Property purchase costs in the canton of Vaud: the real calculation

“Allow 5% for costs”: the rule of thumb is everywhere, and it is wrong for most purchases in the canton of Vaud. Acquisition costs are not a rough guess. They follow from three public tariffs, which anyone can read and recalculate. Here is the exact breakdown, followed by a fully worked example.

This amount matters to you at a specific moment: as a rule, acquisition costs must be covered by your own funds, on top of the deposit required for the property itself. Knowing them before you make an offer avoids an unpleasant surprise 15 days before signing.

The items, and who sets them

1. Transfer duty

This is by far the heaviest item. In the canton of Vaud, the cantonal transfer duty (droit de mutation) is 2.2% (Transfer Duty Act, LMSD, art. 10). It is calculated on the value of the property; the price agreed in the deed is presumed to represent that value, but if the price appears lower than the real value, the tax authority uses the latter (LMSD, art. 6). The municipality where the property is located may add up to 50 centimes per franc levied by the canton, i.e. 1.1% at most.

In practice, this nuance is no nuance at all. Looking at the 2026 municipal tax decrees published by the canton, you find that virtually every municipality in Vaud levies the maximum, with one exception. In other words: on La Côte, in Terre-Sainte, on the Riviera as in Lausanne, the real rate is 3.3%.

Unless otherwise agreed, this duty is payable by the buyer (LMSD, art. 4 para. 2 let. a). Both parties are, however, jointly and severally liable to the tax authority. A different split can be negotiated, but it must be written into the deed: it is not presumed.

2. The land registry fee

Every entry in the land registry (registre foncier) relating to ownership of a property is subject to a fee of 1.5 per mille of the price set in the deed, with a minimum of CHF 100 and a maximum of CHF 20,000 per transaction (Land Registry Act, LRF, art. 26).

If you finance with a loan, creating the mortgage note (cédule hypothécaire) triggers a second fee, also of 1.5 per mille, this time calculated on the amount of the claim (art. 28), plus registration in the register of creditors: CHF 50 for a paper mortgage note, CHF 100 for a register mortgage note.

3. Stamp duty on the mortgage note

An item left out of almost every budget, because it only concerns those who borrow. Real estate pledge agreements are subject to a cantonal stamp duty of 2 per mille of the value stated in the deed, rounded down to the nearest thousand francs, with deeds of CHF 5,000 or less exempt (Stamp Duty Act, art. 1 and 3). It is collected by the land registry together with its own fee (art. 4).

On a mortgage note of CHF 800,000, that comes to CHF 1,600. It isn’t the heaviest item, but it is the one people discover on the final statement.

4. The notary’s statutory fees

A notary in Vaud is not free to set their own rates: they apply the Tariff of fees due to notaries for official acts (TNo). For a deed of sale filed with the land registry within 30 days, the scale decreases by bands (art. 14), with a minimum of CHF 300:

The mortgage note follows a separate, slightly lower scale (art. 20): 5 per mille up to 100,000, then 3.5 up to 300,000, 3 up to 500,000, 2 up to 750,000 and 1.5 up to 1,000,000, then 1 per mille up to 5 million and 0.5 above that. Minimum CHF 100.

On top of these statutory fees come the notary’s fees for the work before and after the deed, calculated according to the size and difficulty of the matter (art. 1), their disbursements, and VAT at the standard rate of 8.1%. This is the variable part of the statement: ask for a quote, every notary will provide one.

5. What is not an acquisition cost

The brokerage commission is owed by whoever signed the brokerage mandate, usually the seller in a standard sale (Swiss Code of Obligations, art. 412 and 413). Bank arrangement fees, any valuation commissioned by the bank and loan insurance belong to financing, not to the acquisition. Don’t lump them together in your budget: they are not calculated on the price of the property.

Buying off-plan: the costs are not based on the same amount

Everything above applies to a property that is already built: the deed covers the total price, and each item is calculated on that price. With new builds, the transaction is often structured differently. You buy the land by notarial deed, or the share of land attached to a unit in condominium ownership (PPE), and the construction is covered by a separate building contract, paid in instalments as the work progresses.

Transfer duty is calculated on the actual value of the property transferred (LMSD, art. 6). If the deed transfers only a plot of land, with a separate construction contract for the house, that value is in principle the value of the land, and transfer duty, the land registry fee and the notary’s fee for the deed of sale are then based on its price. How the contracts are structured and the state of the works on the day of the deed can change the basis: it is for the notary to confirm. The mortgage note, on the other hand, secures the total financing: its costs do not change.

Three caveats before you count on it:

• Whatever is already built on the day of the deed is taxed. Signing once the shell is finished means paying duty on the shell.
• Ancillary obligations placed on you are added to the price, and the authority may use the real value if the agreed price seems too low to it (LMSD, art. 6 para. 3 and 5). A turnkey villa price simply split into two contracts will not necessarily get through.
• The saving on costs comes with other risks specific to construction: payments in instalments, completion guarantee, the builders’ statutory lien (hypothèque légale des artisans). These are checked in the building contract, before signing.

A complete example: a flat at CHF 1,000,000

Purchase by a private individual, in a municipality levying the usual rate, with a CHF 800,000 mortgage and a register mortgage note.

The same purchase paid in cash, without a mortgage note, comes down to around CHF 37,600, or 3.76%: everything related to the pledge disappears. And since the notary’s scales decrease while transfer duty is proportional, the percentage falls slightly as the price rises: on a CHF 2,000,000 property financed at 80%, the total comes to around CHF 83,000, or 4.15%. You can redo this calculation with your own price.

So where does the often-quoted “5%” come from? From the notary’s fees and disbursements, which are added to the calculation above without being set in advance, and from a safety margin. The order of magnitude to keep in mind is therefore between 3.8% for a cash purchase and a little over 4.3% with a new mortgage note, fees not included. But these figures depend on your financing: only the notary’s statement is authoritative, and you can get it before signing.

What buyers forget

• Financing the costs with the minimum own funds. If your deposit matches exactly what the bank requires, the costs are not covered: they come on top. Own-funds rules vary from one lender to another and by type of property; it is a question to ask your lender early on.
• Forgetting the existing mortgage note. If the property is already encumbered with a mortgage note for the right amount, taking it over costs far less than creating a new one. You can see this on the land registry extract, which few buyers look at before making an offer.
• Ignoring the split set out in the deed. Who pays the transfer duty, the statutory fees, the cost of cancelling the seller’s mortgage notes: all of this is in the draft deed, and it is discussed before, not after.

Frequently asked questions

Are notary fees negotiable in the canton of Vaud?

The statutory fees are not: they result from a tariff set by the Council of State (Conseil d’État), identical for every notary in Vaud. The fees for ancillary work and the disbursements, on the other hand, vary from one practice to another, and comparing quotes makes sense for that part.

Can I choose my notary as a buyer?

In practice, the notary is often appointed by the seller or by the broker, and this is open to discussion. Nothing prevents you from proposing your own, or from having the draft deed reviewed before signing.

Does transfer duty apply in the case of inheritance or divorce?

These transfers fall under a separate regime. The land registry fee drops to 0.75 per mille for an entry relating to an inheritance, the division of an estate or the dissolution of a matrimonial property regime (LRF art. 27). For transfer duty itself, the exemptions are defined by law: check with the notary handling the file.

Before making an offer

The asking price is never what the transaction costs you. Between acquisition costs, works in your own unit and the shared renovation fund contributions of a PPE, the gap with the budget you first had in mind often runs into tens of thousands of francs. If you have a property in view on La Côte, in Terre-Sainte or around Lake Geneva, I can draw up this budget with you before your offer, the final statement remaining the notary’s: the approach is described on the Buying advice page.

If you are the one selling, these costs concern you twice: the transfer duty and deed costs paid on your own purchase are deductible from your taxable gain under the property gains tax (impôt sur les gains immobiliers), and cancelling your mortgage notes remains at your expense. I go over this with a free valuation of your property as part of a sales mandate.

Sources

Vaud Transfer Duty Act (LMSD), art. 4, 6 (para. 1, 3 and 5) and 10. Municipal Taxes Act (LICom), art. 23. 2026 municipal tax decrees, table published by the State of Vaud. Land Registry Act of 9 October 2012 (BLV 211.61), art. 26 to 28. Stamp Duty Act of 10 December 2013 (BLV 652.11), art. 1, 3 and 4. Regulation setting the land registry fee tariff (BLV 211.61.1). Tariff of fees due to notaries for official acts (BLV 178.11.2), art. 1, 14 and 20. Figures checked in September 2026; tariffs may be amended by the Council of State.