How much deposit do I need for a Swiss mortgage?

Swiss lenders cap the mortgage at 80% of the property value, so you need at least a 20% deposit. Crucially, at least 10% of the price must be 'hard' equity from savings or other assets — pillar-2 pension money can cover only the remaining portion, not the whole down payment.

What is the two-tier mortgage structure in Switzerland?

The loan is split into a first mortgage up to 65–66% of value, which need not be repaid, and a second mortgage covering the gap up to 80%. The second tier must be amortised down to the first-mortgage level (about 65% of value) within 15 years or by retirement, whichever comes first.

What is the 5% affordability stress test?

Lenders do not test affordability at the actual rate. They use an imputed rate of around 5% plus maintenance costs of roughly 1% of the property value and the mandatory amortisation. The total must stay under about one-third of your gross household income, even if your real interest cost is far lower.

Why is the imputed rate so much higher than market rates?

It is a deliberate buffer. Swiss mortgage rates can be very low, but lenders want assurance you could still pay if rates rose sharply. By stress-testing at a fixed 5%, they avoid lending you a home you could only afford while rates are at historic lows.

What is a SARON mortgage?

SARON (Swiss Average Rate Overnight) is the reference rate that replaced Swiss-franc LIBOR. A SARON mortgage has a variable rate that tracks the compounded SARON plus a lender margin, so payments move with money-market conditions, in contrast to a fixed-rate mortgage locked for a set term.

Switzerland Mortgage Calculator

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A Switzerland mortgage calculator built around the three rules that make Swiss home financing distinctive: the 80% loan-to-value cap, the two-tier mortgage with mandatory amortisation, and the 5% imputed affordability stress test. Unlike a generic repayment calculator, this tool checks whether a Swiss lender would actually approve the loan, not just what the monthly cost looks like.

How it works

Swiss mortgages are split into two tiers and assessed on imputed costs:

Loan-to-value (LTV) = loan ÷ property value. The maximum is 80%, so your deposit must be at least 20%, with at least 10% of the price as genuine equity (not solely pension assets).
First mortgage runs up to about 65–66% of value and need not be repaid. The second mortgage covers the band from there to 80% and must be amortised to the 65% level within 15 years (or by retirement). The tool computes the required annual amortisation as (loan − 65% of value) ÷ 15.
Affordability uses an imputed rate of 5% on the whole loan, plus ~1% of property value for maintenance, plus the amortisation. The total must stay under one-third of gross household income.

The actual interest you pay may be far lower — often 1.5–3.5%, frequently SARON-linked — but approval hinges on the 5% imputed figure, so a low market rate does not relax the income test.

Example and notes

On a 1,000,000 CHF home with a 250,000 CHF deposit, the loan is 750,000 CHF, an LTV of 75% — within the 80% cap. The second-tier amortisation is (750,000 − 650,000) ÷ 15 ≈ 6,667 CHF per year. The affordability test charges 750,000 × 5% = 37,500 imputed interest, plus 10,000 maintenance, plus 6,667 amortisation = 54,167 CHF per year, which needs gross income of about 162,500 CHF to pass the one-third rule.

Tweak the price, deposit or income and the calculator re-checks every gate. All figures are your own inputs and are computed entirely in your browser.