Swiss Real Estate Tokenization
Switzerland is a global pioneer in real estate tokenization, leveraging the DLT Act framework to enable fractional ownership of property through blockchain tokens. The combination of regulatory clarity (ledger-based securities under Registerwertrecht), institutional infrastructure (SDX, wholesale CBDC), and a strong real estate market has positioned Switzerland at the forefront of tokenized property investment. However, a critical legal limitation defines the market’s structure: direct tokenization of land ownership (Grundeigentum) is not possible under current Swiss law.
Legal Framework
The DLT Act provides the legal basis for tokenized real estate instruments as ledger-based securities. FINMA classifies real estate tokens based on their economic function — typically as asset tokens (securities) subject to prospectus and licensing requirements. Licensed DLT trading facilities can list and trade tokenized real estate securities.
Tokenizable structures include shares in real estate holding companies (tokenized via AG or GmbH shares), bonds secured by real estate portfolios, mortgage certificates (Schuldbrief — explicitly tokenizable under the DLT Act), fund units in real estate investment vehicles, and participation rights in property development projects.
The critical limitation: land register entries (Grundbuch) remain off-chain. Swiss property law requires registration in the cantonal land register for ownership transfer, and this system operates independently of any distributed ledger. Real estate tokenization must therefore go through corporate or debt structures — the token represents a share in the company that owns the property, or a bond secured by the property, not the property itself.
Notable Projects
Blockimmo: A Swiss real estate tokenization platform that tokenized a hotel property next to Lake Lucerne, dividing ownership into digital tokens for fractional investment. Blockimmo demonstrates the practical application of DLT Act tokenization for commercial real estate — investors acquire tokens representing shares in a property-holding SPV, with rights to rental income distributions and capital appreciation.
IMO Invest: Founded by Knut Robillard, IMO Invest uses a distinctive buy-and-burn mechanism: real estate revenues are used to buy back and burn IMO tokens, reducing supply and creating buying pressure. Rather than directly tokenizing properties, IMO Invest uses token economics tied to real estate revenue — a model that creates exposure to real estate returns without the regulatory complexity of securities tokenization. Minimum investment is CHF 50, targeting retail investors seeking fractional real estate exposure.
Mt Pelerin: A Vaud-based fintech that has developed tokenization infrastructure for real estate and other asset classes. Mt Pelerin’s Bridge Protocol enables compliant token issuance on Ethereum and Polygon, with built-in AML/KYC controls and transfer restrictions that satisfy FINMA requirements for security token distribution.
Market Opportunity
Switzerland’s real estate market, valued at approximately CHF 4 trillion, offers substantial tokenization potential. Institutional real estate — commercial buildings, multi-family residential, logistics facilities — is currently accessed through REITs, real estate funds, and direct ownership. Tokenization enables fractional access to institutional-grade properties, 24/7 secondary market trading on DLT platforms, automated corporate actions (rent distributions, governance voting) through smart contracts, and reduced administrative overhead through digital register management.
The constraint is liquidity. Tokenized real estate securities require secondary market depth to deliver the liquidity premium that distinguishes tokenized ownership from traditional illiquid property interests. SDX and BX Digital provide regulated trading venues, but tokenized real estate trading volumes remain early-stage relative to traditional real estate transaction markets.
BrickMark — CHF 130 Million Landmark Deal
BrickMark represents the highest-profile Swiss real estate tokenization transaction to date. The company executed a CHF 130 million tokenization of a commercial property in Zurich — one of the largest real estate tokenization deals globally. BrickMark’s approach targets high-value commercial properties, tokenizing ownership into digital tokens that can be distributed to qualified investors. In 2025, BrickMark partnered with U.S. platform DigiShares for cross-border investor access, extending the distribution of Swiss tokenized real estate to international investors through compliant channels.
The BrickMark deal demonstrates that the DLT Act framework can accommodate large-scale commercial real estate tokenization. The tokenized property exists as Registerwertrecht (ledger-based securities), with the tokens representing shares in the property-holding entity. Investors receive proportional rights to rental income and capital appreciation — rights that are legally equivalent to traditional shareholding in a real estate company.
RealUnit Schweiz AG and Traditional Banking Integration
RealUnit Schweiz AG’s partnership with Hypothekarbank Lenzburg illustrates how traditional Swiss banking can integrate with blockchain-based real estate tokenization. RealUnit issued digital registered securities (ledger-based securities) on Ethereum, with custody provided by Hypothekarbank Lenzburg — a traditional Swiss bank founded in 1868 with CHF 7.23 billion in total assets. This combination of blockchain-native issuance with traditional banking custody creates an institutional-grade pathway that addresses the concerns of conservative investors accustomed to regulated banking infrastructure.
Hypothekarbank Lenzburg’s role as custodian for blockchain-issued securities leverages its Finstar core banking system, which processes emissions, trades, and storage transactions with cryptocurrencies and blockchain products. The bank’s membership in SDX’s Central Securities Depository (as the sixth member bank) positions it to provide custody for a growing range of tokenized assets, including real estate securities.
Institutional Infrastructure for Real Estate Tokens
The institutional infrastructure supporting Swiss real estate tokenization is uniquely mature. SDX provides regulated trading, settlement, and custody for tokenized real estate securities — including settlement in wholesale CBDC through Project Helvetia. BX Digital offers an additional regulated trading venue with retail and professional investor access. The CMTA Token Standard (CMTAT) provides open-source smart contracts for compliant tokenization, reducing implementation costs for real estate issuers.
The City of Lugano’s serial digital bond issuances demonstrate the institutional adoption trajectory. Lugano issued CHF 100 million in January 2023, CHF 100 million in February 2024 (settled in wholesale CBDC), CHF 120 million in October 2024, and CHF 100 million in May 2025 (settled via blockchain). While these are municipal bonds rather than direct real estate tokens, they establish the institutional precedent and market infrastructure that real estate tokenization leverages. Lugano’s finance chief described 2025 as “the year of change” for digital bonds — a sentiment that extends to tokenized real estate instruments.
Sygnum Bank’s tokenization platform has processed real estate tokenization transactions within the DLT Act’s Registerwertrecht framework. The platform integrates with SDX for distribution and settlement, creating an end-to-end pathway from property acquisition through tokenization, listing, and investor distribution. AMINA Bank provides comparable tokenization advisory and custody services.
Global RWA Market Context
Swiss real estate tokenization operates within the broader real-world asset (RWA) tokenization trend that has reached $22.1 billion in total on-chain value — a 245% increase from $6.4 billion in May 2023. Industry projections suggest the RWA market will reach $50 billion by end of 2025, driven by institutional adoption across bonds, equities, and real estate instruments.
Switzerland’s competitive advantage in RWA tokenization derives from the DLT Act’s legal framework (providing legal equivalence between tokenized and traditional securities), FINMA’s regulatory clarity (establishing clear compliance requirements for token issuers), institutional infrastructure (SDX, Sygnum, AMINA), and wholesale CBDC settlement (Project Helvetia). Few jurisdictions offer this combination, positioning Switzerland as a global leader in institutional-grade real estate tokenization.
Mortgage Certificate Tokenization
The DLT Act explicitly enables tokenization of mortgage certificates (Schuldbrief) — a distinctively Swiss financial instrument that represents a claim secured by real property. Mortgage certificates have historically been paper-based instruments requiring physical transfer and cantonal land register notation. The DLT Act’s provision for digital mortgage certificates as Registerwertrecht creates a pathway for blockchain-based mortgage markets where origination, transfer, and servicing of mortgage-backed instruments can occur on distributed ledger infrastructure.
This capability has particular significance for Swiss banking, where mortgage lending represents a substantial portion of balance sheets. Tokenized mortgage certificates could enable more efficient mortgage origination, fractional participation in mortgage portfolios, and secondary market trading of mortgage-backed instruments on licensed DLT trading facilities like SDX. While practical adoption remains early-stage, the legal framework is in place — and the institutional infrastructure (Sygnum Bank, AMINA Bank, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, CMTA standards) provides the operational foundation for mortgage certificate tokenization when market demand materializes.
Challenges and Future Development
Despite the mature infrastructure, Swiss real estate tokenization faces several challenges. Liquidity depth on secondary markets remains limited — tokenized real estate trading volumes on SDX and BX Digital are small relative to traditional real estate transaction markets. Building secondary market liquidity requires both supply (more tokenized properties) and demand (more investors comfortable with tokenized real estate).
Standardized valuation methodologies for tokenized real estate are still developing. Traditional property valuation relies on comparable sales, income capitalization, and replacement cost methods — all of which require adaptation for fractional, tokenized ownership structures. Cross-border recognition of Swiss tokenized real estate securities varies by jurisdiction, limiting international distribution to jurisdictions with compatible legal frameworks.
The Federal Council’s proposed payment institution and crypto institution licenses will further clarify the licensing requirements for platforms facilitating tokenized real estate trading and custody. The proposed crypto institution license would provide a dedicated regulatory home for platforms that custody tokenized real estate securities, trade them for clients, or provide market-making services.
International Comparison and Swiss Competitive Positioning
Switzerland’s real estate tokenization infrastructure is among the most advanced globally, but competition from other jurisdictions is intensifying. Singapore’s Variable Capital Company (VCC) framework enables tokenized real estate fund structures that compete with Swiss Registerwertrecht-based approaches. The UK’s FCA sandbox has approved several real estate tokenization experiments, and Germany’s Electronic Securities Act (eWpG) provides a legal framework for tokenized bonds that can be secured by real estate portfolios.
Switzerland’s competitive advantage lies in the integration of legal infrastructure (DLT Act Registerwertrecht), institutional settlement (wholesale CBDC on SDX), regulated banking (Sygnum, AMINA), and open-source tokenization standards (CMTA). No other jurisdiction offers this comprehensive ecosystem for real estate tokenization. The BrickMark CHF 130 million deal demonstrated that Swiss tokenization infrastructure can support institutional-scale property transactions, while smaller platforms like RealUnit Schweiz AG demonstrate accessibility for mid-market tokenization.
Institutional Investor Requirements for Tokenized Real Estate
Swiss pension funds and insurance companies, which collectively manage over CHF 1.5 trillion in assets and allocate 15-25% to real estate, represent the most significant potential demand source for tokenized real estate. These institutional investors require several conditions before allocating to tokenized property instruments: FINMA-regulated custody, standardized valuation methodologies, secondary market liquidity on licensed trading venues, tax clarity on tokenized property income and capital gains, and compatibility with existing portfolio management and reporting systems.
The Swiss crypto tax framework treats income from tokenized real estate securities (dividend distributions from property companies, interest payments on property-secured bonds) as taxable income, consistent with the treatment of traditional real estate investment income. Capital gains on tokenized shares in property companies are tax-free for private investors under the same capital gains exemption that applies to traditional shares. This tax parity between tokenized and traditional real estate investments removes a potential barrier to institutional adoption.
For DAO governance applications, real estate tokenization creates possibilities for community-owned property management. A Swiss association could acquire property through tokenized share issuance, with association members governing property management decisions through on-chain voting. The association structure’s low formation cost, member governance rights, and legal personality make it suitable for community real estate ventures that tokenize ownership for broad participation. The DLT Act’s provisions for tokenized equity and the CMTA standard’s governance modules provide the technical infrastructure for these community property ownership models. The Swiss mortgage market, with over CHF 1.1 trillion in outstanding mortgage debt, represents the largest potential addressable market for tokenized mortgage certificates under the DLT Act framework, though practical adoption will depend on lending institution willingness to adopt DLT-based mortgage infrastructure and the development of standardized tokenization processes for mortgage origination and servicing.
For the regulatory framework, see our DLT Act analysis and FINMA token classification. For institutional platforms enabling tokenized real estate trading, see SDX. For the CMTA standards used for compliant tokenization, see our entity profiles. For DAO governance models for tokenized real estate cooperatives, explore our governance section. For market data, visit dashboards. For Swiss crypto tax treatment of tokenized real estate, see our tax analysis. For AML/KYC requirements for real estate token issuers, see our compliance analysis. For external reference, visit Tokenizer Estate’s Swiss overview.