Notes on luxury real estate.
Buyers who compare cities, rules that change how property sells in Switzerland and Spain, and mandates that are won before the first viewing.
Luxury real estate ·
In Switzerland, “CO2-neutral living” is no longer a slogan. It is a claim you must be able to prove.
Since 1 January 2025, the Swiss Federal Act on Unfair Competition has required any claim about the climate impact of a company or what it sells to be provable on an objective, verifiable basis. In 2026, the Federal Office for the Environment published how it reads the rule. What the law and the guidance say, what I do not know, and what I would check on a development’s website and brochures.
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In the second half of 2025, foreign non-residents bought 15.1% fewer homes in Spain. They are still the buyers who pay the most per square metre.
Spain’s golden visa ended on 3 April 2025. In the second half of that year, home purchases by foreign non-residents fell 15.1%, while those by foreign residents rose 3.3%. But buyers from abroad paid on average €3,242 per square metre, against €1,963 for those who already live in Spain. What that means for a luxury agency’s website, and the page worth deleting today.
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Spain’s 100% tax on buyers from outside the EU never reached a vote. Since 6 October 2026, Congress has listed it as lapsed.
In May 2025, a bill in Spain proposed a 100% tax on property purchases by individuals and companies not resident in the European Union. It waited more than a year for a first debate that never came. With the dissolution of Parliament, Congress has listed it as lapsed since 6 October 2026. The headline, however, is still on Google. What to tell a foreign buyer who has read it.
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Since 8 October 2026, letting a home in Spain for a season requires a reason the landlord can prove. And the rule may still lapse.
Royal Decree-law 29/2026 came into force on 8 October: a seasonal let of a home becomes temporary housing, with the reason written into the contract and the burden of proof on the landlord. A decree with the same title fell in Parliament days earlier, the Cortes have been dissolved, and this one must be validated within 30 days. What an estate agency’s website can say today, and what it cannot.
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UBS rates Zurich a high bubble risk and puts Madrid among the fastest risers. Your buyer has already read it.
On 22 September 2026, the UBS real estate bubble index rated Zurich a high risk, Geneva elevated and Madrid moderate, after a real price rise of around 10%. That same morning, headlines were calling Zurich the world’s most dangerous bubble. What the index measures, what it does not say, and why the agency that explains the headline calmly gains more than the one that tries to reassure.
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Spain’s estate agents reported 17 suspicious transactions in 2025. On 28 October, a rule changes for the small ones.
According to Sepblac, real estate intermediaries across Spain reported 17 suspicious transactions in 2025, against 63 in 2024. Developers reported 94, notaries 573. And a Royal Decree published on 8 October 2026 now requires small agencies too to appoint a representative to Sepblac. What the figure says, what changes, and why an agency’s protection lies in being able to show in writing what it examined.
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On the portal you rent visibility. Your website is yours.
Property portals bring reach and charge well for it: idealista was sold in 2024 at a valuation of €2.9 billion, and in Switzerland, where the portal’s accounts are public, average revenue per agency rose 14.7% in 2025. Why I would not cancel any portal, but would invest every year in pages the agency owns, and which number is missing to decide how much.
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In 2029 the imputed rent tax goes. For holiday homes, a new calculation begins.
Switzerland’s abolition of the imputed rental value is often read as a tax cut. For a holiday home the sums are more open: the maintenance deduction goes, the interest deduction usually goes too, and the mountain cantons are preparing a special property tax. What is settled, what is still open and why an agency should answer the question on its own website before Google does.
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Your buyer is comparing Zurich with Milan, not with the agency across the street.
Knight Frank’s index for the first quarter of 2026 puts Zurich, Madrid, Geneva and Lisbon at the top of Europe over the past year, and Milan at the top over five. The reasons it gives appear on no property listing: tax, financing and lifestyle. Why a luxury agency’s website competes with other cities first, and what it should say.
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Spain scrapped the national rental number. It did not scrap the people watching every listing.
Ruling 620/2026 of Spain’s Supreme Court struck down the national registration number for short-term rentals. Many headlines called it the end of red tape. What fell is a procedure: the digital gateway that receives platform data still stands, and the EU regulation has applied since the day after the ruling. For agencies selling Spanish homes to international buyers, the opportunity is to explain it properly, first.
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Everyone is talking about the foreign buyer. The foreign seller has more to lose.
The Lex Koller reform is mostly read as a problem for foreign buyers. The federal government’s own figures tell a different story: a foreign owner of a Swiss holiday home could find fewer buyers tomorrow. What is proposed, what is still open and what an agency can do now.
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Your profession doesn’t draw the line. What you do in the deal does.
The revised Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act does not cover every estate agent, but it does reach many in the luxury market. Where the line runs, what the law asks for, why 1 December matters and what changes on the website and in the CRM.
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Buyers are not what is scarce. Mandates are.
In luxury property, buyers are rarely what is scarce; mandates are. What an agency’s website must show to win an owner’s trust, from Marbella to Gstaad.
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