How does the calculator decide whether renting or buying wins?

It tallies the full cost of each path over your horizon. Buying accrues transfer tax, mortgage interest, maintenance and the imputed-rental-value tax, offset by price appreciation and equity built. Renting accrues rent, offset by the investment return on the deposit you did not tie up. The lower net cost wins.

What is the Eigenmietwert and why does it matter?

The Eigenmietwert (imputed rental value) is a uniquely Swiss tax: owner-occupiers must declare a notional rent on their own home as taxable income, though they can deduct mortgage interest and maintenance. It raises the true cost of owning, so the calculator includes it as an annual cost on the buy side.

Why include the return on the deposit for the rent option?

If you rent instead of buying, the large deposit a Swiss purchase requires (at least 20%) stays invested. The opportunity cost of buying is the return that money could have earned, so a fair comparison credits the renter with investment growth on the un-tied-up capital.

Does Swiss price appreciation make buying always cheaper?

Not necessarily. Swiss residential prices have generally risen, which favours buying, but high transfer taxes in some cantons, the Eigenmietwert, maintenance and the deposit's opportunity cost can tip the balance toward renting over short horizons. The longer you stay, the more buying tends to win as one-off costs amortise.

Is this a precise financial recommendation?

No. It is a transparent model using your assumptions about rates, appreciation and returns, which no one can predict exactly. Treat the result as a directional guide, run a few scenarios, and confirm tax details with a Swiss adviser before a major purchase decision.

Switzerland Rent vs Buy Calculator

A Switzerland rent vs buy calculator that answers a question made unusually complex by Swiss rules: over your time horizon, is it cheaper to rent or to buy? It weighs the things that actually move the answer in Switzerland — the Handänderungssteuer transfer tax, the Eigenmietwert imputed-rental-value tax, mortgage interest, maintenance and price appreciation — against renting plus the investment return on the large deposit you would otherwise tie up.

How it works

The tool runs two parallel cost tallies over N years.

Buying accumulates: the one-off transfer tax (price × cantonal rate) and purchase fees; annual mortgage interest on the loan; annual maintenance (≈1% of value); and the annual Eigenmietwert tax (a notional rent taxed as income, net of interest/maintenance deductions). It is then credited with the price appreciation of the home and the equity repaid, so the net buy cost is total outflows − home-value gain.

Renting accumulates the rent paid over the period (optionally growing each year), and is credited with the investment return the deposit and any monthly savings would earn if not tied up in a house.

net buy cost  = transfer tax + fees + Σ(interest + maintenance + eigenmietwert tax) − appreciation
net rent cost = Σ(rent) − investment return on the freed-up deposit

The path with the lower net cost wins, and the tool reports the gap.

Example and notes

Buy a 1,000,000 CHF home with a 200,000 CHF deposit at a 2.5% mortgage versus renting an equivalent place for 3,000 CHF/month, holding 10 years, with 1.5% annual appreciation and a 3% investment return on the deposit. Over a short horizon the transfer tax and Eigenmietwert can keep renting competitive; over ten years, steady appreciation usually pushes buying ahead. Lengthen the horizon and buying’s advantage typically grows as the one-off costs amortise.

Adjust any assumption — rate, appreciation, canton transfer rate, investment return — and the verdict updates. Everything is computed in your browser; this is a directional model, not tax advice.

Switzerland Rent vs Buy Calculator

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How it works

Example and notes