Selling property in Bachs: no house sold in 2015 or 2025

The canton estimates residential building land in Bachs at CHF 829 per square metre for 2025.⁸ From CHF 592 in 2015, the model value has risen by 40 per cent. The range in which the model typically lies runs from CHF 577 to CHF 1,192.

The canton only reports prices actually paid for building land for all municipalities together. In 2021 to 2025 that median was CHF 1,742 per square metre.⁸ The Bachs model is an estimate, the cantonal figure a median of prices paid. The comparison only shows that Bachs lies clearly below.

For a house, the building land is only the start. The model knows neither your plot nor the building, which comes on top with its age, condition and fit-out. An official figure for the house price per square metre of plot is missing for Bachs in all three reference years. Plot and building can still be derived separately, with plans, receipts and the land register extract.

First a caveat: the statistics here count open-market sales in the three reference years 2007, 2015 and 2025.² What happened in between is not analysed. For Bachs this means 3 house sales in 2007, none in 2015 and none in 2025.

Dielsdorf district has enough sales for official medians. Houses there cost a median of CHF 1,350,000 in 2025, from 178 sales, and condominiums CHF 920,000, from 193 sales.² In 2015 the flat median stood at CHF 690,000, from 303 sales. That makes a rise of 33 per cent by 2025.

These medians mix sales from across the district, from Regensdorf to Bachs. For a house in Bachs they are the surroundings, not a price. Whether a house in the village would sit above or below depends on its location, plot and condition, not on the district. The Zürcher Unterland planning region reports its own, different figures; they are not mixed in here.

Bachs levies the tax under the cantonal tariff, the same for all municipalities.¹ The rate rises with each band of gain. Bands go from 10 per cent on the first CHF 4,000 to 40 per cent above CHF 100,000. In the example: CHF 81,400, before the holding period.

After 10 full years it falls by 20 per cent, to CHF 65,120. At 20 full years the reduction peaks at 50 per cent, or CHF 40,700. Where the purchase lies over 20 years back, the market value of 20 years ago may be used instead. Documented value-enhancing investments reduce the gain; plain maintenance does not.

A deferral requires that you lived in your previous home yourself and buy a new one in Switzerland to live in.¹ Should the new home cost less than the proceeds, the difference is taxed at once. If its price does not exceed the purchase price and investments of the old one, there is no deferral.¹⁰ Deferred does not mean waived.