Buying real estate in Switzerland: what should be reviewed before the notary appointment

Buying property is for most private individuals the largest transaction of their lives, and the one with the largest advance of trust. The legal dimension is often underestimated because the process seems so orderly: view, finance, notarise, move in. The risks sit in the details before that.

Form is the easy part: the purchase contract for real property requires a public deed, and ownership passes only with the entry in the land register. The notary ensures formal correctness, but does not negotiate for you. What the draft says, particularly on warranties, should be reviewed beforehand.

The most important look goes to the land register: easements such as rights of way, building and boundary rights, usufructs, rights of pre-emption, priority notices and mortgages shape the property's value and usability far more than any price per square metre. Then come the public-law questions outside the register: zoning, utilisation, pending construction projects in the neighbourhood, contaminated sites, and for condominium ownership additionally the regulations, minutes and the state of the renovation fund.

In the contract, the warranty clause decides: exclusion is customary (\u201cbought as seen\u201d), yet the seller remains liable for defects concealed intentionally. Precise descriptions of condition, lists of included inventory, clear rules on benefit and risk, payment flow and handover date prevent the typical conflicts after moving in.

Financing needs the sober calculation: affordability also at higher interest rates, ancillary costs from transfer tax through land-register and notary fees to the seller's property-gains tax, whose security can concern the buyer depending on the canton. Reservation agreements with down payments are only of limited effect before notarisation; caution is warranted there.

Our free checklist walks through all the review points from the land-register extract to the handover of keys. For the contract review before the notary appointment, a short mandate usually suffices, out of all proportion to the value of the transaction.