Buying Property in Switzerland as a Foreigner (Lex Koller 2026)

Three questions decide whether you can buy:

1. Are you a resident of Switzerland (B or C permit, registered Gemeinde)?
2. What kind of property — primary residence, second home, rental, commercial?
3. Where is it — a tourist zone, an ordinary canton, or one of the heavily-restricted municipalities (like Verbier in Valais)?

The summary table:

A primary residence under Lex Koller is the home you actually live in. The rules:

• You must move in within roughly 6 months of purchase (some cantons say 12)
• It must remain your registered residence
• Maximum size of roughly 3,000 m² of land for a house (more triggers extra authorisation)
• You can't rent it out as your main use — short-term Airbnb during holidays is generally tolerated

Selling within a few years to flip is legal but the cantonal real-estate gains tax bites hardest in the early years — see our capital gains tax calculator.

Non-residents and B permit holders wanting a second home can buy only in federally-designated tourist municipalities. Examples include most of Valais (Verbier, Crans-Montana, Zermatt), the Bernese Oberland (Interlaken, Grindelwald, Wengen), parts of Graubünden (Davos, St Moritz, Flims), Vaud (Villars, Leysin), Ticino (Locarno, Ascona) and parts of Lucerne/Engelberg.

Each year the federal government allocates roughly 1,500 holiday-home authorisations across cantons; cantons distribute to Gemeinden. Some Gemeinden (Verbier most famously) are now closed to new foreign buyers because the 20%-secondary-residence cap from the 2012 Weber Initiative has been breached.

Swiss mortgages are unusual: you can borrow up to 80% of the property value, but with constraints on where that 20% deposit comes from.

Example, CHF 1.2M apartment:

• Hard equity (10%): CHF 120,000 from your bank account or Pillar 3a
• Soft equity (10%): CHF 120,000 from Pillar 2 withdrawal
• Mortgage: CHF 960,000 from a Swiss bank
• Closing costs (cash, on top): CHF 40,000–60,000

Plus the affordability rule (Tragbarkeit): your annual mortgage interest at the bank's notional 5% rate + maintenance (1% of value) + amortisation must be under 33% of gross income. On a CHF 960k mortgage that's CHF ~62k/year notional — gross income required ~CHF 190k. Even though actual interest in 2026 sits at 1.5–2.5%, banks stress-test at 5%.

• SARON mortgages — floating rate, replaced LIBOR. Cheapest historically but exposed to rate moves.
• Fixed-rate (5–15 years) — predictable, slightly higher rate, can't easily refinance early
• Two-tranche split — common: half fixed, half SARON for flexibility

Amortisation: Swiss banks expect you to pay down to 65% loan-to-value within 15 years (or by retirement, whichever comes first). The remaining 65% can be carried into perpetuity — Swiss mortgages are designed to keep the debt for tax-deduction reasons.

Buying triggers and the holding triggers different taxes:

The imputed rental value (you pay tax on the rent you would notionally receive if you let your own home) is the most surprising one for expats. It's being abolished from 2028 under federal reform — read updates before structuring a purchase. Wealth tax also catches you — see Swiss wealth tax explained.

1. Months 0–2: mortgage pre-approval. Get rates from your main bank + 2 challengers (UBS, ZKB, Raiffeisen + a broker like MoneyPark).
2. Months 1–8: search. Homegate, ImmoScout24, Newhome, and the dark art of off-market via local agents.
3. Month 6–9: offer + notary appointment. Notary drafts contract, both parties sign at the same desk. Lex Koller authorisation requested if needed (4–8 weeks).
4. Month 9–12: closing. Funds transferred, ownership registered, keys handed over.

• Assuming the 20% deposit comes from any source — closing costs need a separate cash buffer
• Withdrawing Pillar 2 without modelling the tax hit and the pension shortfall
• Skipping the affordability stress test mentally and getting bank-rejected at offer stage
• Buying as a non-resident in a tourist zone without checking the Weber 20%-cap status
• Forgetting the imputed rental value when modelling future tax bills
• Not budgeting for cantonal Handänderungssteuer (Geneva 3%, Vaud 2.2%, Zurich 0)
• Buying jointly with a non-Swiss-resident spouse — Lex Koller applies to the non-resident's share

• Federal Office of Justice — Lex Koller
• FINMA — Mortgage market supervision

General information only — not legal, tax or mortgage advice. Lex Koller and cantonal property taxes change. Engage a Swiss notary and tax advisor before signing.