What your property is worth
A figure is quickly named. One you can rely on when selling needs a site visit – and a conversation about what you actually intend to do.
A figure is a start, not an answer
Perhaps you already have a figure – from an online calculator, from the bank or from talk in the neighbourhood. That is a reasonable starting point, and we are happy to begin there. Almost all such estimates use the same method: they compare your details with transactions involving similar properties. For an ordinary condominium flat in a typical location, that works reasonably well.
What such a figure cannot do is stated by the providers themselves. UBS writes that the hedonic estimate can “deviate from the actual market value by up to 20%”. The comparison service Moneyland cites the same range. Comparis describes its own result as an “online guide value” and notes that a reliable sale price requires a look at the property on site. This is not a criticism of the calculators – they are built for initial orientation, and that is what they deliver.
But a figure does not tell you how accurate it is in your own case. A study by the Hochschule für Wirtschaft Zürich checked this against around 280,000 Swiss transactions: with the hedonic model, about 37 per cent of the estimates lie within ten per cent of the price actually paid, and a good third deviate by more than twenty per cent. For a property worth one and a half million, twenty per cent is three hundred thousand francs. That is why the site visit comes after the figure – and not the figure instead of it.
What we look at before we name a figure
- Condition of the roof, windows, pipework and heating – and when they were last renovated
- Standard of fit-out, floor plan and what could still be changed about it
- Land register: easements, pre-emption rights, building rights, annotations
- What building law permits and restricts on the plot
- Housing protection rules and listed-building protection – in Basel-Stadt often the decisive point
- For tenanted properties: rent roll, rent level, vacancies, upcoming renovations
- Location at the small scale – noise, sunlight and view differ within ten metres
- Comparison with prices actually paid, not with prices from advertisements
Which value is meant
“The value” of a property is not a single figure. Valuation practice distinguishes several types of value – asset value (Realwert), capitalised income value (Ertragswert), residual value (Residualwert), market value (Verkehrswert) and the market price estimate. Which of them is the right one depends on what you need the valuation for: a sale requires a different answer from the division of an estate, a financing a different one from a tax question.
For a sale, what counts is the market value: the price that can be expected to be achieved on the market. For a single-family house or a condominium flat, we base it on comparable prices and check it against the asset value, i.e. the value of the land and of the building in its present condition. For an investment property, the capitalised income value comes to the fore: what the rents yield in the long run. You receive a range and a recommendation for the asking price, with reasons. That is why we start with the question of what you intend to do, and not with filling in a form.
Neither too low nor too high
A valuation that is too high may win a mandate, but it costs you months on the market and, in the end, money. One that is too low sells quickly and below value. We tell you how we arrive at our valuation so that you can judge it rather than having to take it on trust.
“I look at every property myself. A sound valuation needs a site visit – and a conversation about what you actually intend to do.”
Madiba has been managing and brokering property in Basel since 1964. Mr Ruf handles the sale himself, from the first valuation to the notarial deed.
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Prefer to talk to someone straight away?
Mr Ruf comes by, looks at the property and discusses with you what it is about. Free of charge and without obligation – even if no mandate comes of it.
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