Selling property in Aarau: the capital with 0.45% vacancy

Aarau is the cantonal capital, yet the town has no official price figure. Aargau publishes no median prices by municipality. Portal values are model estimates, not sale prices from the land register. They do not know your house and its particulars.

In Aarau, the old town, residential areas near the Aare and newer districts lie close together. The age, layout and condition of houses differ accordingly. An average across the whole town therefore says little about your own house. What decides is the plot, the zone and the condition of roof, façade and building services.

What is documented: 56 empty dwellings on 1 June 2026, a tight market. No price follows from that either. What this means for you: have land and building valued separately and checked against actual sales in the region. What such a valuation looks like is shown on the page house valuation.

For property gains tax, Aargau looks only at how long you have owned the property. The rate falls from 40% in the first year to 5% from 25 full years. No municipal multiplier is added.

After more than 10 full years, a flat rate comes into play for a house. At least 80 to 65% of the sale price then counts as acquisition cost, depending on the holding period. If the flat rate is higher than the purchase price and documented investments, it is used. The two cannot be combined.

The tax commission of the town of Aarau makes the assessment; the revenue goes half to the town and half to the canton. What this means for you: after 14 years, 76% of the sale price is the floor. In the example below your purchase price is higher, so it counts. The Aargau calculator works out your own case.

If you sell in Aarau, you pay no property transfer tax in the classic sense. The canton charges a land register charge of 4 per mille of the purchase price, with a minimum of CHF 100. The town of Aarau has no share in the revenue.

No office in the town itself keeps the land register for Aarau. The responsible office is the Zofingen land registry office, Brühlstrasse 5, 4800 Zofingen, for the districts of Aarau, Kulm and Zofingen. That is where your sale is entered, once the notarised contract has been filed.

Notarisation is done by a notary in private practice of your choice, as Aargau has an open notarial system. The notary may act anywhere in the canton, Aarau included. The fee follows the cantonal scale of notarial fees.

What this means for you: agree explicitly in the contract who pays the charge. Towards the canton, buyer and seller are jointly liable, each for the full amount. Ask the notary for a quote in advance.

56 dwellings stood empty in Aarau on 1 June 2026, 0.45%. The cantonal figure was 1.05%, more than twice as high. Of Baden, Wettingen and Wohlen, only Wettingen had an even lower figure.

The vacancy rate counts rented and owner-occupied dwellings together. It does not measure how many houses are for sale in Aarau, and it is not a price either. As an indication of demand for housing, it is still useful.

For the value capture levy, the cantonal Building Act applies: 20% of the increase in value when land is zoned for building. Municipalities may raise this to at most 30%. Whether Aarau has done so is set by the town’s zoning plan; this page gives no rate for it.

What this means for you: a built-on plot already in the building zone usually triggers no value capture levy on sale. The guide on the value capture levy explains the details.