Selling property in Fischenthal: two medians in 2015, none in 2025

Very cheap by cantonal standards. The cantonal model sets residential building land in Fischenthal at CHF 517 per square metre for 2025.⁷ Only 6 of the 160 Zurich municipalities are lower, the lowest being Flaach at CHF 435. In 2015 the value was CHF 307; the rise since then is 68.4 per cent. Typically the model moves between CHF 366 and CHF 737.

For the canton as a whole there is a median from prices actually paid: CHF 1,742 per square metre for 2021 to 2025, more than three times the Fischenthal model value.⁷ Because model and purchase price come about differently, this gap only gives a rough sense of scale.

A low land value says little about a particular house. The model values bare land, not your plot and not the building. For a house, its age, condition and fit-out come on top, and both are derived separately and backed with documents.

In 2015 sales in Fischenthal were enough for two medians of its own: CHF 577,500 for houses from 18 sales and CHF 470,000 for flats from 16 sales.² Both lay well below the medians of Hinwil district, which in 2015 reported CHF 872,500 for houses and CHF 696,000 for flats.

In 2025, 12 houses and 3 flats sold, both below the threshold of 15.² Houses were 3 sales short, flats 12. So for that year there is no benchmark of its own at all. What happened in the years between the reference years, the data do not show.

That leaves the setting. For 2025, Hinwil district reports a flat median of CHF 950,000 from 323 sales. Its house median is CHF 1,250,000, from 213 sales. The 2015 medians show that Fischenthal lay below the district back then. Whether that still holds in 2025, no figure proves.

Fischenthal levies property gains tax under the cantonal tariff.¹ The rate rises with the gain: 10 per cent on the first CHF 4,000, 40 per cent on everything above CHF 100,000. For 10 full years of ownership there is a 20 per cent reduction, just as in the example.

From 20 full years the reduction is 50 per cent, the maximum: CHF 45,500 instead of CHF 72,800 in the example.¹ For a purchase more than 20 years ago, the market value of 20 years back may replace the purchase price. Documented value-adding investments reduce the gain; plain upkeep does not.

If you then buy a new home in Switzerland and live in it yourself, the tax can be deferred.¹ You must also have lived in the old property yourself. If the new property costs less than the proceeds, the difference is taxable at once. If it costs no more than the old purchase price plus investments, there is no deferral.¹⁰ Deferred is not waived.