SWITZERLAND, A country known for being boring, stable, predictable and safe, is now looking more and more attractive since the recent global economic crash took the gloss off the apparently more adventurous investment markets.

However, despite the fact that only 37 per cent of Swiss residents own their own homes, one of the lowest rates of home ownership in Europe, they are not overly enthusiastic about having their country overrun by non-nationals buying up their property and land.

In an attempt at controlling the situation, they introduced a law (called the Lex Friedrich) in January 1985, which restricts the number of foreign (non-Swiss) purchasers by allocating an annual quota of 1,500 permits split between the 26 Swiss cantons.

The numbers vary in each canton from year to year and some areas may not be allocated any non-national permits.

Foreigners, who wish to buy property in Switzerland, must first obtain authorisation (via a notary) from the cantonal authorities and from the federal department of justice and police.

Foreigners may not buy more than one property per family and the size of the property must not exceed 200sq m (2,153sq ft) and the land may not exceed 1,000sq m (10,763sq ft).

Only on proof of “additional need” can these size restrictions be exceeded (to a maximum of 250sq m/2,702sq ft for the property and 1,500sq m/16,146sq ft for the land).

There is also a restriction on foreigners acquiring residential property as a buy-to-let investment except for subsidised housing, which rents at below market value.

However, freehold purchase of property in Switzerland is possible via a 15-year buy-and-leaseback system with a guaranteed rental return, similar to the leaseback scheme operating in France. “Leaseback” should not be compared with “timeshare”.

Leaseback schemes involve the full purchase of freehold property. Timeshare on the other hand, is the purchase of specific periods of time within which you can stay in the property.

Unlike timeshare, with leaseback property you actually own the property but agree to lease it back to the property management company for a fixed period of time.

When that lease is up, the property owners can then decide to renew the lease with the management company, sell their property, rent it out independently or live in it themselves.

As the permit is attached to the home and not the person, a foreigner can sell on their property to either another foreigner or to a Swiss national; however, the Swiss can only sell to another Swiss national.

Switzerland experienced an increase in property prices in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In an effort to put a stop to price inflation, the Swiss National Bank decided to increase the interest rates from 4.9 per cent to 7.9 per cent.

As most Swiss mortgages were then a variable rate, the impact of this sudden increase was very severe and as a result the property market crashed in the 1990s and did not show any signs of recovering again until interest rates were lowered (to 3 per cent) in the early years of this decade, when most Swiss mortgages were then fixed at the low rate.

As Switzerland is a stable economy and has remained outside the European Union, using its own currency, the Swiss franc, it has not been subject to the same currency fluctuations recently experienced elsewhere and is therefore attractive to investors.

Over the last decade or so, many Irish people were introduced to the idea of two distinct holidays per year, one in the sun and one on the ski slopes.

As 60,000 Irish people now go skiing each year, they have also become interested in investing in property in good winter sport destinations.