Subsidised housing eligibility test in Geneva: HBM and HLM
Enter your household size, income, wealth and residence conditions: the test works out your determining income and the minimum rents you can qualify for.
Your household
Basic conditions
Target home (optional)
Test for HBM and HLM housing. Scales checked on 12 October 2026. Sources: LGL (rsGE I 4 05) art. 30, 31B, 31C ; RGL (rsGE I 4 05.01) art. 5 al. 1 et art. 8 ; LRDU du 19 mai 2005 (rsGE J 4 06) art. 8 al. 2 ; ge.ch, « S'inscrire pour un logement subventionné HLM ou HBM » (page mise à jour le 29.04.2026). The HM category with personalised subsidy is not covered. Indicative estimate: only the cantonal desk decides, on the basis of the tax assessment and the complete file. Cantonal practice sets the access scale at 90% of the entry scale (art. 5 para. 1 RGL); the law allows a range of 75 to 95% (art. 30 para. 4 LGL).
What the test calculates
The test applies the scales of the Housing and Tenant Protection Act (LGL) to HBM and HLM subsidised housing. It calculates your household's determining income: annual income, social benefits included, plus one fifteenth of net wealth, minus CHF 10,000 for the first person, CHF 7,500 for the second and CHF 5,000 for each person from the third. It derives the maximum number of rooms (the number of people plus two) and, for each home size, the minimum annual rent from which you stay under the access scale. Nothing is sent or stored: the calculation runs in your browser, with the scales checked on 12 October 2026, and you can rerun the test as often as needed by changing the household size or the target home.
How to read the result
The effort rate moves from 19% to 21% and then 23% as the home has more rooms than occupants; the entry scale is obtained by dividing the annual rent by that rate, and the access scale is 90% of that entry scale. The smaller the home relative to the household, the lower the minimum rent. If you enter a specific home, the test tells you whether your determining income stays under its access scale and recalls the exit scale, set at 1.75 times the entry scale. A home with more than two rooms more than the number of people is under-occupied: it is not accessible.
Limits and legal value
The test gives an order of magnitude and has no legal value. The canton uses the unified determining income (revenu déterminant unifié, RDU) taken from your tax assessment, not the figure you enter. The conditions of residence (4 continuous years during the last 8 years), tax domicile and wealth that is not manifestly excessive are checked on file; the wealth threshold is not published. The HM category with personalised subsidy is not covered, and the decision rests with the cantonal desk.
The registration conditions, the procedure and the housing categories are detailed in the guide to subsidised housing in Geneva.