As we're currently on only one income, we'd have to put a larger down payment - ~ 33 % and therefore would be interested in a smaller mortgage amount.
What are the possibilities in this case like this?
Are there anything options other than taking on only 3 of the 4 mortgages and taking a new loan for the difference?
Sorry if this seems completely obvious but never experienced this before in house hunting process...
Thanks for your input.
Absolutely no obligation to take over their mortgages unless they suit you, you can go to your own bank and get mortgage with them.
With a 33% down payment, if this is 33% of the banks' valuation, you should be able to get the balance on 1 mortgage.
In my opinion, it is not a great idea to split them into different expiry dates as when you need to re-new you are obliged to stay with the same bank and cannot really negotiate too much, and the banks know this only too well, they just don't tell you.
Normally if % of mortgage is lower than current rent you could possibly repay it without penalty (do check this with bank before making any decision!)
Why do you need to renew with same bank? I've never heard of that.
Also, it seems OP would be able to just pay some of the mortgages off when time comes from what I understand.
Overall, are mortgages with same bank or are split between a few? I'd advice to talk to bank(s) about your options asap if you consider taking them over. (Yet another option is to start amortizing them on regular basis, depending on a bank this can be possible on pre-existing mortgage - I was considering taking over the morgtage once and was offered this by ZKB)
However, as they want you to take over the mortgages, there is more to this than just moving house. If the vendor has to repay the mortgage to the lender, there could be strict penalties for them - such as having to pay some or all of the interest until the end of the loan period. So they will be keen for you to take them over.
I would get some offers from your bank as various levels of loan: taking none of the existing mortgages, taking some over etc. This will give you a clearer picture.
Be aware that each mortgage will be subject to a Schuldbrief (a document lodged with - Grundbuchamt - the land registry giving the loan provider(s) first dibs on the property in case of default). These cost and can be taken over, even if the mortgage you have is nothing to do with the previous owner’s mortgage...
For the simple reason banks will not split mortgages on residential property.
They do not accept 20% with UBS and 40 % with CS and 10% with Migro bank (for example)
It is 100% of mortgage with one bank if you have different tranches you would need to pay the whole mortgage off before moving banks
If you have a commercial property worth say Chf 50mio, then it is different.
If the seller needs you to take over the mortgage, and if that is not to your advantage, were it me, I’d look to negotiate further concessions. For instance, I might ask for a reduction in the selling price, or that the seller pay my closing fees, etc.
A caveat, though.
Are there other interested buyers? If so, attempts at negotiation might mean that the seller simply moves on to the next uncomplicated buyer.
As always with negotiating, you need to have a feel for how far you can push.
Bottom line, though, if the seller’s mortgage take over condition makes the house more expensive for you, and the seller won’t budge, then the question to ask yourself is: how badly do I want this house?
Not true, I have been offered a split deal on residential by 2 banks (ZKB and CS to be precise) - one was to be taken over @ZKB and a missing part was to be taken from CS - no issue with that from either side.
Do you have experience of banks actually refusing that (and if yes, which ones?)
The land register as well as the actual paper document itself says how much the first mortgage can amount to. The next bank can't control how much of that potential credit has actually been drawn, so they'll assume the maximum. This in turn makes their credit, which ranks lesser, less secure thus higher interest rate, assuming it isn't above 80% of the property's value in the first place (which it may well be).
Maybe the banks would accept a split of something like 40% and 20% with individual "Brief", both of which are in the range of the typical first mortgage. But higher than that is usually 2nd tranche territory with higher interest rate (0.5% higher in normal interest times).