GriwaPlan AG - Switzerland

I am commenting on the earlier review. I can confirm that this is exactly what happens with Griwaplan transactions because it happened to us precisely this way.

I also agree with the comments about borderline dishonesty.

For example, when we purchased a Griwaplan project, there was a material fact concerning the land about which we were not informed at the time of purchase. The fact was that a significant portion of the land was designated as being in a mid-risk "slip, or slide zone". When confronted with this fact, Griwaplan did a lot of fast talking and obtained a geologist report that said it was of no consequence. We sought a second opinion and were advised that at a minimum there would be additional building costs to overcome the "slip zone" geology, but that there could be longer-term problems which would potentially only surface when Griwaplan liability had expired.

As a result of this we lost all trust and confidence in Griwaplan and its director, and so we walked away from the project, paid the penalty fee, bought a different piece of land, and engaged with a more honest and transparent architectural firm in Grindelwald. It ended up costing us a six-figure sum, but at least we can be confident now in the integrity of the firm we are dealing with.

Based on our experience, we would not advise anyone to enter into a commercial relationship with Griwaplan.

Be careful! Griwaplan are not very transparent and you can get burned.

Example: when you purchase a Griwaplan "project" you are purchasing land and at the same time committing to Griwaplan being your architect and building contractor.

The first way you are disadvantaged:
when you buy a "project" they don't inform you that Griwaplan does not actually own the property (yet). Instead they have a right to purchase from the people who really own the property - but they never tell you this - and the price you pay is higher than the price Griwaplan pays. But since they never tell you, there is no chance for you to go to the real owners and buy the property at a lower cost. Once you have purchased the Griwaplan "project" they take your money, and go pay a percentage of that (less their broker fee and any markup on the land they have made) to the real owner.

The second way you are disadvantaged:
you end up paying sales transfer tax of 1.8% on the total value of the PROJECT rather than simply on the value of the PROPERTY. Since the total project cost to build a chalet is much much higher than merely the property on which you build (for example, maybe CHF 8000K for the project of which the property cost is CHF 1500K-2000K), you end up paying an extra CHF 108K in transfer tax that you don't really need to pay (1.8% on CHF 6000K), on top of the CHF 36K transfer tax for the value of the land (1.8% of 2000K) which is all you should be paying. Griwaplan does not benefit from this payment, but because you buy the entire project they lock you in and you pay a lot of extra money for them to have this benefit. They never tell you this. The reason they do it this way is to lock you in. I find the lack of transparency about the extra transfer tax payment to be bordering on dishonest.

The third way you are disadvantaged:
You are locked into Griwaplan to be your architect (all their chalets look the same) and prime contractor.

The fourth way you are disadvantaged:
Because Griwaplan have obtained building permission in advance, you may not make any meaningful external changes to the building - this is why all the Griwaplan chalets look identical to one another. If you start making changes inside, there are incremental costs and they are not slow to bill you for more.

So I don't like Griwaplan because they are not fully transparent with purchasers of "projects" at the time of sale and this lack of transparency verges on dishonesty. Not a good way to start! I strongly suggest you go elsewhere.