Selling property in Illnau-Effretikon: more flat sales

First the figure: in 2025, 122 condominiums were sold on the open market; in 2015 it was 49.² In none of the 36 municipalities I describe here has this number grown as strongly. The median rose by 60 per cent along the way, to CHF 1,122,500. It is only 6 per cent below the canton.

For flat owners, this means buyers have choice, and they compare. Your price has to hold its own against many other offers. The median alone will not carry it; size, condition and position in the building decide.

For house owners who want to downsize, more flats in the municipality now come onto the market than in 2015. They are not cheap. There are CHF 232,500 between the house and flat medians. In the canton a house costs 1.3 times as much as a flat; here it is about 1.2 times. What this means for you: downsizing locally gains comfort but frees up less capital than the cantonal medians would suggest.

In the median example, the house incurs CHF 145,264 in property gains tax.¹ It need not always be paid at once. The law allows deferral when you put the proceeds into a new home.

Did you live in the house permanently and exclusively yourself? If you then buy or build a home for the same use in Switzerland within a reasonable period, the tax is deferred.¹ This applies only to the extent the proceeds are used for it. If the new home costs less, the difference is taxed at once. If it costs no more than the house once did, investments included, there is no deferral. And deferred does not mean waived: sell later without a new replacement, and the deferred gain is taxed.

What this means for you: settle the tax question before you buy the flat. The deadline and the price of the flat help decide how much you pay at once. Work it out first with your own figures.

The land. The canton estimates residential building land in Illnau-Effretikon at CHF 1,657 per square metre in 2025.¹⁰ That is 90 per cent more than in 2015. The house median rose by 34 per cent over the same period. With an older house on a large plot, it is therefore worth valuing land and building separately.

The train. From Effretikon station the journey to Zürich HB takes from 16 minutes, on the S 3.⁵ For buyers who work in Zurich, that is an argument. In the municipality, 19.8 per cent of people are 65 or older, and 7.1 per cent are 80 or older.⁴

The tax rate. It is 113 per cent, 208 per cent including the canton.³ It only applies to income and wealth. In Dübendorf you pay about 10 per cent less cantonal and municipal tax on the same income, in Winterthur about 6 per cent more. What this means for you: moving to another municipality also changes your ongoing tax.