CS still sits on these real estate treasures

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Credit Suisse was not only the second largest bank in Switzerland. He was also one of the largest property owners in the country. However, some prestigious properties in the once-proud bank’s real estate portfolio have had to serve as silverware in recent years to improve business results.

For example, in the 2022 annual report, it can be read that other revenues from the Swiss banking business include “profits from the sale of real estate worth CHF 148 million”. In other words, the bank closed the gap by selling real estate.

Real estate sales increased

Such sales have increased in recent years. Between 2011 and 2021, the bank sold prestigious real estate with an estimated total value of about 2.6 billion francs in the “balance sheet” calculated last year. The Uetlihof office complex in Zurich alone earned the bank CHF 1 billion in 2012. There were also sales of prestigious properties such as the Grieder House and Leuenhof, both located on Zurich’s upscale Bahnhofstrasse.

In addition, CS has sold close to 20 small and medium-sized branches. At the beginning of 2022, the regional headquarters in Basel went to Swiss Life. It was last announced in October 2022 that CS plans to sell the Hotel Savoy at Paradeplatz, one of the last major real estate holdings on CS’ balance sheet.

there’s not much left

Not much was left of his real estate portfolio, once worth several billion. In 2022, the value of the bank’s own properties continued to be reflected in the bank’s annual report as CHF 859 million, which is 248 million CHF less than the previous year. But according to experts, the market value of the properties should be slightly higher.

The headquarters at Paradeplatz 8 in Zurich and the district headquarters at the Place de Bel-Air in Geneva remained far from objects of prestige. In addition to these amazing properties, there are close to 30 branches owned. For UBS, real estate was probably the icing on the takeover plate.

A new Hypo-King is born

CS was just a small fish in the tank when it came to owning real estate. The situation in the domestic market is different. Because among the mortgage providers, the two big banks CS and UBS were already big players before they merged. UBS is currently the largest mortgage provider in Switzerland. “Together they will make up about a quarter of the market,” Donato Scognamiglio (53), head of real estate advisors at Iazi, tells Blick. The Swiss mortgage market is worth CHF 1,100 billion – according to Scoganmiglio, CHF 300 billion of this should come from the new big bank.

Source :Blick