How much unused potential is hiding in your plot?

The land potential check starts with the zone. The floor area ratio (Ausnützungsziffer) sets how much living and working space may be built in relation to the plot area.¹ Whether a ratio applies to your plot at all, and which one, is set by your municipality's regulations or a design plan.¹ Whether part of your land can be split off is part of the review too.

We also check whether a zoning change would trigger a value capture levy. And who ends up paying it.² Finally, we factor in the property gains tax on a possible sale profit. That way, you know what might be left net.⁴

What the check is not: a feasibility study or a building permit. Both need their own procedure with an architect and the building authority. We build your first assessment from public records. These include the zoning map, your municipality's regulations, the value capture levy act and the tax act. More on the floor area ratio is on its own page.

We work for you as the owner, not for the buyer. That is why we show you four routes, not just one.

The first: sale to vetted developers or investors through a bidding process. Several bidders offer at the same time, under the same written rules. The second: sale to a private buyer who wants to use the plot or hold it as an investment. This is often the simpler, quicker route.

The third option: you grant a building lease (Baurecht). You keep the land in your ownership, while someone else builds on it and pays you an ongoing ground rent.⁵ The fourth: you keep the plot and develop it yourself. If you wish, we bring in architects and specialist planners.

Which route suits you? That depends on your plot, your age, and whether you want ongoing income or a one-off proceeds. One rule applies to all four routes: you decide, we lay out the facts for it.

Two terms sound similar: added value is what a new zone adds to your land; the levy is the charge on part of that. On a first-time rezoning (Einzonung), you owe the canton 20 per cent of the added value, if it is at least 30,000 francs.² This levy falls due on sale or when you build.

Other rezonings work differently: your municipality may raise its own levy, but only if it has decided to.² It falls due only once the plot is built on, not at sale – sell first, and the duty passes to the buyer.³ Exception: a public-buildings zone rezoned into another building zone is charged like a first-time rezoning.²

Property gains tax on your profit comes on top. From five years of ownership it falls in stages, halving by 20 years.⁴ How this works for building land is on its own page. What is left net comes from the Zurich calculator; more on the levy is on its own page.

If several of you inherit a plot, a majority does not decide. Selling, developing or granting a building lease all need every heir's agreement – unless an executor or an heirs' representative (Erbenvertreter) holds that power. The inheritance itself does not yet trigger property gains tax.⁴ Only a later sale triggers the tax. It is usually calculated from when the deceased (the Erblasser) acquired the plot, not from the inheritance itself.⁴ Until then, the tax is deferred, not waived.

With building land, a shared first step is worth it: a neutral assessment of what the plot is worth today. And which of the four routes suits everyone, before individual siblings pursue their own plans. That way, you decide together, not against each other. If not everyone wants to sell, a building lease or keeping the plot jointly often offers a middle path. More on splitting, payouts and deadlines is on the page Joint heirs and a plot.