It was built im 1980 so I assume no asbestos. Anyway I was not convinced about the flat.

Turns out it has been sold by one agent while the other agent is clueless and still wants to sell it to me Comedy gold.

Definitely don't assume a 1980 house won't have asbestos. Sure it won't have sheets of it but could still have an issue.
We had to test a house we were remodelling (a requirement from the Canton), didnt expect to find any...and found it everywhere. Low levels but that still matters.
Had to have the whole house put into a double sealed bubble then cleared out by a team of workers in "space suits" and the waste disposed of in a special way. Only after we got an official clean-certificate could work proceed.
I now know asbestos fibre was in tiling grout at that time, also in the textured wall plaster plus even in windows (the string that held the glass panes in contained it).
I guess the test is a rule since its suspected it would be present even at this age.
Only (slight) upside was that the Swiss price was not especially higher vs EU prices where we did a similar job a few years before.

I have seen so many ads with really nice design and modern houses, but the prices are much lower that market prices, because those houses are not even build yet.



I called a real estate agent, I just wanted to ask more basic inforamtion about the house, but he was quite rude saying that you have to go to the bank, get the mortgage and pay the deposit first before talking to the Architect and seeing the floor plan. It's very strange, I didn't ask for that, but all he meant was I must pay deposit first before he tell me more about the house. But who is going to pay such a big amount unfront without knowing what he buy.



Those houses are quite tempting, as they look really modern and the prices are around 10-20% lower than exsisting houses, also the prices are already included kitchen and bathroom, i can decide what colour i want, as long as within their budget.



Here is my question, what's the risk on buying this kind of property?

You will likely go over the 'budgets' for fittings by 100-200k, thats why they seem cheap. New builds are more expensive as everything is new.

IMO, new buildings are 20 to 30% more expensive per sq. m than comparable old buildings.
Not sure of new construction quality (have not seen any). As far as builder standard finishes and fittings it is, as expected, simply atrocious. So you would need to upgrade everything from tiles, floors ,windows to plumbing fixtures and door handles.

It is inaccurate to describe all new building as being the same. It really is more about who the builder is and what they are building.

The budget for the finishing can vary greatly from one builder to another. If you are not the original owner you may find that the first owners selected things based on their budget and taste (or lack of ).

I have lived in old and new houses. Both can have problems, just not necessarily the same.

I am looking at a building with 6 flats, the paperwork shows the repair amount saved for any future repairs as CHF30k, so each flat has contributed 5k. Is that a reasonable amount or too low?

Surely that depends on how old the flats are, and in what condition the building is in, which is usually age-dependent but would also depend on construction materials and weathering etc.

So from which year do you think it would be relatively safe?

Can concrete/brick walls have asbestos mixed in too?

Asbestos was banned in Switzerland for the majority of uses in 1990.

I wrongly assumed or had read that it was 1980! This property thing is a pain in the butt if you are not on 120k and above wages



As some of you know I am patiently looking for a bargain attic flat or a small independent house in the mountains. Some attic flats have 1 or 2 rooms in the middle area of the flat with roof windows only. In winter, I assume the roof will be covered for a few months by a thick layer of snow, does that mean those windows will stay closed and as a result no light will come from above?

Yes

@Talk to you later,

Did you see this one?
https://www.immoscout24.ch/en/d/deta...216&ci=13&pn=1

No running water.
It's called a weekend house... I wonder what it would take to be allowed to live there, permanently. Remote enough for you?

I never saw it because it is in Aargau It is not on a mountain, it is on a mound of dirt It does look cute though from outside with trees etc. Inside it needs a lot of work.


I am aiming for the German-speaking part of Wallis or Berner Oberland, but in Berner Oberland everything seems too expensive for my homeless goat farmer budget.

Look at this one for example in Wallis (half the nice photos gone as it has been sold). CHF 244k, small and tidy. Cute garden with grill area. Was recently renovated. Right next to Zermatt, 15min by bicycle. I was thinking of buying it but it is in a proven stone fall area.

I had to do a lot of detective work and managed to find a few aerial photos taken by general hikers from higher up mountains looking down at the property. There are just way too many stones almost the size of the house waiting to fall one day. Next to the house was a bit of forest cover which I hoped would provide protection from stones but aerial photo showed that tons of stones were creeping forward and the forest cover was very thin.

I hesitated too much, it could be that there is no problem for the next 40 years, but I was not willing to risk it. Rightly or wrongly Climate change and increased crumbling of the Alps did not help matters.

Another property I am interested in falls under "permanente rutschung" on the danger map.

This is what "permanente rutschung" looks like even if the area looked harmless before

I wonder if someone cut down the trees above the house to create a nice green open space.

The upside is no one can build and block your view!

Not sure if serious. Does everyone realize that ASBESTOS scare is only pertinent when asbestos is airborne? You have to inhale asbestos for years to develop the problems. The asbestos disposal fees in CH are laughably low.
Unless you are going to scrape your roof tiles or brick walls compulsively and inhale the fibers there is no danger of you ever coming in contact with asbestos.

plus you can get some incredible views from the overhanging room. definitely a selling point!

A glass floor would be recommended