The possibility to buy an accommodation in Switzerland will depend on your
status. Indeed the Federal law on Purchasing buildings for Foreigners (Acquisition
d'Immeubles par des Etrangers - LFAIE),
from the 16th December 1983, says at Art. 2-1, that the purchase
of a building by a person abroad is subject to the authorisation of the Cantonal
authority. People without the right to be permanent resident in Switzerland
are those without the C permit (resident permit). However this delay is
reduced, after 10 years of continuous living in Switzerland for people in
diplomatic missions, or even cancelled for citizens of countries with
a specific agreement (most of the European Union) and who can purchase accommodation
with the same rights as Swiss or C permit holders.
A person abroad can purchase without authorisation an accommodation
(only one!) as his/her main residence (he/she must live in the property,
all letting is forbiden) if he/she is a B permit holder.
Requests and information demands must be addressed to:
Direction des affaires juridiques du département de l'économie, de l'emploi
et des affaires extérieures (DEEE)
14, rue de l'Hôtel-de-Ville
Case postale 3952
1211 Genève 3
Tel. +41 22 / 327 23 08
Fax +41 22 / 327 23 60
http://www.geneve.ch/deee/contacts/welcome.asp
Financing the purchase
Financing the purchase of an accommodation is usually a mix of personal funding
and a mortgage (20% of personal funding for 80% mortgage
most of the time in Swizterland). Personal funds can come from savings, family
or other loans, settlement, and also from a mecanisme of purchase allowance.
Allowance and help
There are several light mecanism (federal and cantonal) in order to help the
purchase. The most frequent comes from the federal law to encourage the purchase
of the accommodation thanks to professional savings (2e pilier)
that assess that an employee can use his/her "avoir de
libre passage" in order to purchase his/her property. Funds can
be obtained by anticipated settlement of the capital with a guarantee on the
professional funds (avoir de libre passage). It is mandatory to be the
main residence, and not a secondary accommodation.
The mortgage
This is a loan from a bank or an insurance company and guaranteed by a property.
There are 2 type of mortgages:
- with direct pay off : the capital is payed off
regularly and the share of interests is going down in each payment;
- with indirect pay off : the mortage beneficiary
is signing a life insurance, He/she will pay regularly the insurance fees
but won't pay any redemption to the mortgage. At the end, the capital is paid
as a unique redemption of the debt. Therefore this one stays constant throughout
the duration of the mortgage.
Fees
After the agreement of purchasing/buying the property, the purchaser will pay
the seller a deposit worth about 10% of the value of the accommodation.
In most of the cases, fees are about 4% of the price,
including 3% in tax, 0.3% for legal registration fees in the Registre Foncier,
and 0.7% in sollicitor fees.
We recommend to get advise when buying a property. You can contact:
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