Swiss Real Estate Glossary: Register and Cadastre Terms for Buyers

The EGID (eidgenössischer Gebäudeidentifikator) is the number the federal government gives to every building in the Federal Register of Buildings and Dwellings. It stays with the building when a street is renamed or an address is renumbered, which is why Swiss authorities join building data by EGID rather than by address. An EGID identifies one building — not a plot of land, and not a single apartment, which carries its own dwelling number (EWID). For a buyer it is the key that confirms the building facts you are reading really belong to the building you are buying.

Source: Federal Register of Buildings and Dwellings (FSO) · Guide: why a register value is not the truth · Guide: the pre-purchase due-diligence checklist

The EGRID, also written E-GRID, is the Switzerland-wide identifier of a plot of land, assigned in the official cadastral survey and beginning with the country code CH. Cantonal parcel numbers are only unique inside their own municipality and are reissued when land is split or merged, so the EGRID is the stable key that ties one plot to its land register folio and to its cadastre extract of public-law restrictions. The relationship to buildings is not one-to-one: a plot can carry several buildings, and a large building can sit across more than one plot. Resolving an address to the correct EGRID is the first thing any serious property check has to get right.

Source: The Swiss cadastral system (swisstopo) · Guide: the PLR cadastre explained · Guide: cadastral survey and parcels in Vaud

The GWR is the federal record of every building and dwelling in Switzerland: construction year, number of floors, dwelling sizes, heating system and energy source. alpflo reads its public tier, Level A. The register is maintained from building permits and municipal notifications, so it describes what was declared, not what stands there today — a heating system replaced without a notification can stay wrong in the register for years. Read GWR fields as a documented claim to check on site, not as a survey of the building.

Source: Federal Register of Buildings and Dwellings (FSO) · Guide: why a register value is not the truth · See a full sample report

The Grundbuch, registre foncier in French, is Switzerland's official register of rights in land: ownership, easements, land charges and mortgages. It is kept by cantonal and district land registry offices rather than by one national body, so the procedure, the fee and the layout of an extract differ from canton to canton. It is not fully open: under the Civil Code anyone may obtain the basic entries — the description of the plot, the owner, the form of ownership and the date of acquisition — while the rest requires a credible interest, which a serious buyer normally establishes through the seller or the notary. Ownership passes when the transfer is entered here, not when the contract is signed.

Source: Civil Code (ZGB), Art. 942 et seq. (Fedlex) · Guide: reading and ordering a land register extract · Guide: ordering a land register extract in Aargau · Guide: the land register in Vaud · Guide: land register extract in Zurich · Guide: land register extract in Bern · Guide: Land Register Valais

The official cadastral survey — amtliche Vermessung, mensuration officielle — fixes the geometry of land: boundaries, plot area and building footprints. It is the geometric basis of the land register and of the PLR cadastre, and it is what a surveyor uses to re-establish a boundary marker on the ground. The surveyed area is the authoritative figure and can differ from the area quoted in a sales brochure. Keep it apart from the PLR cadastre: the survey says where the plot is, the PLR cadastre says what may be done on it.

Source: Swiss cadastral surveying (swisstopo) · Guide: cadastral survey and parcels in Vaud · Guide: cadastral survey and parcels in Fribourg

ÖREB — öffentlich-rechtliche Eigentumsbeschränkungen, RDPPF in French — are the binding public-law limits on what may be done with a plot: zoning, building lines, setbacks from watercourses, noise sensitivity levels, protected objects and more. They attach to the land whoever owns it, so they are not something a seller can negotiate away. The PLR cadastre gathers the legally relevant themes into one official extract per plot. It is operated canton by canton, so the themes published, their depth and the response time differ, and a theme absent from one canton's extract is not proof that nothing exists. For a buyer this is the document that shows what the plot may actually be used for.

Source: PLR cadastre (swisstopo) · Guide: the PLR cadastre explained · Guide: PLR extract or land register extract? · See which cantons alpflo covers

The noise sensitivity level (Empfindlichkeitsstufe, ES I to ES IV) sets how much noise is legally acceptable in a zone under the Noise Abatement Ordinance. ES II is the usual level for residential zones without disturbing businesses; ES III applies where housing and commerce are mixed, and tolerates more noise. The level is assigned in the communal zoning plan and published in the PLR cadastre. It bites at the planning counter rather than in daily life: on a plot already exposed to road or rail noise, the level can decide whether a permit for additional dwellings is granted, or force design changes such as putting bedrooms on the quiet side.

Source: Noise Abatement Ordinance, LSV (Fedlex) · Guide: the PLR cadastre explained · Guide: building zones and the zoning plan

Groundwater protection zones ring a drinking-water abstraction point: S1 is the immediate area around the wellhead, S2 the inner zone and S3 the outer zone. The restrictions tighten towards S1 and rest on the Water Protection Ordinance plus cantonal rules. In S3 anything that could reach the aquifer is limited: deep drilling for a ground-source heat pump is commonly refused, and excavation, fuel storage and water infiltration can need extra approval. If a plot sits in a protection zone, settle the heating question before you budget a heat pump. The zone is published in the PLR cadastre.

Source: Water Protection Ordinance, GSchV (Fedlex) · Guide: the PLR cadastre explained

The cantonal register of polluted sites (Kataster der belasteten Standorte, KbS) lists land whose soil is affected by waste: former landfills, industrial sites and accident sites. Being listed is not the same as being contaminated in the legal sense. The register separates sites where no harmful effect is expected, sites that need investigation or monitoring, and sites that need remediation — only the last is an Altlast. For a buyer the consequence is cost and timing: an entry can trigger an investigation, and soil excavated from a listed plot has to be disposed of accordingly, which is expensive. Establish who carries that cost before you sign.

Source: Register of polluted sites (FOEN) · Guide: checking contaminated sites before you buy

The Ausnützungsziffer (indice d'utilisation du sol) is the ratio of chargeable floor area to plot area, and it caps how much may be built on a plot. It is set in the communal building regulations and zoning plan, so two neighbouring communes in the same canton can permit noticeably different volumes on identical land. Not every canton still uses this measure: under the harmonised construction terminology (IVHB) many now work with a floor-space index, a site-coverage index or a volume index, and the definition of what counts as chargeable differs. If you are buying for the development potential, read the commune's own regulations rather than a rule of thumb.

Source: Building and planning, Canton of Zurich (zh.ch) · Guide: building zones and the zoning plan · Calculator: buildable floor area from the plot area

A Dienstbarkeit is a right over someone else's land entered in the land register: a right of way, a route for pipes or cables, a right to draw water, a prohibition on building. It attaches to the plot, so it transfers to you on purchase whether or not the seller mentions it — and an easement can equally run in your favour over a neighbour's land. Easements are governed by the Civil Code and appear on the land register extract, which is why reading the extract matters more than reading the sale particulars. Removing one normally needs the agreement of whoever benefits from it.

Source: Civil Code (ZGB), Art. 730 et seq. (Fedlex) · Guide: reading and ordering a land register extract · Guide: PLR extract or land register extract?

A Baurecht is an easement that lets one party own a building on land belonging to another, most often a commune, canton, church or foundation. It is normally granted for a fixed term, and where it takes the independent and permanent form — the one recorded as a parcel of its own in the land register — the Civil Code caps that term at 100 years; a building right set up as an ordinary servitude need not be time-limited at all. The holder pays an annual ground rent, the Baurechtszins. If you buy a property held under a Baurecht you are buying the building and the remaining term, not the land: lenders look hard at the years left, and the contract's compensation rules decide what you are paid when the right expires. The building right itself is entered in the land register, so the extract is where you find its terms.

Source: Civil Code (ZGB), Art. 779 et seq. (Fedlex) · Guide: reading and ordering a land register extract · Guide: the pre-purchase due-diligence checklist

Stockwerkeigentum, propriété par étages (PPE) in French, is the Swiss form of apartment ownership: co-ownership of the whole property combined with the exclusive right to use and fit out a defined unit, recorded in the land register with a value quota (Wertquote) expressed in thousandths. The quota, not the floor area, drives your share of communal costs and your weight in owners' meetings. There is no ground rent and no expiry date, so it behaves like a freehold flat rather than a leasehold one. Before buying, read the owners' rules, the minutes of recent meetings and the balance of the renewal fund, the reserve the community holds for major work.

Source: Civil Code (ZGB), Art. 712a et seq. (Fedlex) · Guide: reading and ordering a land register extract · See a full sample report

A Handänderung is the transfer of a property to a new owner. In Swiss practice the sale contract is publicly notarised, and ownership passes when the transfer is entered in the land register — not when the contract is signed and not when the money moves. The land registry office therefore decides the timing, and the change of ownership is also what triggers cantonal transfer taxes and fees. Until the entry is made you hold a claim, not the property.

Source: Civil Code (ZGB), Art. 942 et seq. (Fedlex) · Guide: seller and broker disclosure duty · Guide: reading and ordering a land register extract

The Handänderungssteuer is a cantonal, and in some places communal, tax charged when a property changes hands, calculated on the transfer value. The rate, the exemptions and whether the buyer, the seller or both carry it are set by the canton, so the same purchase price can cost meaningfully more in one canton than in its neighbour, and a few cantons levy no transfer tax at all and charge only land register and notary fees. It is separate from the property gains tax the seller pays on the profit. Treat it as part of the incidental purchase costs and confirm the current rate with the canton, because these rules change.

Source: The Swiss tax system (FTA) · See which cantons alpflo covers · Guide: seller and broker disclosure duty

The Steuerfuss is the multiplier a canton and a commune apply to the basic statutory tax rate to arrive at the tax actually owed. Federal tax is the same everywhere; cantonal and communal tax is not, and each multiplier is set anew every year by the canton and the commune. Two addresses a few minutes apart, in different communes, can carry visibly different annual tax bills on the same income and the same property. Swiss owner-occupiers have also been taxed on an imputed rental value (Eigenmietwert); voters approved abolishing it at the federal vote of September 2025, and the Federal Council has since set the system change to enter into force on 1 January 2029, so the imputed rental value still applies to tax years before then — check the position for the year you buy. The commune's multiplier is part of the real running cost of a home, not a background statistic.

Source: Tax multipliers, deductions and rates (FTA) · See which cantons alpflo covers

Lex Koller is the informal name of the federal act on the acquisition of real estate by persons abroad. It makes the purchase of residential property by a person abroad subject to authorisation from the canton in which the property lies; without that authorisation the transaction is void and cannot be entered in the land register. Whether you count as a person abroad turns on nationality and residence status, not on where the money comes from: EU or EFTA nationals genuinely resident in Switzerland, and holders of a settlement permit, are generally treated like Swiss buyers. A home you will live in yourself is treated differently from a holiday home, which is confined to designated tourist communes under annual quotas, and commercial premises fall outside the act. If you are not resident in Switzerland, clarify your position with the cantonal authority before you make an offer.

Source: Acquisition of real estate by persons abroad, ANRA (Fedlex) · Guide: the pre-purchase due-diligence checklist · Guide: reading and ordering a land register extract

The ÖV-Güteklasse, niveau de qualité de desserte in French, grades how well an address is served by public transport, from A, the best, down to D. The Federal Office for Spatial Development derives it from stop locations, service categories and timetable frequency, so it is a modelled value rather than a register entry, and it describes the address rather than the journey you personally make. It also carries planning weight: many communes tie the number of parking spaces a development may build to the class. For a buyer it is a quick, comparable read on how car-dependent an address is.

Source: Public transport service quality classes (ARE) · See a full sample report · Guide: the pre-purchase due-diligence checklist

Sonnendach is the federal solar cadastre run by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. It models the annual solar irradiation of individual roof surfaces across Switzerland from roof geometry, orientation, tilt and local shading, and rates each surface from poor to excellent. The figure is modelled rather than measured on your roof: it knows nothing about a tree that has grown, a neighbouring building that is planned, the state of the roof covering or the local grid connection. Use it to judge whether a roof is worth an installer's quote, not as a yield guarantee.

Source: Sonnendach (Swiss Federal Office of Energy) · See a full sample report

The GEAK, CECB in French, is the cantonal building energy certificate. It rates the building envelope and the overall energy efficiency from A to G, and the GEAK Plus variant adds a report on renovation options. You cannot look one up: the Verein GEAK usage regulations define the national database as expressly non-public, with a closed list of permitted recipients, and the certificate search needs the full certificate number rather than an address. One canton alone publishes a per-building register — Lucerne — and only for certificates issued from 2019 that the owner released. A cantonal duty to obtain a certificate, for instance on sale, does not make the register public. Where no public entry exists, alpflo says so rather than estimating. No GEAK does not mean a poor building; it usually means nobody has commissioned one.

Source: GEAK certificate search (geak-tool.ch) · Guide: why a GEAK/CECB cannot be looked up · See which cantons alpflo covers

A hedonic estimate is a statistical model of a property's likely market value, calibrated on past sale transactions and driven by attributes such as location, floor area, year of construction and condition. Swiss banks use hedonic models when sizing a mortgage, and the Federal Statistical Office uses the same family of methods for its residential property price index. The result is a model output, not an official value and not a price: it cannot see the state of the bathroom, the noise from the road, or what a competing bidder is prepared to pay. alpflo does not value property — the term is here because you will meet it in a lender's paperwork.

Source: Residential property price index IMPI (FSO) · Guide: the hedonic estimate explained · Guide: why a register value is not the truth

What is the difference between EGID and EGRID?

The EGID identifies a building; the EGRID identifies the plot of land it stands on. A plot can carry several buildings and a large building can sit across two plots, so the two numbers are not interchangeable — and neither of them identifies a single apartment, which has its own dwelling number (EWID).

What does ÖREB mean?

ÖREB stands for öffentlich-rechtliche Eigentumsbeschränkungen: the public-law restrictions on landownership, meaning binding limits on what may be done with a plot, such as zoning, building lines, setbacks from watercourses or noise sensitivity levels. RDPPF is the French abbreviation for the same thing, and the PLR cadastre publishes them plot by plot, canton by canton.

Is everything in a Swiss register legally binding?

No. Land register entries and ÖREB restrictions are legally binding. GWR building data is stated by the register and can be out of date, and values such as the ÖV-Güteklasse, the Sonnendach potential or a hedonic estimate are modelled. alpflo labels every fact with one of four honesty states so you can see which kind you are looking at.

Can a foreign buyer purchase property in Switzerland?

Often yes, but not freely. Under Lex Koller a person abroad needs authorisation from the canton to acquire residential property, and holiday homes are confined to designated tourist communes under annual quotas. Nationality and residence status decide which rules apply to you, so clarify your position with the cantonal authority before you make an offer.

Is Stockwerkeigentum the same as a leasehold flat?

No. Stockwerkeigentum is co-ownership of the whole property together with an exclusive right to your own unit, recorded in the land register with a value quota. There is no ground rent and no expiry date, so it behaves like a freehold flat. The Swiss arrangement closer to a leasehold is the Baurecht, where a building is owned for a fixed term on land belonging to someone else.

Which of these terms vary from canton to canton?

Most of the ones that cost money or restrict building. The land registry office, the transfer tax, the tax multiplier, the zoning and floor-area rules and the depth of the PLR cadastre extract are cantonal or communal. The federal registers — GWR, EGID and EGRID — are the same everywhere. Check the canton and the commune, not just the country.