Hello,
I am a B permit holder (EU passportholder), currently renting a flat in Vaud, considering to invest in a chalet (potentially in La Tzoumaz) to rent out and use myself for the occasional skiing-weekend. I understand that I will have to pay 20% upfront and that the remaining 80% can be financed through mortgage. My questions are:
- Am I (as a B permit holder) allowed to rent out the chalet to whomever I please?
- What would happen if I was to leave the country? (i.e. move back to my home-country). Would I be forced to sell?
- Does anyone have experience with renting out ski-chalets? What %-age of occupancy are you getting? (understand that this may vary from property to property and location to location, but as Tzoumaz is connected to Verbier, I would expect decent demand).
- Any opinions on the risk-level of an investment like this? As I understand it the ski-chalet prices have been pretty stable.
Thank you in advance for any inputs!
BR
You can't buy a rental property with a B only a main residence. You will need a far larger deposit than 20% probably 40% or more.
People who want to go to Verbier go to Verbier not Tzoumaz, which may explain why property prices are 5 times plus higher in Verbier.
Some properties have been on the market for many years so its a totally illiquid investment.
Well, we love to ski Verbier but NEVER stay in Verbier- because we don't like the Hurray Henry atmosphere nor the prices! We always stay in Nendaz or Veysonnaz, or even le Chable or Bruson - and love to ski the 4 Valleys to get to Verbier ski area and back again. And you'll find most Swiss prefer not to stay in Verbier either (too many Brits! ).
But FMF is right, you won't be able to buy on B permit. If you find a way, tell us about it, would love to rent it one day.
Thank you both.
From other threads on the forum, I didn't think it would be an issue for a B-permit holder to purchase property (even with the intention to rent out). Going through the threads again, it seems to vary from canton to canton, and to some extent also the bank. Looking at the market, it seems that there are chalets available to buy even for foreigners (i.e. not living in CH), so assume that it is the renting-out, which is the issue, not the actual purchase of property. I will let you know if I find a way Odile - special price only for you
Yes, that is one thing, the other is the 40+% downpayment for secondary homes (even for Swiss people).
Tom
Holiday homes available to foreigners (such as the rouge avalanche path in Verbier) can be rented out. TBH La Tzoumaz is a bit of a dump, I can't think of any reason to be based there unless you only want to ski Col de Gentieres & Torton. (which is a good reason to some)
Col des Gentiannes and Tortin, lol. From the top of Tortin we always drop into La Chaux then either ski down to Verbier or up to Col des Gentiannes or both on a good day. Piste de l'Ours in Veysonnaz is great too. When we stay in the area, we cover every inch of the 4 Vallées.
The +40% downpayment I can live with.
I'll check out Veysonnaz as well. Never visited La Tzoumaz, just seems good value for being close to Verbier, and also read that significant investments are planned to develop the area to connect it even better to Verbier. But of course the market speaks for it self, and of course there is a reason that it is so much cheaper than Verbier.
Don't you think the skiing as actually overrated? So much south facing & slushy, probably the worst restaurants on the mountain you can find!
As said, much prefer staying in Nendaz- which does have very good restaurants. Restaurants on the mountain in Verbier are so ugly and expensive, I agree. Which is why we always go to the Alpine Club chalet at col des Gentiannes. Once you know the area well, you get to know how to get around the Valleys for the best snow depending on the weather. A bit like Steamboat, where all the runs are called by the best time to ski them.
We like going there because it's our 'family resort' since the 70s and we can park at Le Chable and take the cable car up without having to queue in Verbier.
I got a place in La Tzoumaz about 4 months back - it was a good deal just outside the village in a residence with 6 apartments. Many of the buildings like these are available to sale to foreigners (i.e. within the EU) so worth a go.
The village is quiet, however there are 2-3 bars that are busy during the ski season. I loved the place for the nature and the views have been jaw-dropping here in the last few months when I have been renovating.
You will probably find that you can chance your arm if a property has been on the market for a while - it probably needs renovation and if you have the means to do a decent job yourself then it might be well worth it to go in low and see if they want to shift it.
I put in an offer ~15k below asking price, got lucky. There is one place about 40m2 for 158k on the market with an amazing view about 20 meters from the main gondola if you are interested. Rental yields are pretty low, expect to have it rented 6-7 weeks if you are on all of the property websites. But then you have to pay someone to clean it, taxes, tv license etc... actually I worked out that it was not worth it and would just prefer to ski the vallon d'Arby every weekend. Essentially it's a place for family and friends.
Charges for my place (about 35 m2) are ~2500chf for the heating etc... taxes would be about 600chf.
The place is quiet, and if you want to do Verbier, then just rent a place there. But if your dream is a place in the alps with a connection to some of the best skiing here, then it works out well as a cheap option. Just don't think that you are going to get rich!
FYI - they will probably get the approval in the next couple of years for the long awaited lift from Verbier center to Savolyres, this might shift the needle upwards on the property values, but not massively.
So good luck for the project!
ps, have seen this one, needs some work but the view is amazing.... http://www.carron-immobilier.ch/fr/v...=detail&id=324
I think that’s no longer true, fatmanfilms. According to these:
https://www.ch.ch/en/real-estate-foreign-national
http://geneva.angloinfo.com/informat…ying-property/
if you’re an EU/EFTA citizen with a B or C permit you have the same rights as Swiss nationals when it comes to buying property. Non-EU’s with a B permit are restricted to only buying a main residence.
Yes that's correct, but don't forget about the new law for 2nd homes, some cantons are affected more than others with the 20% cap.
Yes, indeed and something the OP needs to be aware of.
It's an old building so can be changed from a main residence to a secondary without issue , lots of forfait tax payers, who would buy their properties if useage could not be changed
Living in Lausanne, I also like Verbier for its easy access! It seems, Odile, that you know your way around the 4 valleys exceptional well - I would love to go skiing with you one day and, more importantly, I would love meeting you!
Mind you tell us a bit about your down payment for the holiday home, - is 20% of down payment possible? Thanks.
Hi, actually I purchased the property outright. I approached the bank in Basel (UBS) and they actually refused me a mortgage as they said that they could not verify the value of the property - best to approach a bank in Martigny with more experience of the area was the advice, so they can go to hell!
That said, I think that for a holiday home they would need to have a 40% deposit from a local bank, that seemed to be pretty normal, although I was advised that it was possible to negotiate a little on this. Depends on how much credit that the bank has I suppose.... you can always ask, although beware as some banks even make a charge for a quote these days....
Additionally, beware the lawyer fees - mine were in the region of 5k CHF.
Also... make sure that you have a decent lawyer, there were many of these properties thrown up over the years, and sometimes not so well documented. For example on my very simple apartment with a parking place:
- turns out that there are pre-emption rights on the parking spots (you have to offer to sell to the other neighbours first), that you can normally get around by offering a high price for the parking spot (on the basis that the value comes with the apartment)
- my place had 5 parking spots between 6 people. Turns out that for health and safety reasons they had to take one away to provide access to the utility room (one guy got a parking spot next door) so this was a bit of a risk but decided why not? as it had worked out fine for the last 20 years that way.
Lastly, make sure that the administrator is honest (really, in CH!) as I heard of stories where the administrator would take cash from the building funds, also take rental without handing it over etc....
Credit Suisse main branch in Sion have a lot of experience in Verbier, they generally lend to people who already paid cash for their home