Succession: Revised Land Register Rules
for International Transfers of Swiss
Real Estate

On 26 August 2026, the Swiss Federal Council opened a consultation on a partial revision of the Land Register Ordinance. This aims to clarify and harmonise the rules governing the transfer of Swiss real estate in connection with international estates.

Background

Swiss land register law currently treats the transfer of real estate under foreign inheritance law, particularly where foreign administrators, executors, personal representatives or trustees are involved, in an inconsistent manner. Until now, the rules governing the Swiss land registers only include a specific provision on the transfer of ownership in certain situations concerning trusts, yet other constellations are either unaddressed or subject to rules that partly conflict with other federal law. These and further inconsistencies were discussed in the context of the 2025 revision of Swiss private international law, prompting the Federal Council to propose the following amendments.

Key Revisions

• Transfer basis for Swiss real estate in foreign estates: Swiss land registries require a binding transactional document to effect a transfer of title. Under Swiss inheritance law, this is typically a partition agreement. For transfers governed by foreign succession law, the Federal Council identified inconsistencies in the current framework – including conflicts with federal law and regulatory gaps. Under the revised law, land registries will require production of whichever binding transactional document is required by the applicable foreign law for the transfer of the Swiss real estate to the recipient.
• Status of foreign estate representatives: Under the revised Swiss private international law, a foreign estate representative dealing with Swiss assets or proceedings is subject to Swiss law as regards his or her authority to act in Switzerland, even where applicable foreign inheritance law grants the representative broader rights and powers. The Federal Council has determined that such representatives – sometimes recorded in land registries as owners in their capacity as interim beneficiaries (e.g. executors in a common law estate) should instead be recorded as representatives, not as (ownership) title holders for Swiss land register purposes.
  
• Acceptance of certified copies: Under the current regime, documents required to transfer Swiss real estate must generally be produced in original form. The revised law will permit certified copies, a change driven by the practical needs of cross-border cases.

Outlook and Practical Implications

The consultation period for the draft ordinance closes on 27 November 2026. Depending on the time required to process the responses received, the new law could enter into force by approximately early 2028. It is welcome that the Federal Council has recognised the need to update the land register rules and align them with the revised Swiss private international law framework. There is some hope that, following these reforms, registering the transfer of Swiss real estate upon the death of a foreign testator will become considerably more straightforward.