Price negotiations are easier with private sellers then with agencies. Not that any kind of price negotiation is easy in Switzerland, this is just not the thing this country is known for.

Sellers will often blow the gasket on any attempt of negotiation which by itself is also quite a satisfying experience.

If a seller is going via an agency they're most likely paying 2.5% commission so that might give you something to explore. Thus on a CHF1m place = 25k.

There again we dealt directly with a private seller in Obfelden, ZH a couple of years ago and she wouldn't move more than CHF5k. We walked away and saw later she'd put the house on with an agent at a price lower than we were offering - once you factor in the agent commission and lower sales prices her obstinance probably cost her at least CHF50k. Subsequently we found somewhere we really love but it's a tough slog.

I think market has changed a bit nowadays, agent fees are not as high as they where once. For example neho.ch charges flat fee of 9'500. Not sure how the seller experience is but as a buyer I must say that this is one of the few agents that is really nice. They do work hard to sell and deserve those 9.5k.

Unlike some other agents that are simply horrible, lazy and often outright arrogant shops.

People don't buy and sell houses here to make money, the great majority don't buy at all.

So, if you buy you do so for the long term. Don't buy and think you'll trade up in three or five years time.

The price ultimately is greatly influenced by the area. If your place is in a good area or indeed it becomes more affluent over time than its price will increase. If it doesn't and things fall apart locally, than its price will fall.

We got a place near the HQ of Nestle which is in Vaud. Its value over the last 20 years I suspect has almost doubled. But wait... I have no control over Nestle, if they hire a Chinese CEO in 2030 and he wants to move the HQ to Bejing, then I suspect the value of everything in the area will drop by 75% over night.

Mad things happen. Nestle had it IT HQ in Vevey until quite recently, but decided to move it to Spain. They will axed '000 of well paid jobs in the process over the next few years, shit happens.

Neho changed completely the real estate experience in Switzerland, they don't waste your time, they are completely open about the state of the property and you can visit the place in 3D which can save you half a day of going there and seeing how it is made.

Maybe the Hauseigentümerverband don't do their own surveys in that area, they outsource this activity to Markstein AG