Snowfall Chart for Switzerland

Take a look at the following if you want a realtime map of the snowfall (last 3 days):

"http://www.slf.ch/avalanche/hn3-frc.html"

There's also an option on the top right drop-down menu to get the last 24 hours snowfall etc.

Thank you so much msej449 and TopperT to both of you for sharing these info!
Unfortunately, now you have put me in a much harder situation: I cannot take the decision if to buy an apartment in La Tzoumaz or in Nendaz.
All points for both resorts are very clear, but just I cannot decide.

Hi guy's, I am looking at Les collons and les masses. Close to buying now, and just found this web site. When buying new build do you know if there is much room for negotiation in price? Also we were thinking of renting out to a tour operator for the winter period which would cover interest and costs but not capital repayments. We would handle summer rental ourselves. Is it realistic to expect an income for the summer period, and what sort of weekly % of winter rates are we looking at. I anticipate 30-50% rates and perhaps 30-50% occupancy

I'm buying in Nendaz for a 2007 completion and have researched this extensively myself before putting pen to paper last summer.

edsmith:
(1) Immobiliers - To look at comparative rates, go to the Immobilier's websites for your location and see what they are quoting summer vs winter.
(2) Lifts - A big practical factor limiting summer rentals is how long the chairlift/telecabines run, so check this on the website of the company which runs them in your prospective location.
Any other advise I might give could be misleading, as the rental potential is a combination of many such factors. My obervation is that some locations like Nendaz, Ovronnaz and Veysonnaz are much more rentable than others.

Hi edsmith if you drop me a line through the website at the top on the thread A Place in the Sun lists Switzeland..... I will be able to answer your questions as msej449 is completely right about location being very important for rental as I found this when we bought our property in Nendaz and am happy to provide my experiences.

Edsmith, we have looked at buying property in this area, including rental possibilities. We were in contact with a German agent (English speaking) who would take on a seasonal or annual contract with you and guarantee a good income.
Alpenchalets Touristik GmbH  Moerscher Str. 3  D-76185 Karlsruhe
Tel 0049 721 4672475  Fax 0049 721 4672476
info@alpenchalets.com

sorry link doesn't seem to work.

ahh, got it!!

msej449,
I need to bother you again... hope you don't mind.
In the process of choosing a place before buying I've started asking immobiliers a rough estimation of the taxes (communal, cantonal, federal...) I would have to pay for the property and shared costs. All of them answered similarly mentioning precisely the shared costs but that for taxes it all depends on my income. Since I, like you I guess, don't live/work in Switzerland, how do they calculate these taxes for you?
Thanks again.

Hi tretre,

Where are you looking at buying? This determines the Canton Taxes etc. For example when buying in Vaud (Villars) the Canton taxes are 5%, in Bern (Gstaad, Wengen and Grindewald) they amount to 3% but in Valais this is 2.5% of the property price for purchase.

Re running costs this also varies by Canton and whether you are buying a chalet or apartment? Annual running charges in Villars are typically 0.7 - 1% of the market value while in Verbier and Saas Fe these costs are lower approx 0.5%

You also have private expenses like electricity consumption for lighting and cooking. These are low for Switzerland and approx 100 - 300 SFr for personal insurance.

Saas Fe and Verbier have one of the cheapest taxes (local commune, canton and federal government) of approx 0.5% property value. Vaud (Villars) is approx 1.2% value. There is also a Tourist tax you have to pay as well.

Hope this helps. By the way see thread in A Place in the Sun...... for latest changes to Valais canton

tretre: I'm a bit puzzled re. income, as I certainly don't pay anything in relation to UK salary. Do they mean rental income perhaps? You do pay a 'head tax' per person/per night when you rent through the immobilier, and this is subtracted along with cleaning and linen and agency charge to give me a net CHF/week's rental which the immobilier credits to my Swiss bank account. I also opt to make an annual, one-off 'owner's head tax' payment in lieu of having to calculate and pay the 'head tax' for us. So for us the costs for our apartment comprise

Proprietor's share of Commune Tax on Residence
Proprietor's share of Canton Tax on Residence
Proprietor's 'Head Tax' (alternatively could pay my+wife's total, per-night head tax)
Electricity: Proprietor's share for Building
Agency: Comprising
Building Costs (heating, repairs etc.)
Concierge
Agency Management Fee
Extraordinary Items (e.g. 3 year, annual charge to uprate village water/waste)

This all amounts to about £3,000 for the year for our 68M2 apartment.

tretre: Another thought - perhaps they think you are asking about your UK tax liability. In our case, I have to get my UK accountant to prepare the requisite information about costs/rentals. No problem, in fact, as you're allowed to tota defer total annual costs against rentals, other than for the period you use the place (i.e. the costs are reduced pro-rata for your occupancy). So keep a record of when you're there and be honest (just in case they check your credit-card etc. record).

Thanks all for being so helpful. Here are more details:
I am trying to buy a flat in Nendaz, Valais. I am not living/working in the UK, but in France, so I don't have any income to declare in Switzerland.

However this is what the immobilier told me:
"We can only give you information on the common charges. It is difficult telling you anything about taxes because it depends on your personal situation: revenues you declare in Switzerland and how you finance your purchase."

Now, obviuosly I don't have any income to declare in Switzerland and I am planning to get a UBS mortgage to finance my purchase. So I don't understand why they wouldn't give me the exact figures, since the canton and the commune are known and the apartment as well!

For info, they have also told me that common charges (building maintenance, water, concierge...) are around 5000 CHF per year, NOT including heating.

Hi Tretre,

First thing I'd say is be very quick with getting things sorted. Am currently finding property for a couple of clients and my constructor told me this week Nendaz/Veysonnaz are about to close up to foreigners for the next 12 months and they estimate this will happen in the next 4 months.

If you've not signed by then its too late. I'd also check the latest with your constructor as this is happening right accross the Commune and don't want you to miss out.

I'd also check with them that they already have all plans drawn up, approved, land registered etc because this can take up to 6 months and thus pass the deadline meaning you could end up in limbo waiting for the Commune to re open for sale to Foreigners and it could be 2008/2009 before you construction is complete having paid a deposit. The apartments our constructor are selling in Nendaz/Veysonnaz are all approved and nearly gone. Thats it then till this Commune re-opens which nobody is sure of.

Other parts of the 4 Valleys/Valais are still available to build in but with Crans-Montana now closed to foreigners for 2006 then its not sure how long it will be before the rest moves this way.

Re costs we've budgeted a total of approx 7000 CHF per year for a 120m2 apartment but as ours are walk in apartments without central lobby there is no Conceirge charge. Am unsure though what your Immobilier is trying to tell you?

The taxes (Swiss Federal Government, Canton and Commune) as well the National Defence Tax , Land Tax and Tourist tax will amount to approx 0.5% of your yearly cost and the annual taxes are based on the rateable value of the property.

Like mse said above I wonder if they refer to your income from rental as there is a fee per head per night. If you put your property through an agency this is collected for you. If you rent it yourself you will need to pay it yourself.

Hope this is of help.

HI - when you talk about head tax do you mean the taxe de sejour (SFR 2.-/person per night) or is this something different?

Hi nendette,

Yes its the Tourist Tax

Hi - can someone help please... I am trying to buy an apartment in La Tzoumaz, have located one and want to arrange a mortgage, putting 20% down and interest only on the remaining 80% - could anyone advise me where I might be able to get this deal?

Also Dave, I think you said (may have read this on your website, shich has bee v helpful btw) that you set of with a UK mortgage before transferring to UBS, could you advise which UK bank - I can't find one which offers mortgages in Switzerland, I think I must be missing an obvious one!

Please help!

Hi Kirsty_M,

With mortgages arranged through Swiss Banks you have to pay back 25% of the capital over 25 years. If you'd like I can put you in touch with the Director of the Bank we used in Sion? Just go through website to contact me on thread A Place in the Sun lists..... and I will drop you a line with his details.

Hi Kirsty, Not sure why you'd want to start with a UK mortgage when interest rates on swiss ones are so much lower? having said that they'll only lend 60% if its a second property, 70% if you pay back teh extra 10% over 3 years or something like that (unless someone knows differently - TopperT or Dave might have a different experience). So we ended up remortgaging our UK property to release the "own funds" portion that we didn't have in readies. Hope that helps. Good luck.

That's very helpful - you're right I don't want to go through a UK bank, but I was beginning to feel like I was running out of options!

Keep the advice coming, it's all gratefully received!

It's not common to get an 80% mortgage and as you say nendette 60 - 65% is the norm but if you have all the parameters covered with salary etc you can get up to 80% which we've done with the Fortis Bank.

I called the Fortis bank in the UK and they told me that Fortis had a minimum lending limit which was considerably higher than our requirement (of just about £64k)

Could you advise differently? IF so I will continue to pursue that avenue.

I would like to get contact details off you for Director of the bank you used - but I am new to this whole "thread" business so I'll have to ask my husband to help!

If you go to the thread on the main page of Buying abroad, scroll down to A Place in the Sun lists Switzerland..... my website is at the top of the page. Click contact and drop me a line with your email address and I'll forward it to him to contact you.

My comment about the UK was misleading - What I meant was that I borrowed on spare equity in my UK home initially, just so that I had the funds all lined-up.

As it cost about CHF 2,000 in legal costs to get the UBS mortgage I did have to take a view about how soon I could recoup this, plus UBS add ½% to the standard rate if it isn't your principal residence. Also, if I had to pay a charge (or poorer exchange rate) for moving any payments from £→CHF then I might have found that the difference wasn't worth the effort. As it turned-out, it was, and on the plus side, I got a free personal account and charge card with UBS along with the mortgage.

Organising the UBS mortgage was really easy - there's this big myth about Switerland banking which isn't justified. Although I did visit UBS in Sion once I could have done it all (including the legal stuff) remotely. But it was a good idea to meet my bank manger in person anyway.

FYI the £3,000/year includes the cost of oil for water/heating, which has gone up about £150 over the last winter.