“Have your property estimated” and “have your property valued” do not describe the same process — and confusing the two costs time, sometimes money. One prepares a sale; the other produces a formal document that a bank, the tax authorities, a court or an estate may require. Here is what an expert calculates, what the report contains, and in which cases you need one.
Valuation or estimate: the difference
An estimate is an opinion of market value: it answers “how much will my property sell for?”, relies on comparable transactions, and is used to set an asking price. A valuation is a formal analysis: an expert examines the property, applies recognised methods, and signs a reasoned report — a document that can be relied upon by third parties. The first is quick and, with us, free of charge; the second is quoted on a case-by-case basis, because it carries a formal commitment.
When a valuation is required
- Estate settlement and division — the estate needs a neutral, documented value to divide assets without conflict;
- divorce or separation — the same need for a figure both parties can accept;
- taxation — to challenge a tax value or to document a position before the authorities;
- financing — the bank wants to substantiate the value of an unusual property or a large file;
- disputes — defects, easements, expropriation: the report becomes a piece of evidence;
- before a purchase — the technical inspection of the building, covered in our article should you have a house surveyed before buying?
The values an expert calculates
| Value | What it measures | Main use |
|---|---|---|
| Market | The price a buyer would pay today on the market | Sale, estate settlement, divorce |
| Intrinsic | The land plus the replacement cost of the building, less depreciation | Insurance, recent construction |
| Income | The capitalisation of rental income from an investment building | Rental buildings, investors |
| Tax | The value used by the authorities for tax purposes | Wealth tax, rental value, IBGI |
An example of intrinsic value: a villa whose land is worth 300,000 francs and whose building replacement cost, including specific features, comes to 500,000 francs, carries an intrinsic value of 800,000 francs — to be adjusted for improvements and condition. For a home, market value remains the reference: it is what the market actually pays, and it is demonstrated by recorded transactions.
The Geneva tax value: the one you pay without understanding it
Of the four values in the table, this is the one every Geneva property owner pays every year without knowing how it was worked out. It therefore deserves its own section.
In Geneva, the tax value of a property is determined by its location, its nature and how it was acquired. For a villa or flat occupied by its owner, it starts in practice from the purchase price — hence an effect many people discover: two identical neighbouring properties, bought fifteen years apart, do not carry the same tax value.
A mechanism partly corrects this gap: the continuous-occupation allowance, of 4% per year, capped at 40% after ten years. It applies when you occupy the property yourself or make it available to close relatives. And — a valuable point for families — occupation is not interrupted when the property passes to a spouse, to parents in the direct line or to siblings through the liquidation of the marital property regime, a gift or an inheritance: the years-counter keeps running.
Two figures worth knowing for the recent period: the law on tax valuations has raised by 12% the tax value of certain villas and certain flats for the 2025 period, with annual indexation from 2026. In other words, a tax value that has not moved for years is no longer the norm.
Why this matters for a valuation: the tax value serves as the basis for wealth tax and for the supplementary property tax. When it clearly diverges from the actual state of the property — poor condition, a heavy easement, an unusual property — a reasoned report is what allows this to be demonstrated to the authorities. An opinion is not enough; a valuation is.
The special case of PPE
Valuing a flat held under co-ownership requires more than a viewing: the expert gathers the land registry extract, the unit’s title sheet, the areas and the share quota, the accounts of the PPE (condominium) — including the state of the renovation fund, often decisive — and the administration regulations. Two units that look identical on paper can differ significantly depending on the health of their co-ownership.
What a valuation report contains
The methods, in fact, are not countless. Four recur, and each serves one of the values in the table: comparison — including its statistical form, known as hedonic — for market value; real value, land plus replacement cost less depreciation, for intrinsic value; capitalisation of rental income, or its refinement through discounting future cash flows, for income value. A good report states which one it relies on, and why the others were set aside.
A report worthy of the name describes the property and its surroundings, sets out the method or methods used, cites its comparables and sources, states its reservations — what could not be verified —, concludes with a reasoned value, and bears the signature of its author. A figure with no method or comparables is not a report: it is an opinion laid out on paper.
What it costs
An estimate for the purpose of a sale is free of charge and confidential with Rousseau 5 — it is part of the estate agency’s work. A formal valuation, on the other hand, is quoted according to the property and the complexity of the assignment: number of units, documents to gather, purpose of the report. The quote always precedes the work.
In practice, in Geneva
If your need is to sell, start with the estimate based on real transactions and the sales method. If your situation requires a report — estate settlement, divorce, taxation —, our advisory and valuation team operates on the Left Bank, in partnership with an independent valuation firm whose expert holds the federal certificate — the qualification recognised by banks and authorities: describe your situation to us, the exchange is confidential. The technical terms on this page are defined in the glossary.