Independent Financial, Legal and Tax Advisers for Expatriates |
| Property: Buying a House in Switzerland | ||
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Not so easy Many restrictions apply if you wish to buy a house in Switzerland, not least of which being your work permit status . To sort the wheat from the chaff, and to find out some quite useful shortcuts through the maze of conflicting information contact Grether MacGeorge GmbH. We can help you with legal, financial and tax issues affecting your decision to buy or not to buy, or more importantly, how to buy. But remember, you are unlikely to find a mortgage for more than 80% of the purchase price of the property. House prices are very stable if not in decline in Switzerland, and so you should view house purchase as a lifestyle choice rather than as an investment decision. Tax Interest bearing debt can be set against your income in Switzerland, though, so this makes for a reasonable level of tax efficiency. And of course this tax saving is spread across all of your income, not just the interest you are charged. Beware! Portfolio mortgages have been designed to keep mortgage holders locked into the same bank for life, even if it is not the most competitive on interest rates. They do this by splitting the loan into a number of different sub-mortgages which are set up as fixed rate loans. So far no problem. The problem is that each sub-mortgage ends in a different year which means that when one ends you may still have five or six or even ten other mortgages still running. If you cancel any mortgage before the end of its fixed rate period you may have to pay large surrender penalties to get out of the loan. Beware. |
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Basel based Grether MacGeorge GmbH provides Independent Financial, Tax and Legal Advice to the expat community. The professional advisors in the company provide impartial advice for people looking for help with their investments, mortgages, life insurance, pensions and retirement planning, saving for education costs, setting up and running a business in Switzerland, financial aspects of relocation, and a wide range of other important areas vital to getting the most out of your life outside of your home country. © 2003, Grether MacGeorge GmbH, Austrasse 95, CH 4051 Basel, Switzerland Tel: +41 (0)61 206 8800 or Fax: +41 (0)61 206 8805 |