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Every purchase of Swiss property by a buyer living abroad is governed by one statute that almost nobody calls by its real name. Officially it is the Federal Act on the Acquisition of Immovable Property by Persons Abroad, SR 211.412.41; in French it is the LFAIE, and in everyday use it is the Lex Koller. It has applied since 1985 — and on 22 September 2026 the National Council voted to tighten it, by 123 votes to 54, against the Federal Council’s own recommendation.
On the Swiss Riviera the law matters twice over. It decides whether a foreign buyer may own an apartment here at all, and for the holiday apartments it does allow it fixes the conditions of use and letting — which for most buyers is the difference between a property that pays for itself and one that sits empty eleven months a year. This guide covers what the law permits today, what the 2026 reform would change, and what it means if you already hold an authorised apartment.
What Lex Koller actually is
Lex Koller is not a ban on foreign ownership; it is a system of authorisations. A person abroad may buy Swiss property only in the cases the federal law lists, and only if the canton issues the authorisation. Who counts as a person abroad is the first question, and three answers cover almost every case:
- You are a foreign national domiciled abroad. You may normally buy a holiday apartment in a commune the canton has designated as tourist — or, in narrow cases, commercial premises. Not a rental investment, and not an ordinary second home.
- You are a national of a third country (non-EU/EFTA) living in Switzerland. You need an authorisation, and only for a property you will occupy as your principal residence.
- You live in Switzerland as an EU/EFTA national with a valid residence permit. You buy your principal residence the same way a Swiss resident does, without an authorisation.
Swiss nationals are outside the scope of the law entirely, wherever they live. What is missing from all three categories is the case most first-time foreign investors arrive with: buying an apartment in a Swiss city to rent it out. Outside the tourist-commune regime, that purchase is simply not authorised — which is why the very first question for any non-resident is not the price but the commune.
The 2026 reform: April consultation, September vote
On 15 April 2026 the Federal Council sent a tightening package out to consultation, open until 15 July 2026. Its main elements: an authorisation requirement for third-country nationals buying a principal residence; a reduction of the annual cantonal quotas for holiday apartments and aparthotel units; the end of the automatic exemption for commercial property, unless the buyer uses it in its own business; and counting a resale from one person abroad to another against the quota.
The number that decides everything: about 1,500. That is roughly how many Lex Koller authorisations Switzerland issues in a year, against a housing stock of several million dwellings — on the order of 0.03 %. For a foreign buyer the scarce resource is not the apartment and not the price; it is the quota.
On 22 September 2026 the National Council went further than the Federal Council proposed. By 123 votes to 54 it adopted motion 24.3961, which asks for a return to the strict logic of the 1985 statute. The file now sits with the Council of States, which has not yet taken a position.
Two practical consequences follow. Nothing changes today: no authorisation is withdrawn retrospectively and no purchase already in progress is affected. And even if the reform survives both chambers, entry into force is not expected before 2028 — which is precisely the horizon a purchase decision taken now will be living with.
What a foreign buyer can actually own
In practice the authorised purchase is narrow, and it is in the detail that buyers get caught out.
- A commune on the list. Each canton designates which of its communes count as tourist. Being near a lake or a ski lift is not enough; the commune has to be on the list, and neighbouring communes can be treated differently.
- A condominium unit, within a size ceiling. Holiday apartments are authorised as PPE units, normally with a limit of 200 m² of living space. Buyers who want something larger are usually steered towards an aparthotel structure.
- Inside the annual quota. In Vaud, cantonal practice has been to authorise only a small number of such purchases a year, limited to condominium units, with a cantonal right of preemption. Valais, with far more tourist communes, issues a few hundred.
- For personal use. The purpose the law protects is the buyer’s own use of the apartment, not a rental return — which is exactly why the letting rules matter as much as the purchase rules.
One point owners tend to discover late: an authorisation attaches to the property and to its conditions, not to you. Buy an apartment that already has one and you inherit whatever the permit file says about use, letting and resale. Selling later to another buyer domiciled abroad normally requires a fresh authorisation for them — and if that year’s quota is exhausted, the sale waits.
May you let the apartment short-term?
Yes — within the conditions attached to the authorisation, and this part is more liberal than most foreign buyers expect. A holiday apartment is meant to be used by its owner; letting it during the periods you are not there is the economic logic on which the quotas were built, and rental-management companies exist precisely for that. What the authorisation does not allow is turning the apartment into year-round residential letting, or making it your principal residence.
Read the authorisation file before you sign, not after. The conditions on a holiday-apartment permit — use, letting, resale — are what a buyer inherits. A notary can see them in the file; a first-time foreign buyer usually cannot.
Compliance then continues at cantonal and communal level, and that is where non-resident owners are caught out: the registration required before you take a first booking, the tourist tax you collect and remit, insurance that actually covers commercial use, and the house rules of the condominium. An authorisation to own is not a licence to operate, and for an owner who is abroad most of the year the two are usually handled by someone on the ground. Our guide to registering a short-term rental in Valais versus Vaud and the one on PPE rules for short-term letting cover those pieces in detail.
The full cost stack for a non-resident purchase
The authorisation is one line in the budget; the rest is Swiss transaction cost. On a Vaud purchase the cantonal transfer duty is 3.3 % of the price, and notary and land-registry fees add roughly one more percentage point. A CHF 900,000 apartment therefore carries CHF 30,000 to 40,000 of one-off costs before a single night is let.
Add the cost of time. An authorisation is not a formality: quotas can be exhausted, the canton holds a right of preemption, and a refused file leaves you without the apartment. Budget months rather than weeks, and structure the offer so that a refused authorisation ends the deal instead of locking up your deposit.
Then the ongoing side: rental income from Swiss property is taxable in Switzerland, the property counts for wealth tax, and the tourist tax is collected from the guest and remitted to the commune. Our guide to buying an apartment in Montreux for short-term rental works through the same numbers for a resident buyer — the cleanest comparison a non-resident can make.
If you already own one: what actually changes
Nothing, retrospectively. Authorisations already granted are not withdrawn by a parliamentary vote, and the September decision does not touch existing owners. What a tighter quota changes is the resale market: an authorised holiday apartment becomes scarcer, and the quality of the permit file — conditions, any construction deadline, the commune’s tourist status — starts to show up in the price.
The decision most owners actually face is not legal but practical: an apartment used four weeks a year and empty for forty-eight. Letting it properly — registration in place, tourist tax declared, guests and turnovers handled — is what turns a second home into a self-financing one. That is what RivieraHost does on the Swiss Riviera: a flat 20 % of net booked revenue, 30 days’ notice on either side, no lock-in and no fee on nights that do not sell.
What should your apartment actually earn?
Send us the address and the floor plan. You get a free, data-backed revenue estimate for your apartment — occupancy, rate and projected annual income for the Montreux–Riviera market — with no commitment on either side.
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Frequently asked questions
Who counts as a « person abroad » under Lex Koller?
Foreign nationals domiciled abroad, and Swiss property bought through a company controlled from abroad. Swiss nationals are outside the law wherever they live; EU/EFTA nationals resident in Switzerland with a valid permit buy their principal residence without an authorisation, while third-country nationals resident in Switzerland need one and only for their principal residence.
Can a non-resident buy an apartment in Montreux to rent out?
Not as a plain rental investment. Outside the communes a canton has designated as tourist, a non-resident cannot buy residential property in Switzerland. What a person abroad can normally own is an authorised holiday apartment in a listed tourist commune, used personally and let during the periods the owner is not there.
How long does a Lex Koller authorisation take?
Months, and it is never automatic: the canton applies its annual quota and in Vaud a right of preemption. Ask the notary which authority decides in your commune and how much of the year's quota is left before you commit to a completion date.
Can I let my authorised holiday apartment on Airbnb?
Holiday letting while the owner is absent is normal practice and the reason the quota exists. What the authorisation excludes is year-round residential letting or using the apartment as your principal residence, and short-term letting still requires the communal registration, the tourist tax and insurance that covers commercial use.
Does the September 2026 vote change anything for me now?
No. The National Council adopted motion 24.3961 on 22 September 2026 by 123 votes to 54, but the Council of States has not yet decided and any change in the law is not expected to enter into force before 2028. Existing authorisations are unaffected, and a purchase in progress follows the law in force when the authorisation is granted.
If you are weighing a purchase, the two guides that sit closest to this one are second home versus principal residence — which decides whether you are in Lex Koller territory at all — and the owner guides hub, which pulls the market, tax and regulation side together in one place.
Sources: Loi fédérale sur l’acquisition d’immeubles par des personnes à l’étranger (LFAIE, SR 211.412.41) — text on Fedlex; Federal Council consultation draft of 15 April 2026, open until 15 July 2026 — consultation files; motion 24.3961 (Aeschi), adopted by the National Council on 22 September 2026 by 123 votes to 54; cantonal practice on holiday-apartment authorisations in Vaud and Valais; RivieraHost owner-contract terms (flat 20 % of net booked revenue, 30 days’ notice either side). Retrieved 23 September 2026. General information, not legal advice — for a specific purchase, consult a Swiss notary or lawyer.
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