Selling property in Lindau: a flat price on the edge

It sits on the edge. The canton only releases a median when a year has at least 15 sales.² In Lindau, exactly 15 flats were sold on the open market in 2025. Among the 62 municipalities I describe here, none has a flat median based on fewer sales. In 2015 it was CHF 730,000, from 17 sales.

With so few sales, a handful of flats can shift the median noticeably. If larger or newer flats were sold in a given year, it can rise. If they were smaller or older, it can fall. Which flats were involved in 2025 remains open in the statistics.

What this means for you: take CHF 900,000 as a pointer, not as a price. For your flat, floor, layout, year of construction and condition count. And if you want to buy a flat in the village, plan with a range rather than a single figure. The rise of 23 per cent since 2015 should be read with the same caution.

At the median, a house in Lindau costs 1.7 times as much as a flat; across the canton, 1.3 times.² The medians are CHF 600,000 apart. In the median comparison, a move within the village therefore frees up more capital than the cantonal medians would suggest. That is before tax, costs and mortgage.

The house median rests on more sales, 24, compared with 20 in 2015.² It has risen by 28 per cent since 2015, from CHF 1,175,000, and is now 6 per cent below the canton.

If you buy the flat and lived in the house permanently yourself, the tax can be deferred.¹ If the flat is cheaper than the proceeds, the difference is taxed straight away.¹¹ If it is no dearer than your house plus investments once were, the deferral falls away entirely. What this means for you: run the move through with your own figures before you commit.

In the example, the flat median rose from CHF 644,000 in 2007 to CHF 900,000. On the gain of CHF 256,000, CHF 51,408 in tax is due, 5.7 per cent of the sale price.¹ The canton sets the tariff; Lindau only levies the tax.

For houses there is no 2007 median, as only 10 were sold then. Your calculation therefore starts with your own purchase contract. The longer ago you bought, the larger the reduction: 44 per cent after 18 full years, half from 20 years.¹ In the flat example, CHF 45,900 would then be due.

Documented investments that add value reduce the gain. Ordinary upkeep does not.¹ The tax rate of 106 per cent, 201 per cent including the canton, only affects income and wealth.³ On the same income, Illnau-Effretikon means about 3 per cent more cantonal and municipal tax, Nürensdorf about 8 per cent less.