In Switzerland, no property sale exists without a notary: the law requires a notarial deed, and in Geneva the notary who draws it up is a public officer whose fees are set by the Council of State. Here is what they do, when they step in, what it costs — in figures — and who pays.
What the notary actually does
The notary is nobody’s lawyer: they are a neutral adviser, entrusted with a public function, guaranteeing the legality of the transaction for both parties. Their work covers reviewing the file, checking land registry entries — easements, liens, third-party rights —, drafting the notarial deed, executing it, then registering the transfer of ownership.
It is also the notary who collects and forwards the taxes linked to the sale: the registration duty passes through their office before reaching the State.
When the notary steps in
As soon as an agreement takes shape, not only on the day of signing. The notary drafts the preliminary sale agreement when the parties conclude one, prepares the final deed, arranges the signing, then requests registration at the land registry — it is this registration, not the signing, that makes the buyer the owner. The details of the contract and the sale deed are covered in a dedicated article.
Who chooses the notary, and who pays
In Geneva, custom has it that the buyer chooses the notary — and pays the fees. The parties may agree on a different split, particularly in family sales, but this remains the exception. For the seller, the notarial service in principle costs nothing.
Notary fees in Geneva, in figures
What is called “notary fees” actually covers three very unequal items — and the notary’s own remuneration is not the main one:
| Item | Amount | Who receives it |
|---|---|---|
| Registration duty | 3% of the sale price | To the State, via the notary |
| Land registry registration | Around 0.3% | To the State |
| Notary’s fees | Degressive scale: ~0.7% under CHF 200,000, ~0.5% around CHF 1 million, down to ~0.14% for CHF 20 million | To the notary |
For a standard purchase around one million, the total comes to roughly 4% of the price — around CHF 40,000 for a property worth one million, of which CHF 30,000 is registration duty. The setting-up of a mortgage certificate, where applicable, comes on top of this.
For a main residence, the Casatax scheme reduces these acquisition costs under certain conditions — the canton reworked it as of 1 March 2026.
The mortgage certificate also goes through the notary
If you finance the purchase with a mortgage, the bank requires a mortgage certificate — the lien title recorded at the land registry. Setting it up is a notarial act, also charged on a degressive scale: around 0.5% for a certificate up to CHF 200,000, around 0.25% for a certificate of CHF 5 million.
A point that buyers often overlook: an existing certificate can be taken over and reused instead of being set up again. On a property already mortgaged, asking to take over the seller’s certificate saves most of this cost.
For the seller: the notary holds back your tax
The least well-known part of their mandate, and the one that concerns the seller most directly. In Geneva, the notary has a legal obligation to hold back the portion of the price corresponding to the tax on real estate profits and gains: the money is not paid to you on the day of signing, it stays blocked with the notary until the tax authority has issued the assessment.
Two practical consequences follow. First: your sale proceeds do not arrive as a single sum, and if you were counting on them to finance a new purchase, the timeline must allow for this. Second: the amount held back is calculated on an estimate, not on your tax return — hence the value of gathering, before signing, the invoices for value-adding works, the brokerage fee and the registration duty paid on the original purchase, the three items deducted from the gain. The net seller simulator calculates what will be left to you, and reinvestment can defer the tax if you buy a new main residence.
The notary notifies the sale when the plot is subject to pre-emption
Another purely Geneva-specific task: if the property is in a development zone, or on a plot affected by a change to zone boundaries, the State and the municipalities hold a right of pre-emption (general housing law, art. 3). It is the notary, and no one else, who then notifies the sale to the authority.
A period of sixty days from the filing of the deed at the land registry then opens, during which the authority may waive its right, buy on the agreed terms, or propose its own price; if the municipality waives its right, the Council of State keeps a further thirty days. Neither the seller nor the buyer can do anything about this — but both have an interest in knowing about it before signing, because it adds two to three months to the timeline. Ask your notary about this at the first meeting; it is part of the plot due diligence.
What the notary does not do
They do not visit the property, do not check its condition, do not value it and do not negotiate anything. Their neutrality, which protects both parties, is also their limit: they guarantee that the deed is legal and the transfer is clean, not that the price is fair or that the roof holds up. Technical surveys, valuation and negotiation are other professions’ work — which is exactly why the two roles do not replace each other.
In practice, for your project
Notary fees are acquisition costs: they are added to the price and are not covered by the mortgage — they come out of your own funds. Our mortgage simulator factors them into the calculation of your purchasing capacity.
On the seller’s side, the notary is not your cost item — your concern is the price and the tax on the gain. A valuation based on recorded transactions sets the former, and our selling with Rousseau 5 page describes the method. The terms used in this article — notarial deed, mortgage certificate, transfer duty — are defined in the glossary.