Federal Act
on the Acquisition of Immovable Property
in Switzerland by Foreign Non-Residents
(ANRA)

This Act lim­its the ac­quis­i­tion of im­mov­able prop­erty by for­eign non-res­id­ents, in or­der to pre­vent the ex­cess­ive own­er­ship of Swiss ter­rit­ory by for­eign na­tion­als.

¹ For­eign non-res­id­ents re­quire au­thor­isa­tion from the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity for the ac­quis­i­tion of im­mov­able prop­erty.

² No au­thor­isa­tion is re­quired for ac­quis­i­tion if:

a.

the im­mov­able prop­erty serves as the per­man­ent es­tab­lish­ment for a trad­ing, man­u­fac­tur­ing or oth­er form of com­mer­cial op­er­a­tion, for a skilled crafts busi­ness or for the prac­tice of a lib­er­al pro­fes­sion;

b.

the im­mov­able prop­erty serves the ac­quirer as a nat­ur­al per­son as his or her main home at his or her law­ful and ef­fect­ive place of res­id­ence; or

c.

an ex­cep­tion un­der Art­icle 7 ap­plies.⁴

³ When ac­quir­ing im­mov­able prop­erty in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 2 let­ter a, homes or areas re­served for homes may also be ac­quired if re­quired to meet res­id­en­tial quota reg­u­la­tions.⁵

¹ Au­thor­isa­tion is gran­ted only on the grounds set out in this Act.

² The can­tons may spe­cify ad­di­tion­al grounds for au­thor­isa­tion and fur­ther re­stric­tions in or­der to safe­guard their vari­ous in­terests provided this Act au­thor­ises them to do so.

¹ Ac­quis­i­tion of im­mov­able prop­erty means:

a.

the ac­quis­i­tion of im­mov­able prop­erty, of a build­ing right, of a right of res­id­ence or the usu­fruct re­lat­ing to a prop­erty;

b.⁶

par­ti­cip­a­tion in a busi­ness cap­able of own­ing as­sets without leg­al per­son­al­ity the ac­tu­al ob­ject of which is to ac­quire im­mov­able prop­erty;

c.⁷

the ac­quis­i­tion of the own­er­ship or usu­fruct of a share in a real es­tate fund, the shares of which are not reg­u­larly traded on the mar­ket, or of any sim­il­ar as­set;

c^bis.⁸

the ac­quis­i­tion of the own­er­ship or usu­fruct of a share in a real es­tate SICAV the shares of which are not reg­u­larly traded on the mar­ket, or of any sim­il­ar as­set;

d.⁹

...

e.¹⁰

the ac­quis­i­tion of the own­er­ship or usu­fruct of a share of an en­tity, the ac­tu­al ob­ject of which is to ac­quire im­mov­able prop­erty, provided the shares in this en­tity are not lis­ted on a stock mar­ket in Switzer­land;

f.¹¹

the cre­ation and ex­er­cise of a right of pur­chase, pre-emption or re­pur­chase over im­mov­able prop­erty or a share with­in the mean­ing of let­ters b, c and e;

g.

the ac­quis­i­tion of oth­er rights that place the ac­quirer in a sim­il­ar po­s­i­tion to the own­er of im­mov­able prop­erty.

² Where a leg­al en­tity or a busi­ness cap­able of own­ing as­sets without leg­al per­son­al­ity moves re­gistered of­fice abroad, wheth­er in fact or merely in ac­cord­ance with its art­icles, and re­tains rights to a prop­erty that may not be ac­quired without au­thor­isa­tion un­der Art­icle 2 para­graph 2 let­ter a, this is also deemed to be an ac­quis­i­tion of im­mov­able prop­erty.¹²

¹ «For­eign non-res­id­ents» means:

a.¹³

the fol­low­ing per­sons, un­less they are leg­ally and de facto res­id­ent in Switzer­land:

1.

cit­izens of a mem­ber state of the European Uni­on or the European Free Trade As­so­ci­ation,

2.

cit­izens of the United King­dom of Great Bri­tain and North­ern Ire­land who are covered by Art­icle 22 num­ber 2 of the Agree­ment of 25 Feb­ru­ary 2019¹⁴ between the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion and the United King­dom of Great Bri­tain and North­ern Ire­land on Cit­izens' Rights fol­low­ing the With­draw­al of the United King­dom from the European Uni­on and the Free Move­ment of Per­sons Agree­ment;

a^bis.¹⁵

a cit­izen of an­oth­er for­eign state who does not have the right to reside per­man­ently in Switzer­land;

b.

a leg­al en­tity or busi­ness with no leg­al per­son­al­ity that is cap­able of own­ing as­sets whose re­gistered of­fice is in fact or in ac­cord­ance with its art­icles loc­ated abroad;

c.

a leg­al en­tity or busi­ness with no leg­al per­son­al­ity that is cap­able of own­ing as­sets whose re­gistered of­fice is in fact or loc­ated in Switzer­land in which for­eign non-res­id­ents hold a con­trolling in­terest;

d.¹⁶

a nat­ur­al per­son, leg­al en­tity or busi­ness with no leg­al per­son­al­ity that is cap­able of own­ing as­sets that is not a for­eign non-res­id­ent un­der let­ters a, a^bis and c if ac­quir­ing a prop­erty for the ac­count of for­eign non-res­id­ents.

² ...¹⁷

¹ A for­eign non-res­id­ent holds a con­trolling in­terest if he or she as a res­ult his or her fin­an­cial par­ti­cip­a­tion, vot­ing rights or for oth­er reas­ons has a de­cis­ive in­flu­ence over the ad­min­is­tra­tion or op­er­a­tion­al man­age­ment of a busi­ness, wheth­er alone or jointly with oth­er for­eign non-res­id­ents.

² The con­trol of a leg­al en­tity by for­eign non-res­id­ents is pre­sumed if they:

a.¹⁸

own more than a third of the share cap­it­al, cap­it­al con­tri­bu­tions or co­oper­at­ive cap­it­al;

b.

hold more than a third of the votes in the gen­er­al or mem­bers gen­er­al meet­ing;

c.

make up the ma­jor­ity of the found­a­tion board or of the be­ne­fi­ciar­ies of a private found­a­tion;

d.

provide the leg­al en­tity with re­pay­able fin­an­cial re­sources that rep­res­ent more than the half of the dif­fer­ence between the as­sets of the en­tity and its debts due to per­sons not re­quir­ing au­thor­isa­tion.

³ The con­trol of a gen­er­al or lim­ited part­ner­ship by for­eign non-res­id­ents is pre­sumed if one or more of them:

a.

are part­ners with un­lim­ited li­ab­il­ity;

b.

provide the com­pany as lim­ited part­ners with fin­an­cial re­sources ex­ceed­ing one third of the equity cap­it­al of the part­ner­ship;

c.

provide the com­pany or part­ners with un­lim­ited li­ab­il­ity with re­pay­able fin­an­cial re­sources that rep­res­ent more than the half of the dif­fer­ence between the as­sets of the part­ner­ship and its debts due to per­sons not-re­quir­ing au­thor­isa­tion.

⁴ The con­trol of a real es­tate fund by for­eign non-res­id­ents is pre­sumed if its ad­min­is­tra­tion with­in the mean­ing of this Act is car­ried out by a for­eign non-res­id­ent and the fund man­ager is a for­eign non-res­id­ent.¹⁹

⁵ The con­trol of a real es­tate SICAV by for­eign non-res­id­ents is pre­sumed if its ad­min­is­tra­tion with­in the mean­ing of this Act is car­ried out by a for­eign non-res­id­ent and for­eign non-res­id­ents:

a.

hold more than one third of the votes for the en­tre­pren­eurs’ share cap­it­al;

b.

make up the ma­jor­ity of the board;

c.

provide re­pay­able fin­an­cial re­sources that rep­res­ent more than the half of the dif­fer­ence between the as­sets of in­vestor share cap­it­al of the real es­tate SICAV and their debts due to per­sons not re­quir­ing au­thor­isa­tion.²⁰

The fol­low­ing per­sons do not re­quire au­thor­isa­tion:

a.

stat­utory heirs un­der the Swiss law of suc­ces­sion;

b.²²

the trans­fer­or's as­cend­ants or des­cend­ants in dir­ect line and his or her spouse or re­gistered part­ner;

c.²³

an ac­quirer who is already a co-own­er or joint own­er of the prop­erty;

d.

con­domin­i­um own­ers in re­la­tion to the ex­change of their storeys in the same prop­erty;

e.

an ac­quirer who re­ceives the prop­erty as com­pens­a­tion in a case of ex­pro­pri­ation or land con­sol­id­a­tion un­der fed­er­al or can­ton­al law;

f.

an ac­quirer who re­ceives a prop­erty as a re­place­ment for an­oth­er that he or she has trans­ferred to a pub­lic cor­por­a­tion or in­sti­tu­tion;

g.

an ac­quirer who re­ceives a small area due to a bound­ary cor­rec­tion or as a res­ult of an in­crease in his or her share of con­domin­i­um;

h.²⁴

an ac­quirer whose ac­quis­i­tion is in the Con­fed­er­a­tion's na­tion­al polit­ic­al in­terest; the area may not be lar­ger than re­quired for the pur­pose of the prop­erty;

i.²⁵

nat­ur­al per­sons who ac­quire a home as a res­ult of the li­quid­a­tion of a leg­al en­tity es­tab­lished be­fore 1 Feb­ru­ary 1974 whose ac­tu­al ob­ject is the ac­quis­i­tion of im­mov­able prop­erty, provided they have ac­quired shares in the leg­al en­tity of equi­val­ent value to the prop­erty in ac­cord­ance with the reg­u­la­tions ap­plic­able at the time;

j.²⁶

the fol­low­ing per­sons, provided they are cross-bor­der com­muters and ac­quire a second home in the re­gion of their place of work:

1.

cit­izens of mem­ber states of the European Uni­on or the European Free Trade As­so­ci­ation,

2.

cit­izens of the United King­dom of Great Bri­tain and North­ern Ire­land, who are covered by Art­icle 22 num­ber 3 of the Agree­ment of 25 Feb­ru­ary 2019²⁷ between the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion and the United King­dom of Great Bri­tain and North­ern Ire­land on Cit­izens' Rights fol­low­ing the With­draw­al of the United King­dom from the European Uni­on and the Free Move­ment of Per­sons Agree­ment.

The ac­quis­i­tion of im­mov­able prop­erty for of­fi­cial pur­poses by in­sti­tu­tion­al be­ne­fi­ciar­ies en­joy­ing priv­ileges, im­munit­ies and fa­cil­it­ies un­der Art­icle 2 para­graph 1 of the Host State Act of 22 June 2007²⁹ is gov­erned by ex­clus­ively by Chapter 3 of the Host State Act.

¹ An ac­quis­i­tion shall be au­thor­ised if the im­mov­able prop­erty is in­ten­ded to serve:

a.³⁰

...

b.

as an in­vest­ment of cap­it­al arising from the busi­ness op­er­a­tions of in­sur­ance in­sti­tu­tions un­der for­eign own­er­ship or con­trol and li­censed for com­mer­cial op­er­a­tions in Switzer­land, provided gen­er­al re­cog­nised in­vest­ment prin­ciples are ob­served and the value of all the im­mov­able prop­erty held by the ac­quirer does not ex­ceed the pro­vi­sions for Swiss busi­ness activ­it­ies re­garded by the in­sur­ance su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity as tech­nic­ally re­quired;

c.

the oc­cu­pa­tion­al pen­sions of do­mest­ic es­tab­lish­ments or ex­clus­ively char­it­able pur­poses, provided the ac­quirer is ex­empt from dir­ect fed­er­al tax­a­tion on the im­mov­able prop­erty;

d.³¹

to cov­er charge-se­cured debts of banks and in­sur­ance in­sti­tu­tions un­der for­eign own­er­ship or con­trol and li­censed for com­mer­cial op­er­a­tions in Switzer­land, in forced sales and li­quid­a­tion set­tle­ments.

² An heir who re­quires au­thor­isa­tion but has no grounds for au­thor­isa­tion shall be au­thor­ised to make the ac­quis­i­tion on con­di­tion that he or she dis­poses of the im­mov­able prop­erty again with­in two years. If the heir demon­strates close ties to the prop­erty that are worthy of pro­tec­tion, au­thor­isa­tion may be gran­ted without this con­di­tion.³²

³ A nat­ur­al per­son who ac­quires a main, second or hol­i­day home or an ac­com­mod­a­tion unit in an apar­thotel without au­thor­isa­tion to do so due to the ab­sence of can­ton­al pro­vi­sions or a loc­al freeze on au­thor­isa­tions shall be gran­ted au­thor­isa­tion if to do oth­er­wise would res­ult in hard­ship for the trans­fer­or. Hard­ship is con­sti­tuted by a sub­sequent un­fore­see­able state of need af­fect­ing the trans­fer­or, which he or she can only avoid by selling the im­mov­able prop­erty to a per­son res­id­ent abroad. ...³³

¹ The can­tons may by law stip­u­late that an ac­quis­i­tion be au­thor­ised if the im­mov­able prop­erty is to be used:

a.

for the con­struc­tion of so­cial hous­ing un­der can­ton­al law and without fed­er­al fin­an­cial aid in loc­a­tions where there is a short­age of hous­ing, or if newly con­struc­ted res­id­en­tial build­ings are loc­ated on the im­mov­able prop­erty;

b.³⁵

...

c.

as the second home for a nat­ur­al per­son in a loc­a­tion with which that per­son has an ex­cep­tion­ally close re­la­tion­ship worthy of pro­tec­tion, provided the re­la­tion­ship is long-term.

² The can­tons may also stip­u­late by law that a nat­ur­al per­son may be au­thor­ised to ac­quire a hol­i­day home or an ac­com­mod­a­tion unit in an apar­thotel as part of the can­ton­al quota.

³ The can­tons shall de­term­ine the loc­a­tions where hol­i­day homes or ac­com­mod­a­tion units in apar­tho­tels should be ac­quired by for­eign non-res­id­ents in or­der to pro­mote tour­ism.³⁶

⁴ An au­thor­isa­tion does not count to­wards the quota if:

a.

the seller has already been au­thor­ised to ac­quire the hol­i­day home or ac­com­mod­a­tion unit in an apar­thotel;

b.

it is gran­ted un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 3;

c.

it is gran­ted for the ac­quis­i­tion of a share in co-own­er­ship of a hol­i­day home or ac­com­mod­a­tion unit in an apar­thotel, provided the ac­quis­i­tion of an­oth­er share in co-own­er­ship in the same hol­i­day home or ac­com­mod­a­tion unit in an apar­thotel has already been coun­ted to­wards the quota.³⁷

An apar­thotel is a new hotel or a hotel re­quir­ing renov­a­tion that is in the con­domin­i­um of the hotel pro­pri­et­or, for­eign non-res­id­ents and, if ap­plic­able, third parties, provided it meets the fol­low­ing re­quire­ments:

a.

the hotel pro­pri­et­or owns at least a 51 per cent share of the value of the prop­erty in the form of spe­cial fit­tings and in­stall­a­tions for the hotel busi­ness and ac­com­mod­a­tion units;

b.

at least 65 per cent of the value of the ac­com­mod­a­tion units is per­man­ently man­aged as a hotel op­er­a­tion, in­clud­ing all the ac­com­mod­a­tion units owned by the hotel pro­pri­et­or;

c.

the apar­thotel of­fers an ap­pro­pri­ate range of ser­vices and struc­tur­al and op­er­a­tion­al fa­cil­it­ies and, based on a ex­pert opin­ion of the Swiss As­so­ci­ation for Hotel Cred­it, is ex­pec­ted to be prof­it­able.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the an­nu­al can­ton­al au­thor­isa­tion quotas for the ac­quis­i­tion of hol­i­day homes and ac­com­mod­a­tion units in apar­tho­tels based on a max­im­um num­ber for the whole of Switzer­land; in do­ing so it shall take ac­count of the coun­try's polit­ic­al and eco­nom­ic in­terests.

² The max­im­um num­ber un­der para­graph 1 may not ex­ceed 1500 quota units.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall cal­cu­late the can­ton­al quotas based on the im­port­ance of tour­ism to the can­tons, the tour­ist de­vel­op­ment plans and the per­cent­age of im­mov­able prop­erty in for­eign own­er­ship on their ter­rit­ory.

⁴ The can­tons reg­u­late the al­loc­a­tion of au­thor­isa­tions from their quota.

Au­thor­isa­tion shall be re­fused in every case where:

a.

the im­mov­able prop­erty con­sti­tutes an un­law­ful in­vest­ment of cap­it­al un­der this Act;

b.

the area is lar­ger than its pur­pose re­quires;

c.

the ac­quirer has at­temp­ted to cir­cum­vent this Act;

d.³⁹

the ac­quirer of a second home as defined in Art­icle 9 para­graph 1 let­ter c, of a hol­i­day home or of an ac­com­mod­a­tion unit in an apar­thotel, his or her spouse or re­gistered part­ner or his or her chil­dren un­der 18 years of age already own such a home in Switzer­land;

e.⁴⁰

...

f.

the ac­quis­i­tion is con­trary to na­tion­al polit­ic­al in­terests.

¹ The can­tons may by law im­pose stricter lim­its on the ac­quis­i­tion of hol­i­day homes and ac­com­mod­a­tion units in apar­tho­tels in par­tic­u­lar by:

a.

in­tro­du­cing a freeze on au­thor­isa­tions;

b.

per­mit­ting the ac­quis­i­tion of hol­i­day homes only as part of a con­domin­i­um or of an­oth­er col­lect­ive unit of sev­er­al hol­i­day homes;

c.

per­mit­ting the ac­quis­i­tion of only a cer­tain max­im­um per­cent­age of liv­ing space of all hol­i­day homes and ac­com­mod­a­tion units in apar­tho­tels when coun­ted to­geth­er;

d.

in­tro­du­cing a right of pre-emption at mar­ket value for per­sons who do not re­quire au­thor­isa­tion;

e.

lim­it­ing ac­quis­i­tion to a build­ing right, right of res­id­ence or usu­fruct.

² The com­munes may in­tro­duce these lim­it­a­tions on their own ini­ti­at­ive. The can­tons reg­u­late the pro­ced­ure.

¹ Au­thor­isa­tion is gran­ted sub­ject to con­di­tions and re­quire­ments that guar­an­tee that the im­mov­able prop­erty will be used for the pur­pose claimed by the ac­quirer.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the min­im­um con­di­tions and re­quire­ments un­less this Act reg­u­lates them, and the for­feit­ure of au­thor­isa­tions.

³ Re­quire­ments must be noted in the land re­gister.

⁴ They may be re­voked for good cause at the ac­quirer's re­quest.

⁵ If ex­emp­tion from au­thor­isa­tion is gran­ted be­cause for­eign non-res­id­ents do not hold a con­trolling in­terest, this de­cision must be made con­di­tion­al on the ac­quirer ap­ply­ing for a new de­cision to be made be­fore any change in the cir­cum­stances that could jus­ti­fy an au­thor­isa­tion re­quire­ment.

¹ Each can­ton shall ap­point:

a.

one or more li­cens­ing au­thor­it­ies that de­cide on the au­thor­isa­tion re­quire­ment, au­thor­isa­tion and the re­voc­a­tion of an au­thor­isa­tion or con­di­tion;

b.

an au­thor­ity with right of ap­peal that may also re­quest that au­thor­isa­tion be with­drawn or crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings brought and an un­law­ful po­s­i­tion be rec­ti­fied;

c.

an ap­pel­late au­thor­ity.

² The au­thor­ity at the loc­a­tion of the im­mov­able prop­erty has jur­is­dic­tion; in cases in­volving the ac­quis­i­tion of shares in leg­al en­tit­ies or par­ti­cip­a­tion in a busi­ness cap­able of own­ing as­sets without leg­al per­son­al­ity, the au­thor­ity in whose of­fi­cial area the largest part of the im­mov­able prop­erty based on value is loc­ated has jur­is­dic­tion.

³ The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice de­cides on con­flicts of jur­is­dic­tion between the au­thor­it­ies of dif­fer­ent can­tons.

¹ After con­sult­ing the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­cide wheth­er:

a.

it is in the polit­ic­al in­terests of the Con­fed­er­a­tion that the ac­quirer should not re­quire au­thor­isa­tion for an ac­quis­i­tion;

b.

the ac­quis­i­tion is con­trary to policy in­terests; if this is the case, it shall re­fuse au­thor­isa­tion.

² ...⁴¹

³ ...⁴²

⁴ In oth­er cases, the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice and, where this Act so provides, the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice are re­spons­ible.

¹ Ac­quirers whose ob­lig­a­tion to ob­tain au­thor­isa­tion can­not be im­me­di­ately ex­cluded, must at the latest fol­low­ing con­clu­sion of the leg­al trans­ac­tion or, in the ab­sence of such, fol­low­ing ac­quis­i­tion ap­ply for au­thor­isa­tion or a de­clar­a­tion that no au­thor­isa­tion is re­quired.

² The au­thor­isa­tion au­thor­ity shall give no­tice of its rul­ing, stat­ing the grounds there­for and provid­ing in­struc­tions of rights of ap­peal, to the parties, to the com­mune in which the im­mov­able prop­erty is loc­ated, and to­geth­er with the com­plete cases files, the can­ton­al au­thor­ity with right of ap­peal.

³ If the can­ton­al au­thor­ity with right of ap­peal for­goes or with­draws the ap­peal, it shall give no­tice of the rul­ing with the com­plete case files free of charge to the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice.

¹ Un­less the land re­gis­trar can ex­clude au­thor­isa­tion im­me­di­ately, he or she shall sus­pend the pro­ced­ure and al­low the ac­quirer 30 days with­in which to ob­tain au­thor­isa­tion or the de­clar­a­tion that no au­thor­isa­tion is re­quired; he shall re­ject the ap­plic­a­tion if the ac­quirer fails to meet this dead­line or au­thor­isa­tion is re­fused.

² The com­mer­cial re­gis­trar shall pro­ceed in the same way as the land re­gis­trar; he or she shall however in every case refer a leg­al en­tity or busi­ness without leg­al per­son­al­ity but cap­able of own­ing as­sets which moves its re­gistered of­fice from Switzer­land to an­oth­er coun­try to the au­thor­isa­tion au­thor­ity be­fore its de­le­tion from the re­gister.

³ A rul­ing by the land re­gis­trar or the com­mer­cial re­gis­trar re­ject­ing the ap­plic­a­tion is sub­ject to an ap­peal to can­ton­al court of ap­peal that is com­pet­ent un­der this Act; this ap­peal takes the place of an ap­peal to the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity for the land re­gister or com­mer­cial re­gister.

⁴ ...⁴³

¹ A per­son who pur­chases a prop­erty in a com­puls­ory auc­tion must con­firm in writ­ing to the auc­tion au­thor­ity after the bid is ac­cep­ted wheth­er he or she is a for­eign non-res­id­ent, or wheth­er he or she is act­ing on be­half of a for­eign non-res­id­ent; no­tice of this re­quire­ment and of the re­quire­ment that for­eign non-res­id­ents ob­tain au­thor­isa­tion for the ac­quis­i­tion of im­mov­able prop­erty must be giv­en to the pur­chaser in the auc­tion con­di­tions.

² Where it is cer­tain that au­thor­isa­tion is re­quired and no leg­ally bind­ing au­thor­isa­tion has yet been gran­ted, or if the re­quire­ment of au­thor­isa­tion can­not be ex­cluded without fur­ther en­quir­ies, the auc­tion au­thor­ity shall, sub­ject to no­tice to the land re­gis­trar, al­low the ac­quirer ten days to:

a.

ob­tain au­thor­isa­tion or con­firm­a­tion that the he or she does not re­quire au­thor­isa­tion;

b.

ob­tain a guar­an­tee that the pur­chase price will be paid; while the guar­an­tee is ef­fect­ive, in­terest is due on the price at 5 per cent per an­num;

c.

ar­range a guar­an­tee for the costs of a fur­ther auc­tion.

³ If the ac­quirer fails to meet the dead­line or if the au­thor­isa­tion is re­fused in a leg­ally bind­ing de­cision, the auc­tion au­thor­ity shall res­cind its ac­cept­ance of the bid, giv­ing no­tice there­of to the land re­gis­trar, and or­der a new auc­tion.

⁴ The de­cision by the auc­tion au­thor­ity to res­cind ac­cept­ance is sub­ject to a right of ap­peal to the com­pet­ent can­ton­al ap­pel­late au­thor­ity un­der this Act; this ap­peal takes the place of an ap­peal to the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity for debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy.

⁵ If a lower bid must be ac­cep­ted in the sub­sequent auc­tion, the suc­cess­ful bid­der in the first auc­tion is li­able for the dif­fer­ence in bids and any ad­di­tion­al losses.

¹ Rul­ings is­sued by the au­thor­isa­tion au­thor­ity, the land re­gis­trar, the com­mer­cial re­gis­trar and the auc­tion au­thor­ity are sub­ject to ap­peals to the can­ton­al ap­pel­late au­thor­ity.

² The fol­low­ing per­sons have a right of ap­peal:

a.

the ac­quirer, the seller and oth­er per­sons who have a le­git­im­ate in­terest in the rul­ing be­ing re­versed or amended:

b.

the can­ton­al au­thor­ity with right of ap­peal or, if it fore­goes or with­draws an ap­peal, the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice;

c.

the com­mune in which the im­mov­able prop­erty is loc­ated against au­thor­isa­tion, against a de­clar­a­tion that the ac­quirer does not re­quire au­thor­isa­tion, and against the re­voc­a­tion of a con­di­tion.

³ An ap­peal must be filed with­in 30 days of no­tice of the rul­ing be­ing giv­en to the parties or the au­thor­ity with a right of ap­peal.

⁴ The can­ton­al ap­pel­late au­thor­ity shall no­ti­fy its de­cision to the per­sons with a right of ap­peal, the au­thor­isa­tion au­thor­ity and, free of charge, to the au­thor­it­ies with a right of ap­peal, stat­ing the grounds there­for and provid­ing in­struc­tions on rights of ap­peal.

¹ An ap­peal to the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies is gov­erned by the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions on the ad­min­is­tra­tion of fed­er­al justice.

² The parties and au­thor­it­ies with the right to ap­peal to the can­ton­al court of ap­peal may also ap­peal to the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies.

¹ The au­thor­isa­tion au­thor­ity and the can­ton­al ap­pel­late au­thor­ity shall es­tab­lish the cir­cum­stances of the case ex of­fi­cio. They shall rely only on sub­mis­sions that they have veri­fied and, if need be, on which they have ob­tained evid­ence.

² The au­thor­isa­tion au­thor­ity, the can­ton­al ap­pel­late au­thor­ity, the fed­er­al courts and, oth­er than in pro­ceed­ings in­volving these au­thor­it­ies, the can­ton­al au­thor­ity with right of ap­peal and the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice may re­quest in­form­a­tion on all mat­ters that are of sig­ni­fic­ance in as­sess­ing wheth­er au­thor­isa­tion is re­quired or should be gran­ted.⁴⁵

³ A per­son must provide in­form­a­tion if he or she is in­volved in the fin­an­cing or in any oth­er way in the pre­par­a­tion, con­clu­sion or the im­ple­ment­a­tion of an ac­quis­i­tion trans­ac­tion, wheth­er ex of­fi­cio, pro­fes­sion­ally, con­trac­tu­ally, or as an of­ficer of an en­tity or com­pany without leg­al per­son­al­ity or an in­vest­ment fund; he or she must on re­quest al­low the in­spec­tion of busi­ness re­cords, cor­res­pond­ence or re­ceipts, or hand the same over.

⁴ The au­thor­ity may re­fuse to au­thor­ise an ac­quis­i­tion if a per­son re­quired to provide in­form­a­tion fails to co­oper­ate when it is ne­ces­sary and reas­on­able to do so.

¹ The can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies and, oth­er than in pro­ceed­ings, the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice may or­der pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ures in or­der to pre­serve a leg­al or fac­tu­al state of af­fairs.

² The ap­peal against a pre­cau­tion­ary rul­ing does not have sus­pens­ive ef­fect.

¹ The ad­min­is­trat­ive and ju­di­cial au­thor­it­ies of the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons shall provide each oth­er with mu­tu­al and ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance.

² If, while act­ing in their of­fi­cial ca­pa­city, au­thor­it­ies or pub­lic of­fi­cials be­come or are made aware of in­fringe­ments, they must re­port the same im­me­di­ately to the com­pet­ent can­ton­al pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­ity, the can­ton­al au­thor­ity with right of ap­peal or to the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice.

³ The re­spons­ible au­thor­it­ies shall provide the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice with the in­form­a­tion on the ac­quis­i­tion of im­mov­able prop­erty by for­eign non-res­id­ents re­quired to com­pile and pub­lish stat­ist­ics there­on; the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice shall provide the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies with in­form­a­tion on mat­ters of rel­ev­ance to the au­thor­isa­tion re­quire­ment or grant­ing au­thor­isa­tion.

¹ Au­thor­isa­tion is re­voked ex of­fi­cio if the ac­quirer has wil­fully ob­tained the same by provid­ing in­cor­rect in­form­a­tion or has failed to com­ply with a con­di­tion des­pite be­ing warned to do so.

^1bis The au­thor­isa­tion re­quire­ment shall be im­posed ret­ro­spect­ively ex of­fi­cio if the ac­quirer has provided in­cor­rect or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion to a re­spons­ible au­thor­ity, the land re­gis­trar or the com­mer­cial re­gis­trar on mat­ters that are of rel­ev­ance to the au­thor­isa­tion re­quire­ment.⁴⁷

² Sanc­tions un­der the law on for­eign na­tion­als are re­served.

¹ Trans­ac­tions in­volving an ac­quis­i­tion for which the ac­quirer re­quires au­thor­isa­tion are in­val­id in the ab­sence of leg­ally en­force­able au­thor­isa­tion.

² They be­come null and void if:

a.

the ac­quirer ex­ecutes the trans­ac­tion without ap­ply­ing for au­thor­isa­tion or be­fore au­thor­isa­tion be­comes leg­ally en­force­able;

b.

the au­thor­isa­tion au­thor­ity has re­fused or re­voked au­thor­isa­tion in a leg­ally en­force­able de­cision;

c.

the land re­gis­trar or com­mer­cial re­gis­trar re­fuses to re­gister the trans­ac­tion ir­re­spect­ive of wheth­er the au­thor­isa­tion au­thor­ity has pre­vi­ously re­fused au­thor­isa­tion;

d.

the auc­tion au­thor­ity res­cinds its ac­cept­ance of the bid ir­re­spect­ive of wheth­er the au­thor­isa­tion au­thor­ity has pre­vi­ously re­fused au­thor­isa­tion.

³ Trans­ac­tions that are in­val­id or null and void must be re­cog­nised as such ex of­fi­cio.

⁴ The in­valid­ity or nullity of a trans­ac­tion has the fol­low­ing con­sequences:

a.

the prom­ise of a con­sid­er­a­tion may not be en­forced;

b.

the re­im­burse­ment of a con­sid­er­a­tion may be de­man­ded with­in one year of the plaintiff be­com­ing aware of his right to re­im­burse­ment or with­in one year of the com­ple­tion of crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings, but at the latest with­in ten years of con­sid­er­a­tion be­ing provided;

c.

leg­al ac­tion is taken ex of­fi­cio for re­store the ori­gin­al leg­al po­s­i­tion (resti­tu­tio in in­te­g­rum).

¹ The can­ton­al au­thor­ity with right of ap­peal or, if this au­thor­ity does not act, the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice, shall take leg­al ac­tion against the parties:⁴⁸

a.

to re­store the ori­gin­al po­s­i­tion where a prop­erty has been ac­quired through a trans­ac­tion that is null and void due to lack of au­thor­isa­tion;

b.

to dis­solve the leg­al en­tity with for­feit­ure of its as­sets to the state au­thor­ity where the case falls un­der Art­icle 57 para­graph 3 of the Swiss Civil Code⁴⁹.

² If res­tor­a­tion of the ori­gin­al po­s­i­tion proves im­possible or in­ap­pro­pri­ate, the court shall or­der a pub­lic auc­tion un­der the reg­u­la­tions on the com­puls­ory sale of im­mov­able prop­erty. The ac­quirer may only claim the over­all cost of pur­chas­ing the im­mov­able prop­erty; any sur­plus falls to the can­ton.

³ An ac­tion to re­store the ori­gin­al po­s­i­tion is not re­quired if the parties have already done so or a third party has ac­quired the im­mov­able prop­erty in good faith.

⁴ Both ac­tions must be brought:

a.

with­in one year of a leg­ally en­force­able de­cision that renders the trans­ac­tion null and void;

b.

and with­in ten years of the ac­quis­i­tion; the lim­it­a­tion peri­od is sus­pen­ded dur­ing ad­min­is­trat­ive pro­ceed­ings;

c.

at the latest un­til the right to bring crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings be­comes time barred if this dead­line is later.

⁵ The pro­tec­tion of rights in rem ac­quired in good faith and the right to dam­ages is gov­erned by Art­icle 975 para­graph 2 of the Swiss Civil Code.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully ex­ecutes a trans­ac­tion that is null and void due to lack of au­thor­isa­tion or who as an heir re­quir­ing au­thor­isa­tion for an ac­quis­i­tion fails to ap­ply for the same with­in the dead­line is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁵⁰

² If the of­fend­er acts for com­mer­cial gain, the pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence of between six months and three years.⁵¹

³ If the of­fend­er acts through neg­li­gence, the pen­alty is a fine not ex­ceed­ing 50,000 francs.

⁴ If the of­fend­er re­stores the ori­gin­al po­s­i­tion, the court may re­duce the pen­alty.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully provides in­cor­rect or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion to a re­spons­ible au­thor­ity, the land re­gis­trar or the com­mer­cial re­gis­trar on mat­ters that are of rel­ev­ance to the au­thor­isa­tion re­quire­ment or grant­ing au­thor­isa­tion or who fraud­u­lently ex­ploits an er­ror by any of these au­thor­it­ies is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁵²

² Any per­son who provides in­cor­rect or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion through neg­li­gence is li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 50,000 francs.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully dis­reg­ards a con­di­tion is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.⁵³

² If the of­fend­er acts through neg­li­gence, the pen­alty is a fine not ex­ceed­ing 50,000 francs.

³ If the con­di­tion is sub­sequently re­voked or if the of­fend­er sub­sequently com­plies with the con­di­tion, the pen­alty is a fine not ex­ceed­ing 20,000 francs.

⁴ The crim­in­al court may not is­sue its judg­ment un­til a fi­nal judg­ment has been is­sued in the pro­ceed­ings for the re­voc­a­tion of the con­di­tion.

Any per­son who re­fuses to com­ply with an ob­lig­a­tion to provide in­form­a­tion or pro­duce doc­u­ments im­posed on him or her by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity un­der threat of pen­al­ties un­der this Art­icle is li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 50,000 francs.⁵⁴ No of­fence is com­mit­ted if the per­son con­cerned is bound by pro­fes­sion­al secrecy un­der Art­icle 321 of the Crim­in­al Code⁵⁵.

¹ Any pro­sec­u­tion must be brought:

a.

with­in two years in the case of re­fus­al to provide in­form­a­tion or pro­duce doc­u­ments;

b.

with­in five years for oth­er con­tra­ven­tions;

c.

with­in ten years for mis­de­mean­ours.

² The pen­alty for a con­tra­ven­tion must be en­forced with­in five years.

¹ Any per­son who ob­tains an un­law­ful ad­vant­age through an un­law­ful act that has not been remedied by a civil ac­tion shall, be­fore the time lim­it for bring­ing a pro­sec­u­tion ex­pires and ir­re­spect­ive of the crim­in­al li­ab­il­ity of any spe­cif­ic per­son, be re­quired to pay an equi­val­ent amount to the can­ton.

² Gifts and oth­er pay­ments are for­feited in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 70–72 of the Crim­in­al Code.⁵⁶

Of­fences in the course of com­mer­cial op­er­a­tions are gov­erned by ana­logy by Art­icles 6 and 7 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974⁵⁷ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law.

¹ Pro­sec­u­tion is the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the can­tons.

² Im­me­di­ate no­tice must be giv­en free of charge to the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land (OAG) of the in­sti­tu­tion of crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings, de­cisions to dis­miss pro­ceed­ings, sum­mary pen­alty or­ders and con­vic­tions; the OAG may at any time re­quest in­form­a­tion on the status of on­go­ing crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings.

³ ...⁵⁸

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the can­tons shall is­sue the re­quired im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

² Apart from the re­quired im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions, the can­tons may also, where this Act au­thor­ises them to do so, is­sue fur­ther tem­por­ary pro­vi­sions by or­din­ance not sub­ject to a ref­er­en­dum; such or­din­ances re­main in force un­til the en­act­ment of stat­utory pro­vi­sions, but for no longer than three years fol­low­ing the com­mence­ment of this Act.

³ No­tice must be giv­en to the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice of the pro­vi­sions that the can­tons and the com­munes is­sue.⁵⁹

¹ The Fed­er­al De­cree of 23 March 1961⁶⁰ on the Ac­quis­i­tion of Im­mov­able Prop­erty in Switzer­land by For­eign Non-Res­id­ents is re­pealed.

² ...⁶¹

This Act and the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions based there­on ap­ply to au­thor­isa­tions that are gran­ted fol­low­ing the com­mence­ment of this Act by the au­thor­ity of first in­stance, un­less they are based on leg­ally bind­ing gen­er­al au­thor­isa­tions un­der the pre­vi­ous law⁶².

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall fix the max­im­um num­ber of au­thor­isa­tions for the whole of Switzer­land for hol­i­day homes and ac­com­mod­a­tion units in apar­tho­tels for an ini­tial peri­od of two years at a num­ber equi­val­ent to two thirds of all the au­thor­isa­tions that were gran­ted on av­er­age over the five years pri­or to the com­mence­ment of this Act for the ac­quis­i­tion of second homes in ac­cord­ance with the pre­vi­ous law.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² It comes in­to force on 1 Janu­ary 1985, provided the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive «against selling off our nat­ive land» has pre­vi­ously been with­drawn or re­jec­ted.⁶³ If this is not the case, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.