Investment properties: In French-speaking Switzerland, the market is favouring sellers

The market for income-producing properties in French-speaking Switzerland has never been so competitive. Pension funds, insurers, family offices and private investors are vying for increasingly scarce assets. The result: property owners are now in a position of strength.

In the Lake Geneva region, some transactions handled by our CI Expertises & Transactions team have attracted offers up to 15% above initial valuations. While Geneva and Lausanne remain safe bets, investor interest is now spreading to Fribourg, Valais and Neuchâtel, driven by strong population growth.

But a good price isn’t everything. Two buildings with the same yield can hide very different realities: operating costs, lease conditions, upcoming works, energy requirements or, conversely, potential for renovation or vertical extension. All of these factors weigh on a property’s true value.

For owners, the challenge is not to guess when the market will peak, but to know precisely what their assets are worth and which options are open to them: holding, renovating, adding value or selling.

Our experts Nathan Haldemann and Julian Pelloux share their full analysis in an article published in the Tribune de Genève.

Read the full article