Long story short, i am moving to Zug from sunny Ascona. I own the apartment in Ascona and i want to rent it out. However, won’t have the time to deal with finding a tenant, tenancy laws and so on therefore i am looking for a German or English speaking property management company in the area to support me with renting and property management tasks.
Anyone here who has gone through something similar and have suggestions ?
Sorry, I don’t mean to take your thread elsewhere, just to satisfy my curiosity: in a situation like yours, is it trivial to convert your apartment in Ascona effectively into a secondary residency for investment while getting a primary residency in Zug?
There’s usually one or two local agents. Since you need someone you can trust and hopefully is close by, I think it would make sense to do a physical scout around as well as ask local contacts.
I posted something similar a while ago, but in Basel. It’s not that easy to find a property management company for a ‘private’ property. I couldn’t find any. They’re only interested in large blocks. In general, in your situation, you have to manage it yourself and accept the significant risks as discussed elsewhere (principally, once the tenants are in, it’s very difficult to move them out)
Hmmm… spoke to 3 companies in the meantime and none of them stated what you have mentioned, I was also surprised they spoke German and English. Btw, I also own a small apartment in Zug and as a private owner I only pay a few thousand bucks to the Hausverwaltung each year . This Hausverwaltung company manages the whole building where half of the blocks are owned by a real estate while other are private owners some of which rented out.
Not sure what’s the problem in Basel though.
Ah… maybe a misunderstanding… my Basel flat also has a Verwaltung. They ‘manage’ the property in terms its upkeep. But they weren’t interested in ‘managing tenants’ for me (for a fee). I have a property in the UK ‘managed’ by an agency that finds the tenants, carries out inspections, advices me on regulations, organises repairs and collects the rent (forwarding the balance after their fee). It was the latter service - a lettings agency - that I couldn’t find in Basel. I’d still be interested if anyone knows of one.
That is exactly the difference.
Don’t mix the two terms, it’s either a secondary residency or an investment property. Secondary residencies are subject to quota and I’ve heard that it’s very hard to get a new approval in TI. The OP perhaps has no choice but to let this property or sell it.
Ah so an investment property isn’t a subject to quota? I see
I have been renting a private residence for some twenty-plus years through an Estate agent. They demanded a percentage of the rent, somewhere between 5-10%, to do the job.
And to be clear, the job they’ll do is “as little as possible”. If the tenant complained about something, the agency I used would call in a tradesman. And tradesmen, realizing it is an agency they’re dealing with, will fish for work. Quoting for jobs that don’t need doing. I recall one case of the agency calling in a plumber to re-seal the bathroom upstairs, and he did the one downstairs for good measure. He charged me [the management agency] double the fee, which they paid.
And as for damage done to the property when the tenants move out…forget it. Most of these agencies employ young girls, who job hop every six months, so its almost guaranteed that the girl signing in the tenant will not be the one signing them out, and they will get away with any damage they done. I even had an agency try to charge me for cleaning the place after the tenant refused to pay the bill to do so.
If you can afford it, save yourself the hassle.