laid an important foundation for the positive growth throughout the year. Specifically, between October and December 2025, the volume of construction activity in Switzerland increased by 6.3% compared with the same period the previous year, drawing a clearly positive close to the year. Looking at the industry breakdown data, the total construction volume in Switzerland rose by 7.5% in 2025, with housing construction emerging as the core pillar of growth, increasing by 4.8% year-on-year. This growth momentum is closely linked to the strong demand for housing in the country.

The Swiss Federal Statistical Office stated that there is a significant gap in housing demand in Switzerland currently, and it is estimated that 50,000 new housing units need to be built each year to effectively curb the rise in rents and prices of owner-occupied housing, ensuring that Swiss residents can arrange their housing according to their own needs. It is reported that Switzerland is facing its most severe housing shortage in 30 years, with the gap expected to exceed 50,000 units by 2026. High immigration rates, demographic changes and urbanisation have further intensified this demand pressure, also providing support for growth in the housing construction sector.

Order data also showed a positive trend. In 2025, both construction orders and civil engineering orders in Switzerland increased by 3.7% year-on-year, with residential construction orders performing particularly prominently, rising by 11%, reflecting strong market demand for residential construction. However, the SSE added that although the current project reserve is sufficient, the growth momentum may gradually weaken in the subsequent period due to the slight decline in residential construction demand throughout 2025. Notably, in addition to residential construction, the construction sector related to data centres in Switzerland also performed brightly, with sales of data centre cooling products of some enterprises accounting for nearly half of the growth, becoming a new bright spot in the industry's growth.

Regarding the industry's development in 2026, the SSE gave a positive outlook, predicting that the turnover of Switzerland's main construction business areas will reach approximately 24.4 billion Swiss francs, an increase of 1.9% compared with 2025. The association stated that despite the current Swiss economic growth rate being below the average level and the unemployment rate rising — the Swiss unemployment rate had climbed slightly in 2025, with the unadjusted unemployment rate rising to 2.8% in September and the youth unemployment rate reaching its highest level since March 2021 — the construction industry will still maintain a sound development momentum.

Industry analysts believe that the sustained growth of Switzerland's construction industry in 2026 will mainly benefit from multiple factors: the current shortage of housing supply is difficult to improve in the short term, and demographic changes and urbanisation will continue to drive housing demand to remain high; at the same time, the stable interest rate environment has improved project financing capacity and further enhanced the attractiveness of real estate investment, providing strong support for the development of the construction industry. However, data also shows that Switzerland's KOF Economic Barometer declined in January 2026, with the construction industry showing signs of a slight weakening. The subsequent growth of the industry still needs to pay attention to changes in the macroeconomic environment.