A comparison of Switzerland’s best real estate portals

THE ONLINE WORLD OF PROPERTY SEARCHES

When is the last time you found a home listing in a newspaper? These have become rare occurrences. The reason: It is faster and more convenient to search online. Most people today are almost never offline. Smartphones bring us the world at our fingertips. This means that a potential buyer can search for property from any location - which of course is to your advantage if you wish to sell a property.

We had a reason for mentioning the matter of the newspaper since media firms derive shared income from property transactions that use intelligent portals. Probably the two best-known Swiss real estate portals, ImmoScout24 and homegate.ch, belong entirely or in part to prominent Swiss media companies. While homegate.ch belongs to Tamedia, Ringier Digital AG is a part of ImmoScout24 through Scout24 Schweiz AG. There is a charge for the listings on these portals, but the fee pays for certain services and an extensive coverage range. Of course, you also profit from the appeal of the two well-known brands.

There are additionally two large, free real estate portals: newhome.ch and urbanhome.ch. These are financed by the provision of various kinds of services. In the case of newhome.ch, a prospective buyer can calculate house financing directly online, since a number of cantonal banks participate in the platform. Adverts are free at urbanhome.ch since the page provides no support, being financed through its own advertising and B2B offers.

There are currently a total of 17 real estate portals in Switzerland (as of March 2021). Potential property buyers do not need to consult all these, however, since they can conveniently scan all 17 real estate portals and compare them in a search form at the well-known comparis.ch site. If you want to sell your property, you must choose your portals carefully. Incidentally, it is also possible to pay for listings at comparis.ch – your listing will then be published by the Internet comparison service itself as well as by its partner network, ImmoScout24.ch.

Our tip: As always in property sales, your choice of portal will depend on the type of real estate and on the buyer of the property you wish to sell. With some properties, a comparatively expensive listing on a leading portal can be useful. With some other properties, a regional listing may attract more prospective buyers. And if you engage an estate agency to assist you, they will take care of the listings for you.