There are many misunderstandings about buying a house in Switzerland. Below are the 10 most common ones.

Only Swiss nationals can buy residential property.

In Switzerland, it is not allowed to buy residential property as a non-Swiss resident. This is laid down by law through the Lex Koller legislation. This same legislation also immediately regulates the exceptions to this. Every year, 1,500 exemptions are distributed among the 26 cantons. We would be happy to explain exactly how it works. In any case, the offer on our site is 100% provided with this exemption.

There are also restrictions attached to this exemption, namely:

• Maximum habitable living area 200m2
• Maximum plot size in full ownership 1000 m2

Only very wealthy people can live in Switzerland.

If you are a resident of the European Union or EFTA country, you can settle in Switzerland if you can prove e.g. employment or income in Switzerland.

Banks in Switzerland are so conservative that they do not finance non-Swiss.

Onjuist. Een vuistregel is dat de banken bereid zijn tot 60% van een tweede woning te financieren. Let op! uitsluitend in Zwitserland gevestigde banken mogen een hypotheek verstrekken resp. in het grondboek worden ingeschreven.

Once bought, you are faced with one tax after another.

Precisely not, all expected taxes are fully known. However, rates do vary by canton and municipality. We would be happy to inform you about your specific property.

With a house in Switzerland, I am no longer a taxpayer in the Netherlands.

Unfortunately, if only that were true. This is not to do with owning a house but actually living in Switzerland. Switzerland will levy taxes on capital invested (wealth tax), property tax and income tax on possible rental income.

The country where the property is located may levy, in this case Switzerland.
Even if you do not rent out, the property will still be assigned a rental value, which you must add to the income to be taxed in Switzerland. Advantage: all costs including interest of a mortgage may be deducted from this. This often leaves little to be taxed.

Renting out is not allowed

The property may be rented out to tourists. Indeed, it is not allowed to rent to permanent residents. This is to prevent speculation on the housing market from ‘outside’.

The property may only be resold to Swiss nationals themselves.

This is where most misunderstandings exist. You are entitled to resell the property to anyone at any time, without restrictions.

The Swiss Franc is pegged to the Euro.

No this too is a persistent misunderstanding. Switzerland has its own monetary policy. It does watch carefully what the EZB does, of course. The Swiss Franc has been a safe haven for many decades and has steadily increased in value until today.

Renting out is mandatory.

No. Only if you buy a property in a ‘tourist or hotel concept’ and licensed after 01.01.2013 does it apply.

In Switzerland, I pay no tax.

Almost all tax treaties are unanimous on this: tax can be levied in the country where the property is located. Switzerland has mostly no inheritance tax.