Selling property in Altikon: few sales, a high share aged 65 or over

It starts with the land. CHF 501 per square metre is the cantonal model value for residential building land in Altikon in 2025.⁸ For 2015 it was CHF 379, a rise of 32.2 per cent since. The model puts only 4 of the 160 municipalities in the canton lower. In Altikon its typical range is CHF 350 to CHF 715.

This is an estimate for undeveloped land, not a price paid. Prices paid are only reported for the whole canton: for 2021 to 2025 their median was CHF 1,742 per square metre.⁸ The two measures are produced in different ways and only show that Altikon lies far below.

Your plot may differ from the model. For a house, the building also comes on top, with its age, condition and fit-out. Altikon has no official house price per square metre of land in any reference year. Your figure therefore only becomes reliable with documents on the plot and the building.

First the figures: 23.2 per cent of people in Altikon are 65 or older, 176 of 759.⁴ Only 16 of the 160 municipalities in the canton have a higher share, Egg has the same, and the other 142 a lower one. Yet the statistics count only 7 open-market house sales across the three reference years.²

Who sells and when, these data do not say. Documented is only that the village offered hardly any comparable sales in those years. For long periods of ownership, however, the tax law has rules of its own. And anyone who inherits a house generally takes over the purchase price and purchase date of the deceased person for tax purposes.

For the price, Winterthur district gives the surroundings. In 2025 a flat there cost a median of CHF 950,000, from 536 sales, and a house CHF 1,330,000, from 309 sales.² Sales from across the district flow into both medians. For your house in Altikon they are a frame, not an answer.

Altikon levies the tax, but the tariff is the same throughout the canton.¹ The rate climbs with the gain. It runs from 10 per cent on the first CHF 4,000 to 40 per cent above CHF 100,000. After 10 full years the example gets a 20 per cent reduction.

Long ownership pays off. At 20 full years the reduction reaches 50 per cent. The example tax would then be CHF 45,700, not CHF 73,120.¹ If the purchase was over 20 years ago, the market value of 20 years ago can replace the purchase price on request. Documented value-enhancing investments reduce the gain; plain maintenance does not.

Moving from a house into a flat you own can defer the tax, if you live in both yourself and the flat is in Switzerland.¹ If it costs less than the proceeds, the difference is taxable at once. If it costs no more than the purchase price and investments of the house, nothing is deferred.¹⁰ Deferred does not mean waived.