Buying a house in Switzerland: first the Lex Koller question — are you allowed to buy yet?

First the order that is fixed on this site: in your first year you don't buy — you rent, you get to know the region, and only then do you decide. In Switzerland that order is not only sensible but almost compulsory: the law itself makes buying before your move difficult, and buying after it simple. Read the first year in Switzerland first — this article is for afterwards.

The Lex Koller: if you live there, you may; if you don't, not just like that

The purchase of property by "persons abroad" is subject to a permit in Switzerland — the famous Lex Koller. The line doesn't run along your passport but along your place of residence:

• If as an EU citizen you genuinely and lawfully live in Switzerland (your B or C permit plus actual residence), you do not count as a person abroad and you buy just as freely as a Swiss.
• If you still live in the Netherlands, you are a person abroad and you need a cantonal permit for almost every purchase. For holiday homes those are strictly rationed, and in April 2026 the Federal Council announced that it wants to restrict the purchase of holiday homes by persons abroad further.

The lesson for emigrants is the same as our house rule, but with a statute book behind it: move first, buy afterwards. Whoever reverses the order negotiates not with a seller but with a permit counter.

After that the canton determines everything

Switzerland has no national purchase process: the notarial system, the Grundbuch organisation and the costs are regulated by canton. The deed runs through the (cantonal) notary and your ownership is entered in the Grundbuch. Besides the notary and registry costs, count on the Handänderungssteuer, the cantonal transfer tax. How high it is differs per canton — in the canton of Bern, for instance, 1.8% of the purchase price, where for whoever buys the property as a main residence the first 800,000 francs can under conditions be exempted. So don't ask "what does buying in Switzerland cost" but "what does buying in my canton cost" — the answer can differ by thousands of francs.

And after that: the Eigenmietwert — still, for a while

Whoever occupies their own home in Switzerland pays tax on it as if renting it to themselves: the Eigenmietwert, a notional rent that is added to your income (against which, among other things, mortgage interest is deductible). On 28 September 2025 the Swiss population adopted the abolition of this system — but the date on which the switch takes effect has not yet been set, and until then the current rules simply apply. So still count the Eigenmietwert in your budget, and see the abolition as music of the future whose score is still being written.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the route: the same steps, but applied to your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole route to Switzerland.