Real Estate in Switzerland

How do I find a place to live in Switzerland?

We asked expats how they chose their neighborhood and found a place to live. They answered:

"It was very difficult with a zero vacancy rate, our decision was dictated by what was available," remarked another foreigner who made the move to Zurich.

"www.immoscout.ch is a good website to find houses/apartments, both for sale and for rent. When you consider to buy a house: - may be a good idea as mortgage interest rates are low - keep in mind that a bank will not give mortgages for more than 80% of the value of the house. You need to finance the rest of the house yourself - check which legal conditions you must oblige when buying property. In particular, try to organise your work/stay permit before you buy, as this will make buying conditions easier and cheaper," explained one person living in Olten, Switzerland.

"We emailed all the relocation agents in the Zug/Zurich area we could find (via Google) and picked the one that seemed best for us - Le Concierge. Really glad we did as they took away masses of stress and could answer questions immediately. We don't have children so are not tied to a school but wanted to have as full-on a Swiss experience as possible. So first we got Peter to drive us all around the canton and give us the low-down on what's hot and what's not for DINK couples like us! He gave us loads of tips and eventually we decided to go to Aegeri if we could find a place there. (think chocolate box, lake, mountains, snow, no fog!)," said another expat in Zug.

"We hooked up with a relocation service (NOT the only given to us by our company but one we found ourselves thankfully) and with them we toured the length and breadth canton Zug and also areas in canton Lucern and Zurich. We picked a place outside of Zug because ther we could get a lovely house witha garden and in Zug the only places in our price range were to small. Peter, from the relocaiton agency, went to a lot of trouble to get us information about the tax implications of living in different places and so we felt happy to live outside Zug," remarked another member in Zug.

"I chose my house-share through advert on a supermarket notice board. After checking out inner city areas for share flats, it was so easy to take this house share because of area (quiet and close to travel to where I was working- Greifensee) and also train travel combined with car was excellent from and to this area to anywhere," explained one expat living in Zurich, Switzerland.

"We used All-in-One Swiss Relocation Services, which did a great job finding the appropriate place for us to live in," said another person in Zurich.

What is a typical expat home or apartment like in Switzerland?