Andermatt Swiss Alps
Andermatt, Switzerland. Unbranded. A garrison village rebuilt as a resort town — and the only Alpine address a foreigner may buy without asking.
The product is the law. Andermatt is carved out of Lex Koller and the second-home cap until 2040, and is marketed as the only Alpine destination in Switzerland where international buyers may purchase without restriction. Elsewhere a foreign buyer needs authorisation against a national quota of roughly 1,500 holiday permits a year, with caps of 200 square metres of living space and 1,000 of plot, and a five-year hold. An exemption in that setting is not a detail; it is the asset.
Samih Sawiris put about CHF 1.5–1.7 billion into it through Andermatt Swiss Alps AG — The Chedi, the Radisson Blu, a concert hall, golf, ski infrastructure, forty-two apartment houses and twenty-eight villas — holding 51 per cent with Orascom Development at 49. Two Reuss villas were reported sold at CHF 30 million each in 2026, with indoor pools and butler service.
It is Costa Smeralda in the Alps, and the parallel is exact. The Aga Khan bought a coast, wrote a building code and built the hotels; Sawiris bought a valley, obtained a statutory exemption and built the town. Alpine price growth here led the Alps at 14.6 per cent in 2024–25, and American enquiries rose sharply in 2026 — because Americans could buy.
Who it is not for
Not for a buyer who wants an old address: this is a manufactured destination and its history is fifteen years long. Not for anyone assuming the exemption is permanent — it runs to 2040 and the Federal Council was consulting on tightening the wider regime in 2026.
Sources
- andermatt-swissalps.ch — the integrated destination; Sawiris 51%, Orascom Development 49%
- Tippinpoint, 2026 — two Reuss villas reported sold at CHF 30m each in a 28-villa programme
- Knight Frank and Blick — alpine price growth of 14.6% in 2024–25, the highest in the Alps
- Swiss federal law — Lex Koller authorisation, the holiday-home quota, the 200 sqm and 1,000 sqm caps and the five-year hold; Andermatt's carve-out to 2040
Verification
- Official source
- Checked
- Inventory
- Awaiting confirmation
- Property confirmation
- Pending
- Last verified
- —
Booking
Private Residences records addresses; it does not broker them. Enquiries are passed to the party named in the record, and nothing on this site is an offer.
Make an enquiryClassified by The Resort Collection House · Edition 2026 · PR-D-259