Lex Weber Explained for Swiss Ski Property Buyers

Lex Weber is the reason a new holiday flat can be legally impossible to build in one Swiss ski commune and permitted in the next. It is a federal planning cap on second homes, and it applies to every buyer, Swiss or foreign alike.

If you are still weighing up whether Switzerland suits you, Buying Ski Property in Switzerland for UK Non-Residents covers the ground rules, the resort landscape and the ownership costs. This article takes the layer below that: what Lex Weber lets you build or use as a second home, and what it does not.

Lex Weber and Lex Koller: Two Laws, Two Different Jobs

Lex Weber is the informal name for the Second Homes Act (Zweitwohnungsgesetz, ZWG), SR 702. Swiss voters accepted the constitutional initiative on 11 March 2012, and the implementing act has been in force since 1 January 2016.¹

It is constantly confused with Lex Koller, and the two do entirely different jobs. Lex Koller may require cantonal authorisation where the buyer counts as a person abroad under the Act, a case-specific statutory test that can catch individuals and foreign-controlled entities, not simply anyone foreign and non-resident. Lex Weber decides whether a given dwelling, in a given commune, may exist or be used as a second home at all.

A foreign buyer of a new-build in a capped resort may have to clear both laws. Clearing Lex Weber, for example by buying unrestricted old-law stock, does not remove Lex Koller: a buyer who counts as a person abroad still needs the cantonal Lex Koller authorisation to acquire it.

This article stays with Lex Weber. The nationality and permit regime, including who counts as a person abroad and how the authorisation works, is covered in full by our companion article, Lex Koller Rules for Buying a Swiss Ski Property, and is not re-explained here.

The 20% Cap: What It Is and How It Is Measured

The rule is simple to state. In any commune where second homes already exceed 20% of the total housing stock, no new second homes may in principle be authorised.² The federal wording is "in principle none", which means a default prohibition with narrow statutory exceptions, not an absolute ban.

The measurement is by commune, not by ski area. The Federal Office for Spatial Development (ARE) publishes a housing inventory each year at the end of March, and a commune that has newly crossed the line can stay in a review procedure until the end of October.² The figures are an administrative inventory and are not cleanly comparable between communes.

At the 2026 inventory, 331 communes were over the 20% line, down from 337 the year before.³ The great majority lie in the four ski-heavy cantons of Valais, Graubünden, Bern and Vaud.

This is where most buyer errors start. Verbier is legally the commune of Val de Bagnes, Gstaad is Saanen, Villars is Ollon, and Les Diablerets is Ormont-Dessus. Lex Weber status attaches to the commune, so the brand on the agent's board tells you nothing until you know which commune the parcel sits in.

Val de Bagnes, the commune behind Verbier, sits well above the line, with over half its housing stock recorded as second homes at the 2026 inventory.³ All four of the resort communes below sat over the 20% line at that inventory. Treat any single figure as a snapshot and confirm the current status for the exact commune before you rely on it.

What You Can Still Buy in a Capped Commune

A capped commune is not closed to buyers. The distinction that decides what you are actually buying is between existing stock and new product.

The least-encumbered asset is an existing old-law dwelling (altrechtliche Wohnung): one that lawfully existed, or held a legally binding permit, on 11 March 2012. Absent extra cantonal or communal restrictions, it can still be used freely as a first or second home, and resold as such. That is the straightforward route into a prime capped resort.

Old-law status removes the federal Lex Weber restriction, but it does not guarantee a clean history. Still check the land register (Grundbuch), the original permit that proves the pre-2012 status, and any cantonal or communal restriction. Note one trap: enlarging an old-law dwelling by more than 30% of its main usable area triggers a use-restriction annotation under ZWG Art. 11.

New product is conditional. In a capped commune a new dwelling generally has to fall into one of a few narrow categories: a genuine primary residence, a tourist-managed apartment, a hotel-linked unit, or a protected heritage building. Each conditional route usually carries a land-register annotation, operator dependence or owner-use limits, and a weaker resale position.

Before you waste time on listings, ask one triage question of any property. Is this existing unrestricted stock, a primary-residence product, a tourist-managed apartment, or a hotel-related exception? The answer sets everything that follows.

New-build product in Switzerland raises the same existing-versus-new questions that off-plan buyers weigh elsewhere, which The Pros and Cons of Buying Off-Plan Ski Properties covers separately.

The 2024 Lex Candinas Easing: More Room to Redevelop Old Stock

A 2024 reform widened what owners may do with old-law stock. The Lex Candinas amendment, in force since 1 October 2024, lets old-law dwellings be renewed, converted, and even demolished and rebuilt without use restrictions.⁴

Within a building zone (Bauzone), the reform goes further. The principal usable floor area (Hauptnutzfläche, HNF) may be enlarged by up to 30% of the area that existed on 11 March 2012, and within that 30% envelope additional dwellings, and even additional buildings, may be created. A minor shift of footprint is allowed on a rebuild, provided it stays within the original parcel.

The limits matter as much as the freedoms. The easing is a redevelopment lever for existing old stock, not a reopening of ordinary free-use new-build second homes in the capped resorts. Outside building zones it does not apply: the separate spatial planning law (Raumplanungsgesetz) governs there, and permits reconstruction only in narrow preservation cases.

Federal law only sets the ceiling. Cantonal and communal zoning, covering height, density and heritage, can impose stricter local limits, so any rebuild or relocation has to be confirmed under the current cantonal guidance and the local permit.

"Lex Candinas will not unleash a wave of supply."

UBS, Alpine Property Focus 2026

Marketing already oversells the reform. The bank UBS notes that applications have risen in tourist regions but that permits are climbing only slowly.⁸ The question to ask of any redevelopment pitch is which route it relies on, on what pre-2012 basis, and what the land-register entry will say.

Tourist-Managed and Hotel-Linked Homes: The Conditions and the Catch

The two conditional new-build routes most buyers meet are the tourist-managed apartment and the hotel-linked unit. Both let new stock be built in a capped commune, and both come at a price.

A tourist-managed apartment (touristisch bewirtschaftete Wohnung, or "warm bed") is permitted only if it is permanently and exclusively offered for short-term guest letting on local-market terms, which by design makes it unsuitable for a long-term let.⁵ The permit runs through one of two routes: a guest flat within the owner's own primary-residence building (an Einliegerwohnung), or a structured accommodation business with professional central management, actively marketed and not tailored to the owner. Conditions on the business route can include standardised fit-out, an operator contract, and severe limits on owner and family use.

The hotel-linked route, under article 8 of the Act, is a hotel-economics instrument rather than a lifestyle purchase. Up to 20% of a project's principal floor area may be created as unrestricted homes to cross-subsidise a managed accommodation business, rising to 33% where the units stay owned and let by the business, and up to 50% for a non-viable pre-2012 operation with a 25-year history and an independent viability opinion.⁶

These thresholds are specialist territory. Under Article 8, up to 20% of the floor area may be created as unrestricted homes that can be sold to cross-subsidise the operation, while the up-to-33% route may be unrestricted only where the units remain owned and let by the business. Either way, the Article 7 managed stock that makes up the bulk of what a buyer is shown stays tied to the operation and is economically weaker.

The economics are the catch, and they are substantial. In its sample of selected managed schemes, UBS reports that these apartments can sell at up to around half the price of a comparable traditional flat, that operator charges can absorb more than half of the rental income, and that gross yields often run from under 1% to around 3%.⁸

Banks lend against these units cautiously, and resale is weaker. The discount on entry is real, but it is paid for in control and in exit.

Before enquiring on any managed unit, check the operator's solvency, the contract duration and termination terms, the reserve-fund and renovation obligations, the permitted owner-use dates, and what becomes of the unit if the operator fails. These terms decide what you can actually use and recover, and they differ from scheme to scheme.

The generic mechanics of letting a ski property through a managed scheme are covered in Rental Rules for Ski Property Owners. The Lex Weber conditions above are what is specific to a capped commune.

Enforcement: The Restriction Lives on the Land Register

A Lex Weber use restriction is not a paper formality. It is imposed in the building permit, and the permit authority instructs the land-register office to annotate it on the property's land-register leaf (the Grundbuch).

Classification follows the actual physical use of the property, not the wording of the sale contract. A unit sold as a holiday home but permitted as a tourist-managed apartment is treated as what it is used for, and dressing the paperwork differently does not change that.

The commune enforces, and the remedies are federal. Where a dwelling is used unlawfully, the authority can order restoration of the lawful use and, failing that, a usage ban and sealing of the unit under ZWG Art. 17. Intentional misuse carries up to three years' imprisonment or a monetary penalty, and negligence a monetary penalty of up to 180 daily penalty units, under ZWG Art. 21.⁹

The practical message is to establish a property's permitted use, and read its land-register entry, before you reserve.

Before you reserve in a capped commune, obtain the documents that establish a property's status:

• the current land-register extract (Grundbuch);
• the original building permit, or other evidence establishing pre-11 March 2012 old-law status;
• the commune's current second-home inventory status;
• the building permit and any use annotation recorded against the property;
• for a managed unit, the operator agreement.

Andermatt Swiss Alps: A Project-Specific Exception

There is one notable exception. Within the master-planned Andermatt Reuss development, new-build homes can be sold and used as unrestricted second homes, because the project's zoning plan (Nutzungsplan) was legally approved before 11 March 2012 and so falls outside the 20% cap under the transitional rule of the Second Homes Act (ZWG Art. 26).⁷

This exception attaches to the master-planned development perimeter, not the historic village of Andermatt. It makes Andermatt the rare Swiss resort where new unrestricted second-home stock is still being built at scale.

A separate Lex Koller exemption lifts the foreign-ownership controls inside the same perimeter, on a timeline our Lex Koller guide covers. Here the point is the Lex Weber side: the cap does not bite within the perimeter because its zoning predates the 2012 cut-off.

What the Supply Squeeze Means for Price and Resale

By freezing new second-home supply in the most sought-after communes, the cap tends to support scarcity in existing unrestricted stock. UBS notes that around 3% of housing stock in its analysed Swiss Alpine destinations comes to market each quarter, about half the 2019 rate, which is likely to underpin resale demand for old-law homes.⁸

Managed product is the cheaper way in, but a weaker asset to hold and to sell, as the previous section set out. Resist reading a single "Lex Weber premium" into prices: UBS and the federal monitoring both attribute Alpine price movements to several forces at once, from financing costs and the strength of the franc to tourism and remote work. The supply squeeze is one factor among these, not the whole story.

Next Steps

Once you know what you can buy, the next step is the mechanics of the purchase itself. The Swiss Ski Property Purchase Process sets out the sequence from offer to registration, including where the land-register check fits.

If financing is part of the plan, Swiss Mortgages for Non-Residents (2026) covers the non-resident lending rules and rates that sit alongside a Lex Weber purchase, including why lenders apply tighter terms to tourist-managed units than to unrestricted stock.