Apartment construction

Real Estate
1

Hi all,

We are about to get the keys from newly constructed apartment (PPE in canton Vaud) and there are few questions in my mind related to the final step

  • What to be aware and anything special to watch out during the checkup?
  • What kind of documentation should we expect? I mean technical things, for example, about floor heating?
  • What kind of insurances is better to take in case of living in your own apartment (I know that fire insurance is mandatory in Vaud but what else?)

Thanks

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2

I suggest you hire a professional snagger.

3

thanks a lot for the advice, I didn’t know it even a thing

any references or experience? so far from what I googled I saw mostly companies from the UK and real estate agencies advertisements in switzerland where they propose it as part of the buyer package

4

if you find out then I will be interested as I buying an apartment off plan that will be delivered next year. Also, in VD.

5

This is all very local so you need to check who’s in your area.

6

Yeh I’m in a similar situation and I am about to hire a construction consultant for about 150 CHF per hour to come on site and do some checking in the final stages. I started by contacting architects close to the build and filtered out the ones that have conflicts of interest.

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7

Hello @noname - I am in a similar situation with you and considering a PPE apartement to be constructed. Did you have to take a “construction loan” before the mortgage? and did you have the choice of the bank for the construction loan?

The promoter here is more or less saying that the construction loan must be with their partner bank.

8

Hi

yes I took construction loan and managed to do it with my bank (UBS) which according to them was not easy and required extra effort, the partner bank was Raiffeisen and it was clear from the beginning that they will not provide a loan to us

For some other properties we saw there was no choice of the bank and for one I think there was even a specific person to go through which I found weird but it wasn’t a deciding factor in that case

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9

Hi there!
I started to answer without checking the initial date of the post… :sweat_smile: well I still leave my answer here because it can be useful for other readers… and feel free to add informations based on your personal experience.

With the keys to your new apartment, among several documents (probably) related to the PPE, you should receive all the documentation related to (almost) every element of your house. Here are some examples: a set of plans [Plans de Révision] and technical plans [HVAC-CVSE], the user manuals for the household appliances, the manufacturer’s recommendations related to visible surfaces (e.g., flooring, built-in furniture), ideally the model numbers of the appliances (quite useful when you need to replace some small part), and the maintenance/checkup schedule for the main elements… Additionally, it is advisable to have an index of all the main companies involved (or the general contractor company). And, i’m probably forgetting some elements…

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10

The issue with a construction loan is that it takes a lot of time for a bank to audit all involved parties because they need to make sure that the money that they lend actually goes towards building the property and not to a scam company. In many cases you have subcontractors and shell companies (for tax optimisation) involved and that makes it cumbersome. That is why they usually select a partner bank who is doing the audit once and stick with it so that they don’t need to do this process several times… They actually cannot force you to take the loan with their partner bank but if you don’t they will have enough buyers in the pipeline just to find one who will agree to their terms…

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