Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice on cross-border real estate investing (France/Switzerland).
I’m Swiss, living and working in Switzerland. I own a house in France, and I was considering getting a loan in my name to refinance or invest — but I’m worried this could hurt my borrowing capacity for future investments.
If I put the house into a French SCI at the corporate tax level (IS), I’d face capital gains tax on future appreciation — so I’m thinking it’s best to leave the house aside for now.
Instead, I’m planning to create a holding company (SAS) and a SCI at IS to start investing in rental properties in France. I’m thinking of using LegalPlace to set up the structure.
Does this strategy make sense?
Can anyone recommend a French accountant/tax advisor who is experienced with cross-border (Switzerland–France) structures?
Thanks in advance for any insights!
Why do you want to have a holding company ? Do you plan to open more companies in the future ? One holding company for just one SCI does not make much sense I would say.
Even if you put loans in the SCI you will still be the guarantor of those, I have one SCI in France and the loans in it were taken into account (along with the revenues of the SCI of course) when I applied for a mortgage in CH, simply because I am the one paying them back ultimately.
Thanks for your message — I totally understand your point.
The reason I was thinking of setting up a holding company is because my goal is to create multiple SCI (Société Civile Immobilière) structures over time, each dedicated to a separate real estate project.
The idea behind the holding is to:
• Centralize ownership of all my SCIs, for better long-term control and governance
• Possibly optimize taxation through dividend flows and reinvestments between companies
• Facilitate future exits or resale by structuring everything in a more professional and scalable way
I agree that having a holding just for a single SCI doesn’t bring much value. But in my case, I’m thinking long term — I plan to repeat the process several times and scale the investment model using multiple SCI structures, each backed by a dedicated loan and property.
Of course, I’m aware that banks will still likely require personal guarantees for the loans, especially in the beginning. But my hope is that, with a solid setup and clean separation of projects, I can demonstrate financial stability at the company level and eventually limit personal exposure as the structure grows.
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