Opening a property management company in Geneva: mandate, initial rent form, deposits and owners’ accounts

A property management company in Geneva needs no cantonal authorisation

Geneva’s act on intermediary agents (LAInt, I 2 12) applies to two professions only, business transfer agents and information agents (Art. 1(1) LAInt), the latter being commercial information agents and private detectives. At federal level, Article 418 CO lets the cantons regulate brokers: “The cantons reserve the right to enact special regulations governing stockbrokers, official brokers and employment agencies.” Property managers are not on it.

Neither the federal certificate for property managers (gérant d’immeubles BF) nor membership of USPI Genève is a condition for entering your company in the commercial register.

Ticino, for its part, requires an authorisation: its LFid treats letting and managing buildings as regulated real estate activities (Art. 4(c) and (d) LFid), licensed to individuals with a recognised qualification and two years of practice in Switzerland at a firm in that line of business (Art. 8 and 11 LFid). Keep it in mind if your portfolio ever reaches Lugano.

If your plan is to find buyers in exchange for a commission, read our guide for the real estate broker in Geneva instead.

The draft brokerage law and finding tenants

Bill PL 13732 on real estate brokerage (LCImm) was tabled in the Grand Council on 15 December 2025 and sent to committee in January 2026. It is not in force. It targets bringing parties together, not the running of a building: Article 3 defines brokerage as any professional, profit-making activity that puts parties in contact, directly or indirectly, with a view to a contract on real property, in particular a sale, purchase, lease or transfer.

The word lease is the one to watch. A management company that searches for tenants on an owner’s behalf could fall within that part of the text if it were adopted as drafted. The bill would also require money entrusted to a broker to be held in a bank account separate from the broker’s own funds (Art. 13(1) of the bill).

Opening a property management company in Geneva from the UK or elsewhere outside the EU

Your residence route depends on your nationality, and the United Kingdom is no longer a member of the European Union. An EU national who moves to Switzerland to work on their own account receives a residence permit valid for at least five years, provided they show the authorities that they are setting up, or intend to set up, for that purpose (Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons, Annex I, Art. 12(1)). Nationals of other countries need admission under Article 19 of the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act, which looks at the country’s economic interests, the business’s financial and operational requirements and the founder’s own income.

The company has its own requirement. In a GmbH (Sàrl), “The company must be able to be represented by a person who is resident in Switzerland. This person must be a managing director or a manager” (Art. 814(3) CO). In an AG (SA), the resident must be “a member of the board of directors or an executive officer” (Art. 718(4) CO). A founder still in London at launch needs a managing director or board member who lives here.

The management mandate, seen from the owner’s side

A property management agreement is a mandate under Articles 394 et seq. CO,, and four of its rules, all protecting the owner, shape your organisation:

• Accounting to the owner: “The mandatee is obliged at the mandator’s request, which may be made at any time, to give an account of his activities under the mandate and to return anything received for whatever reason as a result of such activities” (Art. 400(1) CO). Late payments carry interest (Art. 400(2) CO).
• Your own bankruptcy: claims you acquire in your name for the owner pass to the owner once he has met his obligations to you, and “The same applies in relation to the mandatee’s assets if the mandatee is bankrupt” (Art. 401(2) CO).
• Diligence: “The mandatee is liable to the mandator for the diligent and faithful performance of the business entrusted to him” (Art. 398(2) CO), and in principle performs it in person.
• Termination: “The mandate may be revoked or terminated at any time by either party” (Art. 404(1) CO). Only a termination at an inopportune juncture gives rise to compensation (Art. 404(2) CO). No agreement locks in a portfolio.

Geneva’s official initial rent form

The Code of Obligations allows cantons facing a housing shortage to make the official form compulsory for every new lease (Art. 270(2) CO). Geneva has done so in its civil code implementing act: as long as the shortage lasts, a landlord of residential premises in the canton must use that form when concluding a new lease (Art. 207(1) LaCC). The Federal Housing Office’s overview of September 2026 confirms it, with a vacancy rate of 0.31% on 1 June 2026.

The form has to reach the tenant no later than the day the premises are handed over (Art. 207(3) LaCC). The tenant then has 30 days after taking possession to challenge the initial rent before the conciliation authority (Art. 270(1) CO).

Rent deposits and condition reports

A tenant’s deposit never passes through the management company’s accounts. When security is given in cash or negotiable securities, “the landlord must deposit it in a bank savings or deposit account in the tenant’s name” (Art. 257e(1) CO). For homes the law sets a ceiling: “In residential leases, the landlord is not entitled to ask for more than three months’ rent by way of security” (Art. 257e(2) CO). The text sets no such limit for shops or offices.

At the end of the lease, the bank releases the money only with both parties’ consent, a final payment order or a final court decision. A year after the lease ends with no claim from the landlord, the tenant may recover it (Art. 257e(3) CO).

Condition reports work twice. The report from the previous move-out must be shown to the incoming tenant on request, together with the previous rent (Art. 256a CO). At move-out, the landlord must inspect the premises and “immediately inform the tenant or lessee of any defects for which he is answerable”; otherwise the owner forfeits those claims, except for defects not detectable on customary inspection (Art. 267a CO).

Rent increases, notices and service charges: form comes first

In tenancy law a mistake in form voids the act, and the owner then turns to his manager under Article 398 CO.

For an increase based on rising costs or value-adding works, the tenant may ask for precise figures and, before the conciliation authority, for the supporting documents (Art. 20 OBLF). File every invoice by building.

Owners’ accounts and the Anti-Money Laundering Act

According to FINMA practice, a property manager who collects rent, service charges and deposits for the owner is not a financial intermediary. FINMA Circular 2011/1, in the version in force since 1 January 2017, treats such a manager as a debt collector when it receives these sums in the owner’s name, on his instructions and for his account, so the Anti-Money Laundering Act does not apply to that activity (margin no. 124).

Payments made from that income also stay outside the Act as long as they relate directly to the ordinary administration of the building (margin no. 125). That covers mortgage interest and repayments, utilities, the building’s taxes and insurance, heating, maintenance, works, caretaker and gardener wages and the transfer of balances (margin no. 126). Any acceptance and transfer of money beyond that administration falls under the Act (margin no. 127). A property company that manages its own buildings may, depending on the case, be caught as well (margin no. 128).

None of the federal provisions cited here requires a bank account per owner. A management account kept apart from your own cash, broken down by building, remains the simplest way to honour Articles 400 and 401 CO.

VAT and incorporating your property management company in Geneva

The owner’s rent is exempt from VAT: the Act excludes “the provision of immovable property and parts of immovable property for use or exploitation” (Art. 21(2)(21) VAT Act), and whether a supply is exempt is determined “exclusively by its nature and regardless of who makes or receives the supply” (Art. 21(3) VAT Act). The owner cannot opt to tax a lease used exclusively as a home (Art. 22(2)(b) VAT Act).

Your management fees are a different matter. They are a service absent from the list of exemptions, taxable at the standard rate of 8.1% (Art. 25(1) VAT Act). Registration becomes compulsory once annual turnover from supplies that are not exempt reaches CHF 100,000 (Art. 10(2)(a) VAT Act), and those fees count towards it.

A GmbH, with nominal capital of at least CHF 20,000 (Art. 773 CO), suits most new management companies. An AG needs share capital of CHF 100,000, with at least CHF 50,000 paid up on formation (Art. 621 and 632 CO). Our company incorporation service in Geneva covers each step to registration.

A worked case: a British manager takes on two buildings in Carouge

A property manager trained in London, now living in Geneva, forms a GmbH and acts as its managing director resident in the canton. She clears her residence status with the cantonal migration office first. Her first client owns two buildings in Carouge and entrusts her with 30 flats under an agreement that provides for a monthly statement and a list of works she may order without prior approval.

When the first tenant leaves, she fills in the official form with the old rent, the new one, the reason for the difference and the interest rate and index references, then hands it over with the keys. The new tenant’s deposit, capped at three months’ rent, goes into a bank account in the tenant’s name. Eight months later the owner withdraws one building from the mandate to give it to his son. She hands back files, statements and balances, as Article 400 CO requires, and keeps the other one.

Mistakes that cost a mandate in Geneva

• Signing a residential lease without the official form, or serving it after the keys are handed over.
• Paying a deposit into the management company’s own account.
• Sending an increase or a notice by ordinary letter.
• Paying the owner’s private expenses from rental income, outside FINMA practice.
• Assuming that the LCImm bill already applies, or that it will never concern you.

FAQ: property management company in Geneva

Do you need a licence to run a property management company in Geneva?

No, as of 29 October 2026. Geneva’s act on intermediary agents covers only business transfer agents and information agents, and no federal statute requires property managers to hold a licence. Bill PL 13732 is not in force.

Is the official form required for every new lease in Geneva?

Yes for residential premises, as long as the housing shortage lasts (Art. 207(1) LaCC). It must reach the tenant no later than the handover of the keys.

How large can a rent deposit be?

For a home, three months’ rent at most (Art. 257e(2) CO), placed in a bank savings or deposit account in the tenant’s name.

Does a property management company have to join a self-regulatory organisation?

Not while it sticks to ordinary building administration, which FINMA treats as debt collection in Circular 2011/1 (margin nos. 124 to 127). Beyond it, the Anti-Money Laundering Act applies.

Can an owner end the management agreement whenever he likes?

Yes. A mandate may be revoked at any time (Art. 404(1) CO). The party that ends it at an inopportune juncture must compensate the other for the resulting damage.

Does a property manager charge VAT?

On its fees, yes, at 8.1% once annual taxable turnover reaches CHF 100,000. The residential rent it collects for the owner remains exempt (Art. 21(2)(21) VAT Act).

Sources

• Geneva, act implementing the Civil Code and other federal civil law acts (LaCC), E 1 05, Art. 207 (French)
• Geneva, act on intermediary agents (LAInt), I 2 12 (French)
• Grand Council of Geneva, PL 13732 on real estate brokerage (LCImm), tabled on 15 December 2025 (French)
• Federal Housing Office, tenancy law; 2026 overview of the official initial rent form (French)
• Swiss Code of Obligations (CO), SR 220
• Ordinance on the Lease and Usufructuary Lease of Residential and Commercial Property (OBLF), SR 221.213.11 (French)
• FINMA, Circular 2011/1 on financial intermediation under the AMLA, as at 1 January 2017 (French)
• Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), SR 955.0
• Federal Act on Value Added Tax (VAT Act), SR 641.20
• Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons, SR 0.142.112.681 (French)
• Foreign Nationals and Integration Act, SR 142.20 (French)
• Canton of Ticino, LFid, RL 953.100 (Italian)