How Swiss nationals and Switzerland-based high-net-worth individuals who own property in Manhattan, Aspen, Miami, Los Angeles, and across America's premium markets can release the equity they have built, without pledging their investment portfolio to a Swiss private bank as the price of accessing their own property wealth
Switzerland's private banking community has made the AUM-for-lending condition an art form. Nowhere else in the world of international high-net-worth finance is the practice of tying lending availability to assets under management more explicit, more systematic, or more aggressively applied than in Swiss private banking. The Swiss private banks: UBS, Credit Suisse (now UBS), Julius Baer, Lombard Odier, Pictet, Vontobel, and their peers, have built their business models around the comprehensive management of client wealth, and mortgage lending, including lending against overseas real estate, is a loss leader offered as part of that comprehensive relationship rather than as a standalone service.
The consequence for Swiss high-net-worth owners of US real estate is direct and consistent: when they seek to release equity from their American property through their Swiss private bank, the bank's response is to offer the lending at an attractive rate — but with the condition that the client must consolidate a significant portion of their investment assets with the bank as AUM. The facility rate is good. The AUM condition is frequently unacceptable.
Swiss high-net-worth clients are among the most financially sophisticated in the world. They understand exactly what the AUM condition means: the bank is using the mortgage as a mechanism to capture wealth management revenue. They frequently have investment managers, asset allocators, and family office relationships that they value and do not want to disrupt. And they have no interest in consolidating USD 3 to 5 million of investment assets with a Swiss private bank simply to access equity from a US property they own outright.
Global Mortgage Group has no AUM requirement. No investment assets need to be moved, pledged, or consolidated. The equity release facility is assessed entirely on the US property value and the exit strategy. That is the beginning and end of it.
This is the Unlocked in America: Swiss High-Net-Worth Owners of US Real Estate guide — part of the Unlocked in America series by Global Mortgage Group and America Mortgages.
What Swiss High-Net-Worth Owners Have Built in US Real Estate
Aspen: Switzerland's American Mountain
The parallel between Aspen and the Swiss Alpine resorts, Gstaad, Verbier, St. Moritz, Klosters, is not lost on Swiss high-net-worth buyers who have made Aspen their preferred American mountain destination. Your content matrix rates the Swiss-Aspen combination as a Priority 1-High opportunity, the highest priority of any Swiss city combination — and rightly so. Swiss high-net-worth buyers who acquired in Aspen's West End, on Red Mountain, or in the Starwood gated community in the 1990s and early 2000s paid prices that now seem historical. Properties purchased for USD 2 to 5 million are now worth USD 12 to 35 million for the most significant holdings.
Manhattan
Swiss high-net-worth buyers have established consistent pied-a-terre positions in Manhattan, particularly on the Upper East Side, in Tribeca, and on Billionaires' Row — driven by New York's position as the global financial capital and the Swiss financial community's deep professional connections to Wall Street. Manhattan condominiums purchased by Swiss buyers in the early 2000s for USD 1.5 to 3 million are now worth USD 5 to 10 million.
Miami and Palm Beach
Swiss high-net-worth buyers value Miami and Palm Beach for the combination of lifestyle quality, warm climate, and the financial privacy of Florida's legal environment. Palm Beach properties acquired in the late 1990s and early 2000s for USD 800,000 to 2 million are now worth USD 4 to 10 million.
The Swiss Equity Release Barrier Beyond AUM
Beyond the AUM condition, Swiss high-net-worth owners of US real estate face the standard international barriers, Swiss franc or euro income in an unassessable US format, no US credit history, and holding structures through Swiss foundations, Liechtenstein Anstalts, or offshore entities that the conventional US equity release market cannot process.
GMG's equity release assessment accommodates Swiss franc and euro income, Swiss corporate and family foundation holding structures, and Liechtenstein and BVI vehicles commonly used by Swiss high-net-worth families, without requiring AUM consolidation and without requiring income documentation to conform to US mortgage standards.
GMG's Equity Release Solution for Swiss High-Net-Worth Owners
- Loan size: USD 500,000 to USD 100,000,000+
- Term: 6 to 24 months
- LTV: Up to 65–70% of independently appraised US market value
- Interest: Retained or rolled up — no monthly payment obligation
- No AUM requirement — investment assets remain where they are
- No US credit history or SSN required
- CHF and EUR income considered within asset-led assessment
- Swiss foundations, Liechtenstein Anstalts, BVI and Cayman entities, US LLCs — all considered
- Security: Aspen, Manhattan, Miami, Palm Beach, Los Angeles, and all major US premium markets
- Timeline: Term sheet 24–48 hours; drawdown 10–20 business days
Contact Donald Klip
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +65 9773-0273
Website: gmg.asia
America Mortgages: americamortgages.com
