Selling property in Kappel am Albis: land up, market thin

It shows a marked shift. For 2025 the cantonal model puts residential building land in Kappel am Albis at CHF 1,582 per square metre.⁷ In 2015 the figure was CHF 860, which is 84 per cent more in ten years. For 2025 the typical range of the model runs from CHF 1,109 to CHF 2,258.

For comparison, the flat median of Affoltern district rose by 36 per cent over the same period.² These are two different measures: a model for undeveloped land and a median of prices paid for flats. Across the canton, residential building land actually sold for a median of CHF 1,742 per square metre in 2021 to 2025.⁷ The model value of Kappel am Albis sits below that.

For your house, the model value applies to undeveloped land, not to your plot with its location and size. A house adds the building, with its age, condition and fit-out. Plot and building, derived and documented separately, give a figure that can be checked.

It has enough sales for official medians. In 2025, 217 condominiums changed hands on the open market in Affoltern district, at a median of CHF 1,150,000.² In 2015, 246 sales produced a median of CHF 847,500. For houses, the district median in 2025 was CHF 1,680,000, from 169 sales.

The Knonaueramt planning region shows exactly the same figures for 2015 and 2025 as the district. A second, different benchmark for the surroundings of Kappel am Albis is therefore missing.

None of these figures is the price of a property in Kappel am Albis. A district median pools sales from across the district. Where those properties stood and how they were built, the statistics do not show. So the district works as a frame for the worked example, not as an estimate of your own house or flat.

Above all, how long you owned it. The tariff is the same across the canton; the municipality levies the tax.¹ It starts at 10 per cent on the first CHF 4,000 of gain. Parts above CHF 100,000 bear 40 per cent. A reduction starts at 5 full years, 20 per cent after 10.

From 20 full years it peaks at 50 per cent: CHF 55,200 instead of CHF 88,320 in the example.¹ Bought more than 20 years ago? Then the market value of 20 years ago may count. Documented value-enhancing investments reduce the gain; plain maintenance does not.

Buy a Swiss home you will live in, and the tax can be deferred, provided you also lived in the one you sold.⁹ If the replacement costs less than the proceeds, the difference is taxable at once. If it costs no more than the purchase price and investments of the old property, there is no deferral. Deferred does not mean waived.