Wow, congratulations! We bought a small apartment for rental this year, also financed with UBS Key4 (SARON + 1.13%). We would like to fix the rate for 10 years, but the current fixed rate is around 1.55%. How did you manage to get such an attractive interest rate?
Thanks a lot.
For SARON rate I had to negotiate hard, I had couple of counter offers the one especially from Swissquote that offered a SARON margin of 0.55%. I was constantly forcing them to match this offer and 0.7% was the best rate I could close and I still could not convince them to pledge my VIAC 3a directly. However, they offered other perks (lower down payments, forgo of affordability requirements, etc..) that made the offer extremely attractive.
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0.55% Saron margin in todayâs market is a really really good deal.
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Are any banks still offering 0.55%?
Swissquote used to advertise this but after checking the lowest they now offer is 0.62 with a 5 year commitment. I personally have 0.5 which was renewed last month at the same rate but I have good connections within my bank having worked as a consultant in their credit IT for some years.
Just as a matter of comparison a bank employee typically gets 0.2 / 0.25% margin on a saron. 0.5 ish is still achievable in my opinion but you need good connections or bring solid arguments in the negotiation.
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UHNW still get about 0.2-0.4% but several banks are increasing those rates and/or are not renewing at this rate.
Other option as HoiZame mentioned are bank employee rates with sub 0.3% margins.
As I got few requests to connect with my RM directly in UBS, I spoke to my RM today and he said he would be happy to assist genuine home buyers looking for the mortgage. DM me if you need the reference of my RM.
PS: If you close the deal with UBS we both will receive 250 CHF worth of Key Club points
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I got my new SARON rate yesterday, 0.75% at AKB.
I didnât negotiate or push, the difference wouldnât be worth it I feel.
Any pointers on where you would get 0.2-0.4% and what kind of conditions would be tied to an offer like that?
Any bank really if you have assets > 10M. The only disadvantage to get the lowest fees is that you will have to transfer all your assets to them, such as your mortgage, savings and investments or 3a. While the mortgage rate might look low, when you combine it with all the other management fees you will have to pay, itâs not always that lucrative anymore.
The starting point is to create a spreadsheet of assets, after which you should speak with several well-known and lesser-known public and private banks. Calculate the fees and estimate the performance of the products they would offer or manage for you. Your leverage is the sheer volume you bring but donât expect that you will have much lower fees than a normal bloke.
Unless you have several millions in mortgage volume, Iâm honestly not sure if itâs worth it compared to IBKR+cheap/free savings account+Finpension/VIAC+normal mortgage conditions.
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Thanks. We didnât go to deep yet, but only got an offer from BCGE for 0.55% if we put >10M with them and like you said Swiss banks are not really competitive (compared to IBKR). Zuger Kantonalbank was even worse and they know they have no attractive offers compared to our current IBKR setup. We currently rent (but have to get out) and sadly the market here in Zug is more in the multiple millions in mortgage range.
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Just comparing what I see today below:
versus, what I saw back in January.
10 year has gone from 1.45% to 1.64%.
Why is it going up instead of down? I thought central banks were cutting rates. I guess maybe mostly the US?
Rates from central banks are just a part of the whole calculation. There are further factors as liquidity cost, margin itself, risk costs, equity costs, process costs, etc.
Just because one component decreases, it does not mean, the client interest rate will decrease as well.
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Is the benchmark rate for 10y fixed rates in CH. central banks only control short term liquidity rates and their outlook may impact longer maturity ones. However on the long end of the curve market sentiment is the main factor and they currently anticipate further borrowing from developed states because of military and retirement spendings. Also the change of geopolitical landscape introduces further risks long term that are being priced⊠That being said in CH the strong CHF and low government debt protect us from uncontrolled increase in basis points but the rise in interest rates across the EU and the US makes us go up as wellâŠ
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Throwing out some paper files from years (long) gone by, and diligently looking through them before it goes into the rubbish bag.
Came across this comparison, in case anyone wants to use it for their negotiations at their bank, please feel free to! 
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Makes me count my blessings! 
Anyone working at UBS has insights on construction credits? Like the conditions and potential range of rates?
Iâm trying to understand if it makes sense to contact them or not (which requires a full folder, multiple phone calls and at least a week of analysis in my experience). My co-constructors were supposed to contact them but itâs going nowhereâŠ
My benchmark is Migros Bank: 2.75% + 500 initial fee, no consolidation required. Anyone else I have contacted so far were consolidation only, or had a 0.25% per trimester fee (e.g. a nice hidden ~1% to the actual rate).
I would just call them and tell them about the conditions offered by the âotherâ bank you have contacted. If they canât match or beat them, thatâs the end of the matter, isnât it?
Looking at the rate question now.
I was happy to fix for 10 years when getting 1.5%. But now rates are zero so SARON gives you 0.8%-1% depending on the spread. Heck, even IBKR can get you to 1%.
But I wonder if Iâm being tempted and should fix while rates are still relatively low, even if not as low as 6 months ago.
Iâve tried that with other banks. But it was always âI cannot tell you, we need to study the case and will come back to youâ. Or they give me a rate, but âforgetâ the fee, even after I ask them about it. You only realise once you have the offer.
Construction credit is pretty different from a mortgage: much fewer options and very little visibility.
At least Migros gives you the conditions straight on their website, and theyâre competitive to the best of my knowledge. If it was only up to me, I would have gone with them a long time ago, but we decided with the other couple (weâre building 2 semi-detached houses together) to use the same bank for the construction credit to make things easier. And they want to analyse the whole competition, but itâs not moving. (Sorry for the rant.)