Setting up a real estate asset management company in Switzerland: when FINMA applies, property funds and Lex Koller

The business: portfolio strategy, not lease administration

A real estate asset manager steers a property portfolio for its owner: acquisitions, disposals, capital works, value tracking and supervision of the property manager, who collects rents and deals with tenants.

Three neighbouring trades follow different rules:

• The property manager (régie in French-speaking Switzerland): day-to-day lease administration, covered in a separate article of this series.
• The developer: the client who commissions construction and then sells. Our guide to becoming a real estate developer in Switzerland deals with that case.
• The portfolio manager: manages securities and needs FINMA authorisation to do so.

That last boundary decides whether your company must be authorised before its commercial register entry.

A building is not a financial instrument

Portfolio management, in the Financial Services Act (FinSA, LSFin in French), means the “administration of financial instruments (portfolio management)” (Art. 3(c)(3) FinSA). Everything therefore depends on the list of financial instruments in Art. 3(a). It names equity securities, debt instruments, “units in collective investment schemes”, structured products, derivatives, certain deposits and bonds. Real estate is not on it.

The Financial Institutions Act (FinIA, LEFin) follows the same logic. A portfolio manager is a person “mandated to manage assets on a commercial basis in the name of and on behalf of clients”, with assets defined by reference to Art. 3(c) items 1 to 4 FinSA (Art. 17(1) FinIA).

On the wording of the law, then, a mandate covering only buildings that your client holds directly involves no financial instruments and falls outside the portfolio manager authorisation.

When a property mandate becomes portfolio management

The same client can own real estate in several ways, and each carries its own regime. The FinSA list covers “securities in the form of shares” and units in collective investment schemes: once your mandate extends to assets of that kind, you have left property management and entered portfolio management.

Individual portfolio management becomes commercial once any one of the thresholds in Art. 19 of the Financial Institutions Ordinance (FinIO, OEFin) is crossed. They are gross earnings of more than CHF 50,000 per calendar year, business relationships with more than 20 contractual partners in the year, or unlimited power of disposal over assets of others exceeding CHF 5 million at any given time.

FinIA does not apply to “persons who manage solely the assets of persons with whom they have business or family ties” (Art. 2(2)(a) FinIA). That exemption ends with the first outside client.

Collective management: real estate funds and FINMA

Running a real estate fund is collective management, and FINMA supervises it directly. The Collective Investment Schemes Act (CISA, LPCC) defines collective investment schemes as assets raised from investors and managed jointly for their account (Art. 7(1) CISA). Real estate funds are open-ended schemes that invest their assets in real estate (Art. 58 CISA).

Such a fund may hold buildings, real estate companies in which it owns at least two thirds of the capital and votes, and units in other real estate funds or listed real estate companies up to 25% of its total assets (Art. 59(1) CISA). The vehicle needs its own licence: anyone who establishes, operates or holds the assets of a collective investment scheme requires FINMA authorisation (Art. 13(1) CISA).

Your company as a manager of collective assets

A company that manages a collective investment scheme on a commercial basis is a manager of collective assets (Art. 24(1) FinIA). Five requirements follow:

• Legal form: a commercial enterprise if the registered office is in Switzerland (Art. 25 FinIA).
• Capital: “at least CHF 200,000 and be paid up in full”, maintained at all times (Art. 42(1) FinIO).
• Organisation: joint signature by two, a management body of at least two persons, a separate body for governance and supervision, and a representative resident in Switzerland (Art. 37 FinIO).
• Supervision: “Managers of collective assets, fund management companies and securities firms are supervised by FINMA” (Art. 61(3) FinIA), with no supervisory organisation in between.
• Sequence: the company “may be entered in the commercial register only after authorisation has been granted” (Art. 5(2) FinIA).

The thresholds that keep you in the individual regime

A manager whose investors are all qualified remains a portfolio manager under Art. 17 if the schemes it manages total no more than CHF 100 million, leverage included. A second route allows up to CHF 500 million, provided there is no leverage and no redemption right in the first five years (Art. 24(2) FinIA). For a real estate fund the second route is closed. In an open-ended scheme, investors are entitled to redeem their units at net asset value (Art. 8(2) CISA). That leaves the CHF 100 million ceiling, under a portfolio manager authorisation.

Lex Koller: your clients and your own vehicles

The Lex Koller (LFAIE in French) weighs twice on an asset management company founded by a foreigner. The rule is short: “Foreign non-residents require authorisation from the competent cantonal authority for the acquisition of immovable property” (Art. 2(1) Lex Koller). Property that serves as the permanent establishment of a commercial or trading business is among the exceptions (Art. 2(2)(a)).

For your clients, residence counts more than passport. An EU citizen who is legally and actually resident in Switzerland is not a foreign non-resident; the same person living in Frankfurt is (Art. 5(1)(a)). Nationals of other states count as foreign non-residents unless they have the right to reside permanently in Switzerland (Art. 5(1)(abis)). A holding structure changes nothing. Buying a share in an entity whose real purpose is to acquire property is itself an acquisition, “provided the shares in this entity are not listed on a stock market in Switzerland” (Art. 4(1)(e)). The same applies to units in real estate funds and shares in real estate SICAVs that are not regularly traded (Art. 4(1)(c) and (cbis)).

For your vehicles, the Act also looks at the manager. A legal entity is presumed to be controlled by foreign non-residents if they hold more than a third of its capital or votes (Art. 6(2)). A real estate fund is presumed foreign-controlled when its administration is carried out by a foreign non-resident and its fund management company is one too (Art. 6(4)). Check this before you promise investors a residential fund.

Anti-money laundering: purchase and sale flows

Since 1 October 2026, the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA, LBA) has covered advisers: persons who, on a professional basis, “assist third parties with financial transactions, including raising finance”, in connection with “the purchase and sale of immovable property” (Art. 2(3bis)(a) AMLA). An asset manager who arranges the financing of an acquisition for a client can fall within that definition.

Transfers worth less than CHF 5 million paid exclusively through banks or other supervised financial intermediaries are outside the Act, as is the purchase of a home for personal use (Art. 2(4ter)(b) and (c) AMLA). A CHF 12 million acquisition for an investor qualifies for neither. An adviser must join a self-regulatory organisation, and anyone who helps to transfer assets belonging to others becomes a financial intermediary (Art. 2(3) AMLA).

Setting up a real estate asset management company in Switzerland from the UK or elsewhere outside the EU

Your residence depends on your nationality, and the United Kingdom is no longer a member of the European Union. An EU national who settles in Switzerland to pursue a self-employed activity receives a residence permit valid for at least five years, provided that establishment is proved (Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons, Annex I, Art. 12). Other nationals are admitted for self-employment only if the project serves the country’s economic interests and meets the financial and operational requirements (Art. 19 FNIA). A British founder therefore applies under Art. 19 FNIA, like the American manager in the worked case below.

Setting up the company

For a company that manages directly held buildings, a GmbH with CHF 20,000 of fully paid-up capital is often enough at launch. An AG, with CHF 100,000 of capital of which CHF 50,000 is paid up, tends to reassure family offices more. Our guide to company incorporation in Switzerland walks through each step up to the commercial register entry.

The company must be able to be represented by a person resident in Switzerland. In an AG that is a board member or an executive officer (Art. 718(4) CO); in a GmbH, a managing director or a manager (Art. 814(3) CO).

A worked case: a US real estate manager in Zug

A real estate manager from New York decides in 2026 to open a real estate asset management company in Zug. As a US citizen, she falls outside the free movement agreement: her admission as a self-employed person rests on Art. 19 FNIA, so her file must show a viable business and an economic benefit for the canton. Until the permit is granted she still lives in New York. The AG she incorporates, with CHF 100,000 of capital, therefore appoints a board member resident in Switzerland from day one (Art. 718(4) CO).

Her first mandate comes from a Swiss family office: the strategy for nine residential and commercial buildings it owns directly in Zug and Lucerne, valued at CHF 140 million. On the wording of FinSA, no portfolio manager authorisation is required, and her corporate purpose speaks of real estate management, not portfolio management.

Two years later, the family office wants to open the portfolio to other families through a real estate fund. With CHF 140 million in an open-ended vehicle, the Art. 24(2) FinIA thresholds do not help: managing the fund requires authorisation as a manager of collective assets, CHF 200,000 of fully paid-up capital and two people in management. She prepares a second company, authorised before any registration, and keeps the first for direct mandates.

The Lex Koller then comes back twice. Some of the new families live outside Switzerland, and for them fund units with no regular market count as an acquisition of property (Art. 4(1)(c) Lex Koller). Her own status counts too: without a permanent residence right she is a foreign non-resident under Art. 5(1)(abis), and if she controls the new company, the presumption of Art. 6(4) has to be examined before any residential building goes into the fund.

Six common mistakes

• Assuming you are outside FINMA’s reach with a mandate that includes fund units.
• Registering the company before the manager of collective assets authorisation has been granted (Art. 5(2) FinIA).
• Planning CHF 100,000 of capital for a company that will manage a fund, when FinIO requires CHF 200,000, fully paid up.
• Relying on the CHF 500 million ceiling for an open-ended real estate fund whose units are redeemable.
• Forgetting the Lex Koller when foreign non-residents hold more than a third of the vehicle.
• Routing the purchase price through the company’s account without first checking the AMLA.

FAQ: real estate asset management company in Switzerland

Do you need FINMA authorisation to manage buildings for clients?

On the wording of the law, not as long as the mandate covers only buildings the client owns directly: real estate does not appear in the list of financial instruments in Art. 3(a) FinSA. No FINMA statement confirming this reading has been found. Fund units or shares in the mandate change the answer.

Which authorisation do you need to manage a real estate fund in Switzerland?

Authorisation as a manager of collective assets, granted by FINMA (Art. 24 FinIA), with direct FINMA supervision. You need a commercial enterprise, CHF 200,000 of fully paid-up capital and at least two people in management. The fund itself is authorised separately (Art. 13 CISA).

How much capital does a real estate asset management company need?

For managing directly held buildings, the legal minimum of the chosen form: CHF 20,000 for a GmbH, or CHF 100,000 for an AG with CHF 50,000 paid up. For a fund or a SICAV, Art. 42 FinIO requires CHF 200,000, paid up in full and maintained at all times.

Can a foreign founder launch a residential real estate fund in Switzerland?

Only after clearing the Lex Koller. A real estate fund is presumed controlled by foreign non-residents when both its administration and its fund management company are in foreign hands (Art. 6(4) Lex Koller), and any acquisition of property by foreign non-residents requires cantonal authorisation.

Is a real estate asset manager subject to anti-money laundering law?

It can be since 1 October 2026, if it assists clients with the financial side of buying or selling property, including raising finance (Art. 2(3bis) AMLA). It must then join a self-regulatory organisation and meet due diligence duties.

What is the difference between real estate asset management and property management?

The asset manager sets the strategy for the portfolio: purchases, sales, capital works and value. The property manager runs the buildings day to day: leases, rents, tenants and routine maintenance. One company can do both under separate contracts.

Sources

• Financial Services Act (FinSA), SR 950.1, Art. 3
• Financial Institutions Act (FinIA), SR 954.1, Art. 2, 5, 17, 24, 25 and 61
• Financial Institutions Ordinance (FinIO), SR 954.11, Art. 19, 37 and 42
• Collective Investment Schemes Act (CISA), SR 951.31, Art. 7, 8, 13, 58 and 59 (French)
• Federal Act on the Acquisition of Immovable Property by Foreign Non-Residents (Lex Koller), SR 211.412.41, Art. 2, 4, 5 and 6
• Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), SR 955.0, Art. 2
• Swiss Code of Obligations (CO), SR 220, Art. 718 and 814
• Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons, SR 0.142.112.681, Annex I (French)
• Foreign Nationals and Integration Act (FNIA), SR 142.20, Art. 19