Mortgage in Switzerland with VIAC – unpaid leave and timing

Real Estate
1

Hi everyone,

I live in Switzerland and am buying a new apartment (under construction). Expected move-in: end of 2026 / early 2027. The exact date will be announced about 6 months in advance, so around middle of 2026.

I plan to take unpaid leave from my job during Mar-Jun 2026. After my unpaid leave, I would like to start looking for a mortgage. I have already made the down payments on the property.

I would like to take the mortgage with VIAC.

Now I have a couple of questions:

  • Can unpaid leave affect my chances of getting approved, or would the bank treat it like unemployment?
  • Would it be better to apply the mortgage before my unpaid leave, even if the move-in date isn’t known yet? Is it a problem for the bank if the move-in date is not exactly known at the time of the application?
  • Do you have any strategic tips for best approach in my this situation?

Many thanks for your advice!

Adrian

2

I would start a pre-discussion with the bank already now. They will tell you what they need from you and if it is salary statements from the last 2 years, that’s fine.

I don’t think they’re interested in your extended holidays (to me unpaid sabbatical is on the far end of the continuum holidays - purchased additional holiday weeks - sabbatical).

2 Likes
3

The only thing I would add is that in my experience the banks ask for the last 3 salary slips, as well as the last tax report. Not sure how it would look like in case of unpaid leave for the former, and whether they would care. As dom.swiss said, it’s essentially extended holidays, not a sign you’ll not be able to pay in the future. But that’s my opinion, no idea about the banks.
I’m not entirely sure whether they base your revenues from the salary slip or the tax report, but if the latter it does not matter in your timeline; the one with reduced revenues will come much later.

So worst case I guess you can wait 3 months after your unpaid leave, and no one will know?

4

Just get a letter from the employer confirming your salary and stsating that you effectively took unpaid leave… Should do the trick.

(remember, the bank wants to do business with you as long as the bases are covered).

3 Likes
5

Thanks for your reply. You mentioned that the bank is not interested in unpaid leave. But wouldn’t it be an issue if I have no income for four months? One of the mortgage requirements is to provide the last three salary documents. If one of them happens to be during my unpaid leave, my income for that month would be zero.

I will contact VIAC directly to see what their opinion is. I’ll give an update when I know more – maybe this information will be useful to someone in the future.

2 Likes
6

I’d like to give an update on my situation regarding unpaid leave and its affect on our mortgage conditions. Maybe this will be useful for someone in the future.

I had contact with WIR Bank, and for them it’s not a problem that we will be on unpaid leave.

The main question we are now considering is whether we should sign the contract now (we are taking a SARON mortgage) or wait until next year.

Right now, we have enough funds in the 3rd pillar to make an indirect amortization of about 7% of the property value. If we wait until next year, we’ll have some more funds available, because we can make a contribution at the beginning of the year to the 3rd pillar. In that case, it seems better to wait until next year, right?

The only risk in this scenario is a possible change of the bank’s margin.

7

Do someone know if you change at VIAC from Saron to fixed rate, if you have to hand in salary slips and the tax documents from last years or can they change immediately without additional documents? If the rates are good I dont want to waste time collecting all the documents and the. to approve.

8

I don t know the process of WIR Bank but in CH you distinguish between the credit line (how much you can borrow) and the underlying products (SARON, fixed rate). Once you have a credit line open with the bank, the latter will perform regular reviews but a change of product should not trigger that review process and if they ask you to provide additional documentation for as part of it would just be bad luck ^^.