Getting a flat valued: what condominium ownership adds

When you sell a flat, you sell a share in the whole building.¹ With it comes a sole right: the right to use your flat alone and to fit out its interior.¹ The roof, the façade or the staircase can never belong to you alone: they are common parts of all owners.¹ A house in sole ownership is different: you own the whole plot. What counts for a house is shown on Getting a house valued.

With a flat, a second figure comes into play: the value quota (Wertquote).¹ It is set out in the deed of constitution (Begründungsakt), the document that created your condominium ownership.¹ The value quota shows your flat’s share in the value of the whole plot, as a fraction.¹ As a rule, your share of maintenance and management costs follows it too, unless the regulations say otherwise.^{1 4}

What this means for you: a valuation of your flat does not value four walls alone. It also values how well the community maintains and manages the whole building.

The renewal fund (Erneuerungsfonds) is the shared reserve for maintenance and future refurbishment.¹ It belongs to the community, not to you personally. You do not get your share paid out when you sell – it passes to the buyer with the flat.^{1 2 3}

Even so, it flows into the price. The yearly contribution is usually set as a share of the building’s insured value.⁴ Typically, it is between 0.2 and 0.5 per cent a year.⁴ A well-funded reserve points to lower special levies ahead. That raises your flat’s market value.⁴

The regulations (Reglement) set out the community’s rules. The minutes of the owners’ meeting record which works have been approved.¹ If a façade refurbishment is planned for next year, for instance, that belongs in any serious valuation.

What this means for you: state the current balance of the fund and the approved works from the start. Hiding them does not help – the figures sit with the property management.

Within the same building, flats still differ in value. The federal government’s official model takes into account noise, lake and mountain views, and whether a flat is on the top floor.⁵ How this model calculates is explained in Hedonic valuation explained.

The surroundings matter as well: buyers check what building development is planned nearby, and whether the property management does its job carefully.⁴

A parking space or garden seating area is often set up as a right of exclusive use (Sondernutzungsrecht). Such rights feed into the valuation.⁴ Which areas belong to your flat is shown by the allocation plans kept at the land registry.⁶ After alterations, they may no longer match the building.⁶ So ask specifically what belongs to your flat and what does not.

What this means for you: two equally large flats in the same building can be worth different amounts. Only a viewing shows where your flat really stands within it.

Flats resemble each other more than houses do. A house is almost always a one-off: its own plot, its own alterations, its own history, its own location. A flat, by contrast, is easier to compare with the one next door. Similar size, same construction year, same building, often even the same layout.

In the federal model, the hedonic method explains 85.7 per cent of the price differences among flats.⁵ For single-family houses, it is 81.3 per cent.⁵ The more comparable sales there are, the more accurate the model becomes. How this model actually works is explained in Hedonic valuation explained.

The Property price atlas for the Canton of Zurich shows the official median flat price. It covers every municipality with at least 15 sales. It gives a first point of reference, before anyone views your flat.

What this means for you: a model figure usually comes closer to the truth for your flat than it would for a house. It still cannot replace a viewing.