Buying an apartment in Montreux to rent short-term: is it still a good investment in 2026?

Montreux apartments averaged CHF 10,929–11,888 per m² in 2026 (RealAdvisor, Acheteur.ch), roughly 4–8% above the Canton Vaud average. That premium buys lake views, Jazz Festival demand, and a market that has still risen 2.5% over the past year. Whether it also buys a good short-term rental investment depends on numbers most buyers never actually run.

This guide walks through what an apartment costs to buy in Montreux, who is allowed to buy it, how much cash you actually need, and what realistic short-term rental income looks like once you own it. For income projections on an existing property, see our Montreux Airbnb earnings guide.

What does an apartment cost in Montreux in 2026?

In 2026, Montreux's average apartment price sits between CHF 10,929/m² (RealAdvisor, July data) and CHF 11,763/m² (Acheteur.ch, February data). That is meaningfully above the cantonal average of CHF 10,517/m² (Strike Advisory, June 2026), reflecting Montreux's lakefront position and tourism demand.

Area	Price per m² (2026)	Indicative 60 m² apartment
Montreux (city average)	CHF 10,929–11,888	CHF 656,000–713,000
Canton Vaud (average)	CHF 10,517	CHF 631,000
Montreux, lakefront / renovated	CHF 13,000–17,000+	CHF 780,000–1,020,000+

Prices have risen roughly 2.5% year-on-year in Montreux, a moderate pace by Swiss standards. In eight years of managing Riviera properties, we have consistently seen the same pattern at resale: apartments within a 10-minute walk of the lakefront or Montreux Station command a durable premium over otherwise-comparable units further out — the exact radius that also drives short-term rental demand.

Who can actually buy — Lex Koller and foreign ownership

Not everyone can legally buy Swiss property, and the rules are tightening in 2026. Lex Koller — the federal act restricting real estate purchases by persons abroad — already imposes permit requirements and cantonal quotas on non-resident foreign buyers (Deloitte Switzerland, 2026).

Swiss residents and EU/EFTA nationals holding a Swiss residence permit (C or B, in most cases) generally buy under the same conditions as Swiss citizens, without a Lex Koller permit. If you hold neither status, confirm your specific position with a Vaud notary before making an offer — permit refusals after a signed purchase agreement are expensive to unwind.

Financing: how much cash do you need?

An apartment bought to live in and one bought purely to rent out are financed under different rules in Switzerland, and the gap is larger than most first-time buyers expect.

For a CHF 700,000 apartment bought purely as a short-term rental, that means roughly CHF 280,000 in own funds before a mortgage covers the rest (UBS Switzerland, 2026). Lenders also apply stricter affordability tests to investment properties, typically requiring the imputed rental income to comfortably cover mortgage interest, amortisation, and maintenance at a stress-tested interest rate well above the current one.

Notary fees and transfer tax

Budget close to 4% of the purchase price in closing costs on top of the sale price in Canton Vaud (Acheteur.ch, 2026). This is a fixed cost of entry regardless of whether the property becomes a strong or weak rental performer.

Cost item	Rate	On CHF 700,000
Droit de mutation (transfer tax) — canton	2.2%	CHF 15,400
Droit de mutation — commune	up to 1.1%	up to CHF 7,700
Land registry inscription	~0.3%	CHF 2,100
Notary fee	0.5–0.7%	CHF 3,500–4,900
Total closing costs	~4%	~CHF 28,000

Converting the apartment to a short-stay rental

Buying the apartment is only step one. Before the first guest checks in, Canton Vaud requires hosts to declare their short-term rental activity and obtain municipal authorisation — and if the unit was previously on a long-term residential lease, a cantonal change-of-use permit may also apply. Our registration guide covers the full process, and Is Airbnb legal in Canton Vaud? explains the 90-night caps that apply in some communes.

Two costs new buyers routinely underestimate: insurance and tax structure. Standard homeowner policies do not cover commercial short-term rental activity — see our short-term rental insurance guide. And rental income is taxed differently from owner-occupied property, with VAT thresholds that can apply once revenue crosses CHF 100,000/year — details in our Airbnb tax and VAT guide.

Does the yield math work?

Swiss national average gross rental yields run 2.5–3.5%, with an average around 2.96% (Offlist Switzerland, 2026). Short-term rentals typically add 0.5–1.5 percentage points over long-term leases before costs — but net yield differences often shrink once cleaning, platform fees, and vacancy are factored in (Investropa, 2026).

Montreux is a partial exception to that national compression. A professionally managed 2-bedroom apartment on Riviera Host's own portfolio grosses CHF 90,000–99,000/year — see our full earnings breakdown. Set against a CHF 700,000–950,000 purchase price for a comparable unit, that works out to a 9.5–14% gross yield before financing and operating costs, well above the national average — almost entirely because of the Jazz Festival's 14-night window at 3–5× base rates.

Run your own numbers before committing capital. Take the all-in purchase price (sale price + ~4% closing costs), compare it against a realistic income scenario from our complete Montreux rental guide, and stress-test it at the conservative end, not the professional-management end. If the conservative case still works, the property is a sound investment; if only the optimistic case works, you are underwriting execution risk, not the apartment itself.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading: How much can you earn renting your Montreux apartment? · The complete guide to renting your Montreux apartment · Short-term rental registration in Montreux · The hidden costs of self-managing · Insurance for short-term rentals · Airbnb tax and VAT in Montreux