For the first five years in Switzerland, I assumed that I would never, ever be able to afford a home here. I mean, when I first started I was earning 200CHF a week as an au pair. There was no way in hell I’d ever have enough for a 200,000CHF deposit.
After I changed jobs, Kay and I would still chat about it from time to time. His parents own a house and I was vaguely interested in how the buying process works here, but I didn’t understand it. Kay explained that the aim was not to own 100% of your house and that you would always owe the bank money.
That just didn’t make sense.
I put my house-buying dream up on a shelf for a long time and forgot about it. Years rolled by, we got married last year, and somewhere around November/December, two things became important:
- After three-four years of saving from our big boy and big girl jobs, we were actually starting to have a sizable chunk of money.
- Everybody was talking about the crazy low interests rates in Switzerland.
When I say “crazy low” interest, I mean it. Interest rates effectively dropped to 0% for Libor mortgages in September/October 2012. That doesn’t include the bank’s cut, but it was enough to pique my interest.
Fixed mortgage rates were hovering around 1.5% and I learned that my FIL’s mortgage payments were about 1/10th of our monthly rent. With that knowledge, I had to at least figure out how it all works!
Homeowners, what got you interested in buying?
Want to catch up?
Obviously I’m not a homeowner but I’ve recently gotten obsessed with “My First Place” on HGTV. It’s really interesting to see the different houses and how people go back and forth with offers and such.
Good luck on your house hunting!