Setting up as a real estate broker in Geneva as a foreign entrepreneur: company, the draft broker register, Lex Koller and commission

by Andrés Taracido | Last updated Oct 21, 2026

To work as a real estate broker in Geneva today, you need neither a professional card nor a place on any register: a company entered in the Geneva commercial register and a carefully drafted brokerage agreement are enough to take your first mandates. Founders from New York, London or Dubai should know where that freedom ends. A bill on real estate brokerage, tabled in the Grand Council in December 2025, would create a compulsory cantonal register whose first condition is a registered office or residence in Switzerland. And many of your foreign clients cannot buy whatever they like: the Lex Koller sometimes settles the fate of a commission before the first viewing. This guide sets out the position on 21 October 2026 and how to build a brokerage company that will still stand if the rules change.

Working as a real estate broker in Geneva: no licence today

Federal law does not make brokers hold any authorisation. It leaves the door open to the cantons instead: under Article 418 of the Code of Obligations, “The cantons reserve the right to enact special regulations governing stockbrokers, official brokers and employment agencies.” The French version, which carries the same legal weight, simply speaks of brokers. Geneva has not used that power so far, and no cantonal statute in force governs brokers who arrange the sale or purchase of property.

The federal certificate for real estate brokers (courtier en immeubles BF) and the USPI or APGCI courses help with sellers, but none conditions your company’s registration. Whatever licence you hold at home, nobody in Geneva will ask for it.

Ticino shows how far a canton can go. Its LFid, the act licensing accounting, real estate and financial service professions, treats brokering the sale or exchange of land as a regulated property activity requiring an authorisation (Art. 1 and 4 LFid). Only individuals can hold it. They need a recognised qualification, such as a degree in economics or law from a Swiss university or one of the listed federal diplomas, and two years of practice in the field in Switzerland (Art. 8 and 11 LFid).

A company may broker property there only if at least one licensed person works inside it with signing authority entered in the commercial register: a managing director in a GmbH, a board member with management duties or a member of executive management in an AG (Art. 6 LFid). A founder fresh from abroad lacks the two years of Swiss practice the licence requires, so a Lugano office would mean bringing in someone who has them.

Geneva’s draft brokerage law

Bill PL 13732 on real estate brokerage (LCImm) was tabled in the Grand Council on 15 December 2025 and referred to the housing committee in January 2026. It is not in force, and it may still be amended or rejected. It still matters, because Article 2 would reach every individual or company brokering property on Geneva territory, wherever its seat or residence, even as a sideline.

What the bill provides	What it would mean for a broker from abroad	Article of the bill
Prior entry in a public cantonal register	No Geneva mandate without registration, even from an office across the French border	Art. 5 and 6
Registered office or residence in Switzerland	A Swiss company becomes essential	Art. 7(a)
Adequate professional liability insurance and basic professional knowledge	Proof of cover and evidence of training to file	Art. 7
Client money kept in a separate bank account, returnable even in bankruptcy	A dedicated account as soon as you hold money for a client	Art. 7 and 13
No mandate from both parties to the same transaction	The end of double commissions from seller and buyer	Art. 12(2)
Public indicative scale of commissions, fees justified on request	Your commission measured against an official benchmark	Art. 9

Source: Grand Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, PL 13732 on real estate brokerage (LCImm), tabled on 15 December 2025. Bill under review, not in force on 21 October 2026.

The bill goes beyond registration. Brokers would have to keep up their training (Art. 8) and, before accepting a mandate, tell the client the fee or how it is calculated, the risks of the deal and the right to terminate at any time (Art. 11). It also plans a conciliation body (Art. 14), a compensation fund partly financed by brokers in proportion to their turnover (Art. 15) and administrative fines of up to CHF 50,000 (Art. 18). Brokers already active on the day it took effect would have six months to comply (Art. 21).

None of this binds you yet. But a company that already has its seat in Geneva, professional insurance, a separate account for client money and one principal per deal would have almost nothing to change if the bill passed.

Settling in Geneva from abroad

Your nationality decides the route. An EU or EFTA 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).

An American, Canadian or Gulf national falls under Article 19 of the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act. Admission as a self-employed person then requires that it serve the country’s economic interests, that the financial and operational requirements of the business are met and that the founder has sufficient independent income. A brokerage company alone seldom convinces the authority.

Whatever your passport, the company must be able to be represented by someone resident in Switzerland. In a GmbH, “This person must be a managing director or a manager” (Art. 814(3) CO); in an AG, “This person must be a member of the board of directors or an executive officer” (Art. 718(4) CO). A broker who keeps a home in Paris or London during the launch therefore needs a partner, a manager or a director who lives here.

Your real estate brokerage company in Geneva

A structure ready for tomorrow’s rules

Incorporation of the GmbH or AG and entry in the Geneva commercial register, a business address, a resident representative while you still live abroad, bookkeeping for your commissions, VAT and payroll for your staff: RISTER® sets up and administers your company so that you can concentrate on your mandates.

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Your commission under the brokerage agreement

The Code of Obligations defines brokerage as a contract “whereby the broker is given the mandate to arrange an opportunity to conclude a contract or to facilitate the conclusion of a contract in exchange for a fee” (Art. 412(1) CO). The rule that drives your cash flow follows at once: “The broker’s fee becomes payable as soon as the information he has given or the intermediary activities he has carried out result in the conclusion of the contract” (Art. 413(1) CO). However many viewings you organise, no sale means no fee.

Four other rules shape the agreement and regularly end up before the courts:

Conditional sale: where the sale depends on a condition precedent, the fee waits until the condition is met (Art. 413(2) CO).
Expenses: you recover them after a failed deal only if the agreement provides for it (Art. 413(3) CO).
No amount agreed: an existing tariff applies, otherwise custom (Art. 414 CO). Writing the figure or the method into the agreement avoids that argument.
Loyalty: a broker who works for the other side in breach of the contract, or secures a promise of payment from it in bad faith, forfeits both fee and expenses (Art. 415 CO). For a purchase of real estate, the court may also reduce an excessive fee at the debtor’s request (Art. 417 CO).

RISTER advice

Have the mandate signed before you reveal the property’s address, and keep a dated written list of every buyer you introduce. If the seller signs with one of them months later, that list is what proves the deal came from your work. Exclusivity and its duration exist only if the agreement spells them out.

Lex Koller in Geneva: check the buyer first

Geneva’s clientele is international, and mandates collapse here fastest. Under the Lex Koller (LFAIE), the acquisition of real estate by persons abroad requires an authorisation from the competent cantonal authority (Art. 2(1) LFAIE). Persons abroad include EU and EFTA nationals without a legal and actual domicile in Switzerland, as well as nationals of other states who have no right to settle here (Art. 5 LFAIE).

For you, the test is the buyer’s domicile, not the passport. An American executive living in Geneva may buy the apartment that serves as his main residence there without authorisation (Art. 2(2)(b) LFAIE). The same buyer, still based in Boston and looking for a second home by the lake, falls under the authorisation regime and may well be refused. Offices and shop premises used as a permanent establishment for a business stay open to foreign buyers (Art. 2(2)(a) LFAIE). Buying through an unlisted real estate company changes nothing: its shares count as the building (Art. 4 LFAIE).

Anti-money laundering: where the line runs

Since 1 October 2026, the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) applies to advisers who, on a professional basis and on behalf of third parties, take part in financial transactions, including the organisation of funds, connected with the purchase or sale of real estate (Art. 2(1)(c) and 2(3bis) AMLA). In its dispatch on the Transparency of Legal Entities Act, the Federal Council stated that an estate agent acting solely as a broker will not be subject to the Act.

Introducing buyers and negotiating the price keeps you outside it. Accept a deposit into your account, arrange the buyer’s financing or route the purchase price through your company, and you become an adviser, with the duties that come with it: identifying the client and the beneficial owner, documenting the file and joining a self-regulatory organisation. A broker already carrying out such work on 1 October 2026 must apply for membership before 1 December 2026.

Setting up your brokerage company in Geneva

Most brokers start with a GmbH: CHF 20,000 of fully paid-up capital, liability limited to the company’s assets and one or more managing directors entered in the commercial register. An AG, with CHF 100,000 of capital of which at least CHF 50,000 is paid up, suits a team of partners or a real estate brokerage company in Geneva that wants institutional mandates. Our company incorporation service in Geneva covers every step up to entry in the register.

Commissions become subject to VAT once annual turnover reaches CHF 100,000 (Art. 10(2)(a) VAT Act), at the standard rate of 8.1%, and a single apartment sale can cross that line. Plan your cash too: a commission arrives with the signed deed, sometimes six months after the first contact, while rent and salaries go out monthly. Your selling clients will also ask about Geneva’s tax on real estate gains (IBGI), and pointing them to the right specialist is part of the job.

A worked case: an American broker in Geneva

A broker with twelve years of sales in California marries a woman who works in Geneva and moves his career there. He forms a GmbH with CHF 20,000 of capital. His residence permit is a separate matter, tied to his family situation, which he clarifies with the cantonal migration authority before anything is signed. Until he has moved, the GmbH is represented by a managing director resident in Switzerland, as Article 814(3) CO requires; once settled in Geneva, he can take on that role himself.

He takes out professional liability insurance from the first day and signs agreements with one principal per transaction, without waiting to see what becomes of PL 13732. When a client from Texas asks him to find a pied-à-terre in Champel without moving to Geneva, he explains that the purchase needs a Lex Koller authorisation, and the mandate goes no further. Deposits and the purchase price never pass through the company’s accounts, so under the AMLA he remains a broker.

FAQ: real estate broker in Geneva

Do you need a licence to be a real estate broker in Geneva?

No, not as of 21 October 2026. No Geneva statute in force makes real estate brokerage subject to authorisation or registration, and federal law imposes no licence either. Bill PL 13732, under review by the Grand Council’s housing committee, would however create a compulsory cantonal register.

What does Geneva’s draft brokerage law provide?

Prior entry in a public register, a registered office or residence in Switzerland, professional liability insurance, a separate account for client money, a ban on acting for both parties to the same deal and a public indicative scale of commissions. The text may still be amended or rejected.

Can a broker licensed abroad work in Geneva?

Yes, and no foreign licence is required. EU and EFTA nationals can settle to work on their own account; others need admission under Article 19 of the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act. The company must be represented by a Swiss resident.

When is the commission due?

When the broker’s information or negotiation results in the conclusion of the contract (Art. 413(1) CO). A sale subject to a condition precedent postpones the fee until the condition is met, and expenses are refunded after a failed deal only if the agreement says so.

Can a non-resident buy an apartment in Geneva?

Not freely. A buyer who lives abroad needs an authorisation under the Lex Koller to buy a home (Art. 2 and 5 LFAIE). A foreign national domiciled in Switzerland may buy his main residence without authorisation, and premises used as a permanent establishment for a business remain open to buyers abroad.

Must a broker join a self-regulatory organisation?

Not if he acts only as a broker, according to the Federal Council’s dispatch. He must if he takes part in his clients’ financial transactions for a purchase or sale, for instance by organising the funds (Art. 2(3bis) AMLA, in force since 1 October 2026).

Sources

Conclusion

Working as a real estate broker in Geneva still requires no authorisation, yet the draft cantonal register already sketches the rules of tomorrow: a seat in Switzerland, professional insurance, client money kept apart and one principal per deal. Add the Lex Koller, which filters your foreign buyers, and the anti-money laundering line you cross the moment you handle the purchase money. RISTER supports brokers settling in Geneva, from incorporating the company to keeping the books on their commissions, under the direction of Andrés Taracido and his more than 25 years of experience in corporate services.

Written by

Andrés Taracido

Director of RISTER®, fiduciary in Geneva. Federal Diploma as Finance and Investment Expert, CIWM, STEP/TEP, CAS in SME Taxation, IAF member.

Over 25 years of experience supporting entrepreneurs, SMEs, and international structures: company formation, taxation, administration, and management in Switzerland.

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