Land register fees and the mortgage note

The land register fee: the price of the entry

Ownership of a property only passes with the entry in the land register — not with the signature and not with the payment. For this entry the land register office charges a fee. Unlike the transfer tax it is not a tax but a charge for an official act; it is therefore also due in cantons that levy no transfer tax at all. How it is calculated differs by canton: sometimes as a per-mille share of the purchase price — as in Zurich —, sometimes as a value-independent flat fee, as in Bern since its tariff revision. Some cantons reduce the fee for electronic filing or add supplements per additional parcel or per additional acquiring person. Minimum and maximum amounts, too, often apply per parcel rather than per transaction — whoever acquires several parcels in one contract pays the rate several times over. The requesting party usually pays, though many cantons hold both contract parties jointly liable.

The mortgage note: the bank’s security

Buyers who finance the purchase with a mortgage almost always need a mortgage note (Schuldbrief): a charge on the property that serves the bank as security. Its creation is a transaction of its own with its own costs — typically a public notarization of the pledge agreement plus the entry of the pledge in the land register, each with its own fee. The crucial point: the base is not the purchase price but the pledge amount — the sum for which the property is liable. Whoever borrows more pays more for the mortgage note, regardless of the purchase price. And conversely: buyers without a mortgage skip this cost block entirely — the calculator then leaves it out.

Register or paper mortgage note

The mortgage note comes in two forms. The register note exists only as an entry in the land register — no document that can get lost, and today’s standard for new financings. The paper note is a physical security: land register offices charge an additional fee for issuing the certificate, and some cantons price the paper form higher altogether. Older financings often still run on paper notes; converting them into the register form is possible and costs a comparatively small fee.

A detail for purchases in western Switzerland: some cantons additionally levy a stamp duty on pledge deeds, collected by the land register office together with its own fee — in Vaud, for instance, it is a fixed part of the mortgage-note bill. The canton pages list such side items as well, so the final invoice holds no surprises.

Reuse instead of recreate

The mortgage note belongs to the property, not to the bank. That has two practical consequences. First: whoever moves the mortgage to another lender does not need a new note — the existing one is transferred to the new bank. Second: when buying a property, the buyer can take over a mortgage note that the seller already holds. New creation costs only arise for the difference if the required pledge amount exceeds the existing one. It is therefore worth clarifying before notarization which mortgage notes already encumber the property.

Where this fits in

Land register fee and mortgage note are two of the four cost blocks of a purchase — alongside the transfer tax and the notary fees. How the blocks interact and in which order they fall due is shown in the closing-costs guide; the cantonal tariffs with sources are collected in the canton overview.