Oh yeah, and considering land purchase to move in would be 2-3 years, you’ll need to calculate the cost of living elsewhere during that time.
1 Like
Yet, I expect the Saron to be below 1% for the foreseeable future. The CHF is heavily overvalued and as long as it stays that way we will continue to see low interest rates. We could, perhaps, see negative rates again despite the SNB saying they see no need …
Life’s too short to build a house. It will take several years to go from buying land to permits to construction and finally moving in.
Public consultations where neighbors give an opinion on your plans will be paid in white hairs. Even immoscout24 gives some advice on how to oppose a construction project in your neighborhood.
As litespeed mentioned, there’s a physio-psychological cost to build houses from the ground up. If you have the money, enjoy the money and buy something ready to move in.
2 Likes
Funny enough in a span of several years i was a witness of how house in a very nice location on the river was building, all the neighbouring houses look like luxury (i mean the place with mountains views, rivers, close to autobahn), so i would think people that started that building were with a lot of money, at the beginning construction seemed very thorough, like everything looked like how it should, then years went on, i could see as almost they started bastling themselves to finish somehow, the ugly wooden extension out of place, tiles are all randomly put on facade (like there is no pattern or normal spacing, they are all different rectangular sizes O_o), some roof over entrance hanging on threads again placed randomly, like the whole house looks like someone just diy project…to be honest ruined the scenery of luxury place with mountains…and i am quite sure even this embarrassment to look at cost at least a million…
I would disagree that they pay for all of this, conditions on mortgages/taxing/price itself is very different for those who buy properties to rent (not some private people, but estate agencies), to put it simply they don’t even pay a down payment/amortizations nor any taxes, everything is just air, collaterals and subtracted expenses. Unfortunately system is designed to milk simple people who want to own a place to live, not the money making entities that devour any real estate out there…
They need to pay costs and earn a profit, otherwise they will go bankrupt and the owners who do earn money from the rental activities will take a larger market share. I guess it is a form of economic Darwinism.
We have to walk about 100 m to reach the garages located under the kids rooms.
I am quite happy we bought a 25 year old house…new enough to have modern features (like geothermal heat pump), old enough that the tradies who built it were not distracted by smart phones.
2 Likes
Pure curiosity, is the original heat pump working after 25 years?
1 Like
Nope, we replaced it a year ago…with Stiebli Eltron HP & separate high-efficiency water heater: ca. CHF 40K
Otherwise house , bathrooms, kitchen, etc all in good nick.
1 Like
Were you able to re-use any parts of the old heat-pump system (pipes, radiators, etc.) or was it a complete rip and replace?
It was only “heart replacement” …heat pump and boiler, nearly everything else was retained. We did get a salt-based water softener installed at the same time…that was only another 2.5K
1 Like
Was it an air-source heat pump or ground source?
*geothermal 
1 Like
Oops missed that bit.
Yes, ground heat. You might want to check with your Gemeinde, some of them subsidise new installations.
We got about a 10% rebate from VD.
I brought and build a house in Switzerland. Buying a place you have to make compromises, you don’t like the color of the kitchen, bathroom, the floor maybe. Building a place you need a good deal of paitence, our place took about 2 years to construct I think, its all a bit of a blur. But if you build you choose everything, so the floor, the bathroom, the kitchen, the layout even.
Its very difficult to go back to buying a place once you’ve built one; cause obviously the one you build has all the right bits in the right places, that’s what we’re finding.
The most important aspects are location, location and location, like the TV series. If it’s in the right location, you can put up with pretty much everything else, if not, you won’t be happy there. Well, with a few exceptions like a pink bathrooms, yellow kitchens, dark wood ceilings, dark wood floors, small windows, radiators, odd layouts, waisted space, oil fired heating, overlooked gardens, views made up mostly of other people’s roofs etc.