Switzerland · CHE · snapshot 2026-08-16
Switzerland
Measured
Currency movement
-0.7%
The local currency bought more euros at the end of this window than at the start — a more expensive entry for a euro-denominated buyer, and a better exit for anyone already holding the asset.
What it does not show. It is not a forecast and not a property return. A currency move and a price move are different facts and routinely point opposite ways; nothing here says which way either is going next.
Foreign-buyer rules
3 of 3 published rules apply
These are the restrictions a foreign buyer meets before price is even discussed — approval regimes, surcharges, ownership limits.
What it does not show. It is not a completeness claim. A rule we have not read is not a rule that does not exist, and this row counts what is cited, not what is in force.
Cost of money
0%
The price of money to banks in this jurisdiction, which sets the floor everything else is priced from.
What it does not show. It is emphatically not a mortgage quote. What a non-resident is offered is a different number, usually much higher, and the gap between them is where a market's financing story actually lives.
Supply against absorption
Not measured
No statistics agency for this market has been read and cleared for republication. Two have been anywhere: Canada and Singapore. The data very likely exists; the permission to publish it has not been established.
Residential price cycle
139.6 against a 2015 base of 100
House prices have risen faster than consumer prices since 2015 — the market is above its own inflation-adjusted level of that year.
What it does not show. It is a position, not a direction, and it is not a valuation. Deflating by consumer prices says nothing about what the asset yields or what credit costs, and a market can sit above its 2015 level for years without that meaning anything is due.
Valuation against its own history
123.6 to income, 130.1 to rent
Housing costs more relative to incomes than it did in 2015, on this country's own index. Buying takes more years of a local salary than it did then, which is a statement about the people who live there rather than about a foreign buyer's return.
What it does not show. It is not comparable to another country's figure. Each index is 100 in its own 2015, so two of these side by side are two different base years wearing the same label — a market at 120 is not dearer than one at 90, it has merely moved further from its own past. It is also not a forecast, and a ratio can stay stretched for a decade.
On the market now
Not measured
No listings platform has been read for this market. The one platform this site can read covers Russian cities only, and inventing a count for anywhere else would be worse than an empty row.
No dossier has been written for this market yet. What follows is the measured layers and the rules, each with its source — not an argument about whether to be here. A market reaches this page as soon as two layers can be cited, because an unwritten thesis is a reason to publish less, not a reason to publish nothing.
The series behind those figures, and the workings
Currency
-0.7%
Twelve-month move in CHF per euro, 0.9325 in 2025-07 to 0.9256 in 2026-07. Positive means the local currency weakened. Source: European Central Bank monthly reference averages.
0.9390
Latest daily fixing, CHF per euro on 2026-08-14. Shown because it is what a reader would see if they went and looked; the window above uses monthly averages, which one volatile day cannot move.
Against other base currencies
A market is cheap or dear relative to the capital entering it, so the same twelve months read differently depending on what the buyer holds. Both legs are quoted per euro, so the euro cancels and no third source is involved.
| Buyer holds | CHF per unit, 2025-07 | CHF per unit, 2026-07 | Twelve-month move |
|---|---|---|---|
| US dollar (USD) | 0.7986 | 0.8107 | +1.5% |
| Pound sterling (GBP) | 1.0784 | 1.0839 | +0.5% |
| Singapore dollar (SGD) | 0.6233 | 0.6277 | +0.7% |
| Australian dollar (AUD) | 0.5220 | 0.5645 | +8.1% |
Cost of money
0%
Central bank policy rate, 2026-07. Source: Bank for International Settlements.
This is the price of money to banks, not the price of money to a non-resident buying a building. The gap between those two is where a market’s financing story actually lives, and it is not in this number. A mortgage quote for a foreign buyer depends on the lender, the asset and the borrower, and no public dataset carries it.
BIS terms permit this figure on a free page and state that nothing in their statistics constitutes investment advice. They also allow inclusion in a commercial product only where it adds no charge, so this series is published here and is not priced into any paid work.
Background
Annual national statistics from the World Bank, under a licence that permits reuse with attribution. They describe the country; they do not time an entry, and they are not counted as measurements of this market — otherwise every territory on earth would claim to be measured on the strength of one dataset.
| Indicator | Value | Year |
|---|---|---|
| GDP per capita | 114,769 US$ | 2025 |
| Consumer price inflation | 0.2 % | 2025 |
| Population | 9,092,436 | 2025 |
| Urban population | 85.7 % of total | 2025 |
| Official exchange rate | 0.8314 per US$ | 2025 |
What the rules do to a foreign buyer
Each entry cites the instrument and the authority page it was read from, with the date it was retrieved. Facts of law change; the retrieval date is how you know how old this reading is.
| Topic | In force | When it bites | Applies to | What applies | Instrument | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Authorisation, and who is a foreign non-resident | In forceNot stated by the source | On the way in | All property | Foreign non-residents require authorisation from the competent cantonal authority for the acquisition of immovable property. The definition is about residence rather than nationality and is wider than it first appears: it covers citizens of an EU or EFTA member state unless they are legally and de facto resident in Switzerland, citizens of any other state who do not have the right to reside permanently in Switzerland, legal entities whose registered office is abroad, legal entities registered in Switzerland in which foreign non-residents hold a controlling interest, and any person acquiring a property for the account of a foreign non-resident. That last limb closes the nominee route explicitly rather than leaving it to be argued. | Federal Act on the Acquisition of Real Estate by Persons Abroad (Lex Koller), arts. 2(1) and 5(1), official English text on Fedlex. | 2026-08-17 |
| Commercial premises need no authorisation at all | In forceNot stated by the source | On the way in | Commercial only | No authorisation is required where the immovable property serves as the permanent establishment for a trading, manufacturing or other form of commercial operation, for a skilled crafts business, or for the practice of a liberal profession. Where property is acquired on that basis, homes or areas reserved for homes may also be acquired if required to meet residential quota regulations. The same exemption covers a natural person's main home at their lawful and effective place of residence. The distinction the Act draws is therefore between property that is used and property that is held: a foreign buyer operating a business from the building is outside the regime that a foreign buyer letting an apartment is inside. | Federal Act on the Acquisition of Real Estate by Persons Abroad (Lex Koller), art. 2(2)(a), (2)(b) and (3), official English text on Fedlex. | 2026-08-17 |
| Holiday homes are rationed nationally, not merely taxed | In forceNot stated by the source | On the way in | Residential only | The Federal Council sets annual cantonal authorisation quotas for the acquisition of holiday homes and units in aparthotels, based on a maximum for the whole of Switzerland which may not exceed 1,500 quota units. Cantonal shares are calculated from the importance of tourism to each canton, its tourist development plans, and the percentage of immovable property already in foreign ownership on its territory. This is a quantity limit rather than a price: when a canton's quota for the year is exhausted, an otherwise qualifying buyer is not charged more, they are refused. | Federal Act on the Acquisition of Real Estate by Persons Abroad (Lex Koller), art. 11(1)-(3), official English text on Fedlex. | 2026-08-17 |
What is missing, and why
supply — Source does not cover this market
The dataset simply does not include this territory. Absent, not zero.
No statistics agency for this market has been read and cleared for republication. Two have been anywhere: Canada and Singapore. The data very likely exists; the permission to publish it has not been established.
What supports this, what would make it wrong, and how it could go
Record
| Why this market is on the list | Given a friction layer when the Federal Act on the Acquisition of Real Estate by Persons Abroad — Lex Koller — was read in its official English text. Switzerland is the first market on this screen with a rule scoped to commercial property, and it is a rule that runs the other way: commercial premises are exempt from the authorisation every other kind of acquisition needs. |
|---|---|
| Dossier | None written. Layers and rules only, which is why this market reads as “Measured” rather than reviewed. |
| Next review | 2026-11-15 |
| Evidence snapshot | 2026-08-16 |