Zurich Renters Say Duplicate Listing Photos Are Hiding the Real State of Their Apartments

A flat advertised on three separate platforms. The same sunlit kitchen photograph, the same angled shot of a Predigerplatz view — but three different addresses, three different asking prices. For renters in Zurich, duplicate and reused listing images have become a fixture of an already punishing housing market, and community voices are growing louder about the damage they cause.

The issue sits at the intersection of two pressures bearing down on the city simultaneously. Switzerland's national vacancy rate for rental apartments sat at just 1.08 percent as of the Federal Statistical Office's 2025 survey, one of the lowest figures recorded in two decades. In Zurich specifically, competition for mid-range apartments — those between CHF 1,800 and CHF 2,500 per month — has pushed applicants to schedule viewings within hours of a listing going live, often based on photographs alone. When those images turn out to be stock shots, years-old archive photos, or images lifted wholesale from a previous tenancy, the practical consequences ripple quickly.

What Residents in Hürlimann-Areal and Altstetten Are Saying

The complaints concentrate in neighbourhoods where turnover is high and new construction is ongoing. In Altstetten, where several large residential blocks have opened along Badenerstrasse since 2023, multiple residents described arriving at viewings to find rooms smaller than the photos suggested, windows facing an interior shaft rather than the green courtyard shown online, or — in at least the pattern described in local tenant forums — images that belonged to a completed show apartment no longer representative of available units. In the Hürlimann-Areal district in Wiedikon, a community known for its converted brewery spaces and relatively young tenant base, renters have noted that popular listing aggregators including Homegate and Comparis can display the same property photograph under different listings simultaneously, creating confusion about whether an apartment is genuinely available.

The Mieterinnen- und Mieterverband Zürich — the city's tenant association, based on Rotbuchstrasse — has tracked an increase in complaints related to misleading digital representations of rental properties. The organisation offers formal mediation services and can advise tenants who believe a listing materially misrepresented a property. Their walk-in consultation hours run every Tuesday and Thursday at the Rotbuchstrasse office. For many renters, that advice comes too late: viewings fees, childcare costs, and time off work are already spent by the time the mismatch becomes clear.

The Mechanics of the Problem — and Where Accountability Falls

Swiss property law does not yet contain provisions specifically regulating the accuracy of digital imagery in rental listings. RICS Switzerland, the local chapter of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, has discussed voluntary image-accuracy standards in the commercial sector, but residential lettings remain largely self-regulated. On the platform side, Homegate's terms of service require listings to accurately represent the property offered, but enforcement relies on user-reported flags, a reactive model that tenant advocates describe as insufficient given the volume of listings processed daily.

ETH Zurich's Chair of Information Architecture has published research on automated image-matching and provenance tools that could, in principle, flag duplicate or recycled photographs before a listing goes live. The technology exists. The question of who bears responsibility for deploying it — platforms, agencies, or landlords — has not been resolved, and no cantonal directive currently mandates its use.

For renters navigating the market right now, tenant advocates suggest a few practical steps. Taking screenshots of all listing photos at the time of initial inquiry creates a timestamped record if a dispute arises later. Requesting a written confirmation from the agency that images are current and accurate — before committing to travel for a viewing — creates a paper trail. And registering a formal complaint with the Mieterinnen- und Mieterverband when images prove misleading adds to the data that advocacy groups use when lobbying the cantonal housing authority, the Amt für Wohnungswesen, for stronger disclosure requirements. The next scheduled cantonal consultation on housing policy transparency is set for autumn 2026, and advocates say documented community complaints will be central to that submission.