The Legal 500

Construction contractor liens

Partial revision

From time to time, landlords may wish to adjust a rent because ofchanged circumstances and to terminate a rental agreement inorder to obtain a higher rent from a successor tenant. To carrysuch plan into effect, however, is problematic and requires thenavigation of numerous obstacles developed under case law. 

Share Deals mit einer Vielzahl von Verkäufern 

Real estate assets are a significant investment category of pension funds. According to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office real estate investments constitute the third most important investment form, after investments in shares and bonds. Real estate investments amounted to 87.5 billion Swiss Francs in 2007, the year under review. Over 90 percent of such amount has been invested in the Swiss real estate market (directly or indirectly via collective investments). During the past few years, pension funds have become much more attracted to the practice of ceding directly-held real estate investments in real estate investment vehicles against issuance of units (commonly asset-swap transactions). The main incentives for this trend lie in the fact that the pension funds that do not have real estate management as their core business can use indirect real estate investment to achieve an improvement in real estate management and a larger and improved structure of the real estate portfolio and thereby higher profits. This newsletter shall provide an overview over the special features of asset-swap transactions in the real estate sector.

The ongoing disruption of credit and capitalmarkets has led banks to invent and pursue refinancing solutions that have previously been used only rarely or that have been used in a different context. Credit portfolios are now sold and transferred to selected investors at substantial discounts rather than to the broader capital markets.

Individuals resident in Switzerland are not entirely free to whom they bequeath their estate. Swiss residents find themselves constrained by the forced heirship provisions of Article 470 et seq. of the Swiss Civil Code (SCC).

During recent years, all efforts to uncouple rental payments from mortgage interest rates have failed. Now, however, following months of discussions between tenant and landlord organizations, a breakthrough has been achieved.

In Switzerland, lessees (especially relocation companies) have discovered the business of subleasing business apartments. They rent an apartment, furnish it and make additional services available. Thereafter, the apartment is subleased for two to three times the original rent. This is legally problematic.

Switzerland has seen a dramatic increase in both origination and securitisation activity in the commercial real estate market over the past two to three years. New foreign lenders and sponsors are entering the Swiss market. The year 2007 should show another significant increase in Swiss commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) issue volumes. Future multi-jurisdictional and pan-European deals, including Swiss assets from both existing CMBS conduits and an increasing number of new conduits by new CMBS lenders, are expected. This chapter provides an overview of Swiss legal issues in this new market sector.

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