We are moving from the Oberland to Basel next year, we have already bought the new house whilst renovations are being completed, contract signed etc etc.

Despite having gone through our own notary as well as the usual middle man one, we now appear to have a problem as Basel Stadt won't approve the purchase as it is in our joint names (my wife is non-EU) and the law (Lex Koller) won't allow non-EU citizens to buy property outside of the canton that issued her Ausweis ie Canton Bern.

Despite the fact that for tax purposes we have already declared that this new house, when ready, will be our main home, we are still needing to go through an appeal process. Seems very odd - that interpretation of the law effectively means that no non-EU citizen can ever change cantons as - by definition - you already own your old house when you buy your new one.

Anybody any insight or experience of the same issue?

(Worst case is of course that I change the deeds and buy it in my name, then change it back when we move in....but its a bit of an expensive and time consuming @rse ache to do that)

It does seem odd as the non-EU spouse usually gets the same rights as the EU spouse. I think it's just a matter that this law was not updated in keeping with the EU/EEA treaty. They probably didn't even consider circumstances such as yours.

Anyway... She will need to change permits when she moves to Bern, so move into a hotel and go register for your new permits. Then she will have a Bern permit. I bet it's cheaper than going through the notary twice to change the deeds.