Unterägeri: 54.3% of buildings with residential use predate 1981

The Canton of Zug keeps no price list by municipality, unlike the Canton of Zurich. Averages from property portals help just as little. They put a penthouse flat and a farmhouse, a 1965 build and a 2020 build into the same average.

Official records do show when buildings went up. 820 of the 1,511 buildings with residential use in Unterägeri were built before 1981, which is 54.3 per cent. Only the city of Zug has a higher share, at 61.3 per cent. Across the canton, the figure is 48.9 per cent. It describes the age of the houses, not their price.

Your price depends on location, plot and building, each assessed on its own and measured against comparable sales in the area. For a house from before 1981, what matters most is what has been renewed since. This item-by-item check is what lies behind the house valuation and the flat valuation. Your own range, in writing and with reasons, comes from the free assessment.

For property gains tax, the Unterägeri tax rate plays no part. Your return decides: the gain as a share of the investment costs, divided by the years owned. The result is your tax rate, never below 10 and never above 60 per cent, applied to the whole gain (§ 199 Zug Tax Act).

The longer you own, the lower the ceiling. Year 12: 57.5 per cent, then 2.5 points less each year, down to 25 per cent after 25 years. The way years are counted matters: after five years, every year started counts as a full one. Dates run from the land registry application. The municipality of Unterägeri carries out the assessment.

If your gain is under CHF 5,000, you pay nothing. A documented extension lowers the gain; a fresh coat of paint, being mere maintenance, does not. Replace your owner-occupied home with a new one in Switzerland, as a rule within two years. The tax on the reinvested part is deferred. Deferred is not waived.

The Canton of Zug takes no percentage of the price for a change of ownership. The land registry charges for time instead. An hour costs CHF 180, billed in quarter hours, each one started counted in full.

For a sale, the office quadruples that amount until the CHF 6,000 mark is reached. Past that point, the single rate applies again. Without another agreement, seller and buyer each pay half, but both are liable for the whole. The register for Unterägeri is kept centrally by the cantonal Land Registry and Geoinformation Office, Aabachstrasse 5, Zug.

For the notarisation, you go as a rule to the municipal clerk of Unterägeri, the official notary of the municipality. A law firm is not permitted to handle an ordinary house purchase. Cost: CHF 300 to 4,000 under the cantonal tariff, plus 10 to 50 per cent if the work takes more than an hour. So reckon in francs, not in a share of the purchase price.