The Best Lakefront Is Never Listed. It Is Passed On.

Why the best lakefront property is never advertised

On the Zürich Gold Coast, the lakefront that matters rarely reaches a portal. It moves through estates, long-held family ownership and administrators — the same discreet channels as a significant car or watch. A property that is never listed is not a gap in the market. It is the market.

Access is a matter of relationships and timing, not of searching harder. This is where Maison Jade Club's role is narrow and honest: sourcing and discretion. Everything legal runs through a notary and a licensed partner.

Lex Koller: can a foreign buyer acquire it at all?

Before price, one question settles everything: is the buyer allowed to acquire it? The Lex Koller restricts the purchase of residential property in Switzerland by persons resident abroad. For them a purchase generally needs authorization — and on the Zürich Gold Coast that authorization is narrow.

Whether a permit is needed turns on your residence and permit:

• EU/EFTA nationals resident in Switzerland — with an L, B or C permit — are not "persons abroad" and may buy without restriction.
• A settlement-permit (C) holder, of any nationality, is treated like a Swiss buyer.
• A residence-permit (B) holder from a third country may buy a home to live in without a permit, but needs one for a holiday home, and cannot acquire a second home or an apartment building.
• A person resident abroad needs a permit; a holiday home is possible only in a designated tourist region under a cantonal quota — and the Gold Coast is not one.
• Commercial premises generally fall outside the regime.

Which category a buyer falls into decides whether a purchase is even possible. Maison Jade Club does not make that call. It raises the question early and refers the buyer to a licensed partner and a notary, who assess it in their own name.

A recent decision shows how strictly this is read. In February 2026 the Federal Supreme Court held that a British family could not transfer their Grindelwald holiday flat to a US family trust without authorization: the permission-free transfer reaches only natural persons — spouses and relatives in the direct line — and a trust, as a legal entity, falls outside it (BGer 2C_437/2024). Interposing a structure does not sidestep the Lex Koller; the authorities look at who really acquires. On the Gold Coast — not a tourist region — the authorization question is one to settle honestly, before anything else.

Property tax follows different rules — and it shapes the market

Sell a watch or a gold bar at a private gain, and a Swiss resident owes no income tax on it. Sell a property at a gain, and a separate cantonal tax applies: the Grundstückgewinnsteuer. A private movable gain is tax-free for a resident; a real-estate gain is not — the cantons levy this property-gains tax on it instead.

One feature matters for an off-market buyer. The tax usually falls the longer a property is held. A family that has held a lakefront parcel for decades faces a lighter tax when it sells — one reason the best of it is held, not traded, and changes hands quietly rather than through a listing. The tax is not only a cost; it is part of why the market is off-market.

Transfer carries its own formalities: a sale must be notarized, and cantons may levy a transfer tax (Handänderungssteuer).

The financial reality for a foreign buyer

Beyond the permit, four things shape the cost of owning Swiss property. A licensed partner confirms the figures for your canton and residence.

• Wealth tax, reduced by the mortgage. Switzerland taxes net wealth — assets minus debts — so a mortgage on the property lowers the taxable base. A Swiss resident is taxed on worldwide net wealth; a non-resident owner is taxed here only on the Swiss property. Rates are cantonal, in the order of a fraction of a percent of net value.
• Up-front transaction costs. Budget roughly 3–5% of the price: a cantonal transfer tax (Handänderungssteuer) of about 1–3.3% — eight cantons, including Zürich, levy none — borne by the buyer in most cantons, plus notary and land-registry fees of about 0.5–1%, which are usually shared.
• Income tax and the imputed rental value. A resident owner pays income tax on the imputed rental value (Eigenmietwert) of the home, and in return deducts maintenance and mortgage interest. Swiss voters approved abolishing this on 28 September 2025; it ends on 1 January 2029 — a transition to plan around.
• Capital-gains tax, lower the longer you hold. On a sale, the cantonal property-gains tax (Grundstückgewinnsteuer) is regressive: the longer the hold, the lower the rate. Renovation costs, agent commissions and notary fees are deductible from the taxable gain.

Holiday homes: quota, size and the Weber effect

A non-resident who wants a holiday home — not a primary residence — enters a tightly limited system.

• Only in a tourist commune, with an authorization from the cantonal authority, and only within that canton's annual quota. Outside the designated areas, a non-resident cannot buy a residence at all.
• A national cap. Switzerland grants about 1,500 holiday-home authorizations to non-residents each year, split into cantonal quotas; Valais, Grisons, Ticino, Vaud and Berne receive the largest shares.
• Size limits. Roughly 200 m² of floor space and 1,000 m² of land, each extendable in defined cases. Private use only, with letting on a periodic, non-permanent basis.
• The Weber effect. Since the 2012 Weber initiative (in force 2016), no new second homes may be built in a commune where second homes already exceed 20% of its housing stock — the case in hundreds of tourist communes. Supply is shrinking, which supports the value of what exists.

Inheritance by a legal heir is exempt, and a gift to a spouse or a relative in the direct line needs no authorization. Any other gift or bequest to a person abroad is itself subject to authorization.

Commercial property is open

Commercial real estate is not restricted for foreigners: no residence permit, no purchase authorization. It can serve a business, be let for income, or be held purely as an investment — directly, or through a company, trust or foundation where that suits the tax and succession plan.

Financing, and the structure

A purchase can be cash or mortgaged. Swiss banks typically lend up to about 80% of their own valuation for a primary home, and commonly around 50–60% for holiday homes and top-end property — bank practice, not law — at some of Europe's lowest rates. A mortgage is also a tax instrument: it lowers the wealth-tax base.

A holiday home is held directly by the beneficial owner — a married couple, one between them. A primary residence is usually held directly by the B or C permit holder, though an entity may hold title if that person stays the main beneficial owner. For commercial or investment property, a Swiss or foreign company, trust or foundation is common; the right structure follows residence, financing and horizon. A non-working foreign resident may also qualify, in most cantons, for lump-sum taxation (forfait fiscal) — assessed on living costs rather than worldwide income (some cantons, including Zürich, have abolished it).

The purchase, step by step

The path is well defined, and Maison Jade Club walks it with you and the notary.

• Establish first whether the property can be a holiday home, or only a primary residence with a permit.
• File the holiday-home authorization, or await the residence permit.
• A letter of intent or preliminary agreement — usually time-limited, with a reservation fee — holds the property meanwhile.
• Finalize before the notary. Ownership takes effect on entry in the land register. Two to six months, typically.

What Maison Jade Club does — and where it refers

Maison Jade Club's role in property is deliberately narrow, and it says so:

• Sourcing and discretion. Access to what is not listed, a private view of it, and the structuring questions flagged early.
• It refers; it does not advise. The buyer is introduced to a licensed partner for the legal and tax structure — authorization, property-gains tax, succession — and to a notary for the deed.
• The notary holds the deed. A property transfer in Switzerland requires public notarization.

Finding the property is Maison Jade Club's work. The advice belongs to the people licensed to give it — and Maison Jade Club makes the introduction.