Mortgage
The foundation of financing your own home: preserving value, security and a solution that suits you.
Why this matters
Hardly any other contract involves as much money as the mortgage – just a few tenths of a percentage point in interest make a difference of tens of thousands of francs over the term. Yet many people simply sign the renewal offer their bank sends shortly before expiry, without obtaining a second quote. That is exactly what providers count on: existing customers often pay more than new ones. If you don’t compare, you give money away year after year – on your current mortgage just as much as when buying.
First-time buyers should do their sums especially carefully, as should anyone whose mortgage runs beyond retirement – because with a lower pension income, affordability can suddenly tip. In Switzerland, the rule of thumb is: at least twenty per cent of your own funds, half of which must come from outside the pension fund. Affordability is also calculated with an imputed interest rate well above the market rate, and the second-rank mortgage must be amortised within a set period, at the latest by retirement. Know these rules early and you can plan purchase and financing without nasty surprises.
What you get out of it
The right financing — not simply whatever your own bank offers.
Affordability calculated realistically, including for the years after retirement.
Paying down your mortgage via pillar 3a saves tax.
What we take care of for you
- Comparison of mortgage providers (banks, insurers, pension funds)
- Affordability and loan-to-value calculation
- Strategy for terms and fixed-rate periods
- Coordinating mortgage repayment, pension provision and protection
The advice is free for you — we are remunerated by the insurance companies through brokerage commissions and will disclose these on request.
Tips from our consultations
What we tell our clients time and again – free of charge, even before the first meeting.
Always obtain several quotes – including from insurers and pension funds, which often offer better rates than banks. The advertised shop-window rate is rarely the last word: put a rival quote on the table and you negotiate from a completely different position.
See to the renewal around a year before expiry, not only when the bank writes. With a forward mortgage, the rate can sometimes be locked in months in advance. If you wait until the last moment, there is no time left to switch provider.
Pay the compulsory amortisation into pillar 3a rather than directly to the bank: the mortgage interest remains deductible, and the pillar 3a payment additionally lowers your taxable income. The pension savings are later used as planned to repay the debt.
Several tranches with different terms do spread the interest rate risk – but they tie you to the provider, because all tranches would have to expire at the same time for a switch. Keep the terms close together, or deliberately combined, if freedom to switch matters to you.