Lex Koller by the Numbers

How four decades of foreign buyer rules shaped Swiss property prices, region by region

Our previous article walked through what the 2026 Lex Koller reform proposes and why it has become such a contested topic in Bern. This time we want to step back and look at the numbers. Over more than sixty years, Switzerland has tightened, loosened and reshaped the rules on property purchases by people from abroad again and again. Each change left a mark, but not evenly. Some regions felt it immediately in their price charts. Others barely noticed.

This article traces that history and lines it up against the price and demand data for the regions our clients ask about most, the Zurichsee, Zug, Geneva, Ticino, Vaud, Valais and Graubünden. The goal is simple. To show, with real figures, where Lex Koller has actually shaped the market, and where other forces are doing the heavy lifting.

A Law That Kept Changing

Lex Koller is really the current name for a rulebook that has been rewritten since 1961. Each version responded to a different worry, foreign capital, rising land prices, or pressure on tourist towns, and each left the market a little different than before.

The Quota System: A Valve, Not a Wall

At the centre of Lex Koller sits a national quota. Only about 1500 holiday apartments can be sold to buyers from abroad each year, and that allowance is split unevenly across the cantons that still permit it at all. Valais receives the largest share, 330 permits a year. Small cantons such as Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Uri, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Glarus, Jura and Schaffhausen receive just 20 each.

The most detailed public breakdown of actual use, published for 2018, shows how differently that quota gets absorbed. Valais recorded 233 new land register entries that year, using roughly seven of every ten permits available to it. Graubünden recorded 209, close to full use of its own allocation. Ticino recorded only 40, Bern 33, and Vaud just 13.

That gap matters. It tells us the quota genuinely constrains demand in Valais and Graubünden, while in Ticino and Vaud most buying activity from abroad happens outside the quota altogether, through EU and EFTA residents purchasing a primary home, or through business linked acquisitions that Lex Koller does not touch. The quota behaves less like a wall around the whole country and more like a valve on two specific taps.

Where the Quota Bites: Valais and Graubünden

Nationally, about 440 municipalities now exceed the 20 percent second home cap introduced by Lex Weber in 2012, and most of them sit in Valais, Graubünden, Ticino, Bern and Vaud. In Valais and Graubünden, that building ban lands on top of a Lex Koller quota that is already close to full, and the price data reflects it.

UBS puts the average increase for luxury mountain property at around 40 percent over the past five years, faster than anywhere else in the country, though the gains are far from uniform year to year. In the twelve months to mid 2026, Crans Montana rose more than 15 percent, and Davos, Klosters and Andermatt each rose around 12.5 percent. Verbier itself, despite trading at close to CHF 45,000 per square metre for prime property, was one of only two Swiss destinations to record a price decline over that same period. Even in the country’s tightest quota markets, growth arrives in bursts rather than a straight line.

Graubünden shows the scarcity from another angle. Close to 47 percent of the canton’s housing stock is already classified as second homes, and 82 of its 100 municipalities sit above the Lex Weber cap, meaning new second homes cannot legally be built there at all. The Upper Engadine, home to St Moritz, has recently joined the list of Swiss regions UBS flags for a high imbalance between demand and supply. St Moritz is now the most expensive location for prime property in the country, at roughly CHF 52,000 per square metre, ahead of Gstaad and Verbier at about CHF 45,000.

Where the Quota Barely Registers: Ticino and Vaud

Ticino tells a different story. Lugano has become one of the fastest growing wealth hubs in the world, drawing British arrivals since Brexit, Italian professionals, and a resilient private banking sector. Yet prices in Lugano actually slipped over the past year, down 2.1 percent for houses and 3.3 percent for apartments, even as the canton’s luxury segment stays busy with long marketing periods rather than bidding wars.

The explanation sits in the 2018 quota data. Ticino used only 40 of its permits that year. Most of the demand driving Lugano’s boom arrives through immigration and business relocation, channels Lex Koller does not restrict, rather than through the tightly capped holiday home quota. Prices there track the strength of the financial centre and residency trends, not the permit system.

Vaud, home to the Lake Geneva Riviera towns of Montreux, Vevey and Lausanne, shows the same underuse, just 13 permits taken up in 2018. Demand here leans on business relocation and lifestyle buyers rather than the restricted quota, and price growth has been solid but below the national average for prime property.

Zurichsee, Zug and Geneva: Outside the Quota System Entirely

This is the part of the picture people most often get wrong. Zurich, Zug and Geneva are not simply cantons where the Lex Koller quota goes underused, they do not appear on the federal roster of cantons where a holiday home permit can be granted to a buyer from abroad at all. That list runs mainly through traditional tourist cantons, Valais, Graubünden, Ticino, Vaud, Bern, Fribourg and a handful of others. Zurich, Zug and Geneva simply are not on it.

Kusnacht, the most expensive address on Lake Zurich, trades at around CHF 37,000 per square metre, but UBS expects prices there to plateau in 2026 as new supply, equal to about 1.5 percent of the existing housing stock, moves through the pipeline and buyers push back on asking prices. Zug keeps more momentum thanks to steady relocations. Cologny, on Lake Geneva in the canton of Geneva rather than Vaud, remains the most expensive address outside the mountains at around CHF 43,000 per square metre, with demand tied to commodity trading wealth and, increasingly, buyers from the Middle East.

None of that activity depends on the Lex Koller quota, because almost every buyer in these three markets is either a Swiss resident, an EU or EFTA national, or a company acquiring premises for its own use. Whenever Lex Koller gets blamed for Swiss property prices in general, it is worth remembering that around Zurich, Zug and Geneva, the law simply is not the lever moving the market.
Luxury real estate: Lake Zurich, Central Switzerland and Ticino

The Pattern at a Glance

What the 2026 Reform Could Change

The Federal Council’s consultation, open from 15 April to 15 July 2026, proposes closing two channels that have let capital from abroad into Swiss property without touching the residential quota. Commercial property, freely available to foreign buyers since 1997, would only be purchasable for the buyer’s own use. Shares in listed real estate funds and companies, opened up in 2005, would no longer be available to persons abroad at all. Holiday apartment purchases would also face further restriction.

If those channels close, at least some of that capital will likely look for another way into the Swiss market rather than leave it altogether. History suggests regulation here tends to redirect demand more than remove it, and the most likely destination is the resort markets already under the most pressure. UBS’s own economists, writing about the Alpine market in June 2026, expect any tightening of Lex Koller or a new second home tax to have only a limited effect on demand in those regions. The pool of buyers willing to pay for a scarce Swiss address appears deep enough that regulation shifts where the money lands more than whether it arrives.

The proposal still needs to pass through parliamentary debate, and the reaction so far has been sharply divided between those who see it closing a loophole and those who warn of real economic cost. We will track its progress and update our earlier explainer as the file moves forward.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Lex Koller explain why Swiss property prices keep rising?

Only in part, and only in specific places. Nationally, prices are shaped mostly by financing costs, supply and domestic demand. Lex Koller’s clearest fingerprint shows up in the quota constrained holiday home markets of Valais and Graubünden. Around Zurich, Zug and Geneva, its effect is minor to nonexistent.

Which regions face the tightest Lex Koller restrictions in practice?

Valais and Graubünden use close to their full annual quota, which helps explain why resorts such as Verbier, Crans Montana, St Moritz and Davos show some of the steepest price growth in the country.

How does Lex Weber interact with Lex Koller?

They are separate laws with a shared effect. Lex Koller limits how many holiday homes buyers from abroad can purchase. Lex Weber, in force since 2012, caps total second homes at 20 percent of a municipality’s housing stock. In much of Valais and Graubünden, both limits apply to the same properties, tightening supply from two directions at once.

Will the 2026 reform change where foreign buyers can purchase in Switzerland?

The consultation closed on 15 July 2026 and still needs to pass through parliament. If adopted as proposed, it would restrict routes that have been open since 1997 and 2005, commercial property and listed real estate funds, and add further limits on holiday apartments.