I am moving to Zurich in October for 6 months and I am looking for an accommodation.
Where to best start looking for such a short-term stay?
Is subletting my only option or can I rent directly?
Is remote flat-hunting possible?
Any advice or explanation of what I am getting into would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Martin
Here's a related thread, with a link to yet another thread containing a lot of links through which one could look for temporary accommodation. They're linked for other Swiss cities, but apply by analogy.
But if you have a work permit and employment contract you can take over someone's apartment (I did it once to friend of mine looking for cheaper apartment and once I took over the apartment).
Actually, I even have case like that right now. I found a new (bigger apartment since we decided to move entirely to Switzerland) apartment. My current contract ends in Match 2021 (since I did not terminate it at the end of June 2020). I can free up the apartment September 1st. It's just a matter of changing an tenant.
If you have all legal documents in place, feel free to reach out to me on prv.
First of all it depends on whether your contract is time limited to less a year, or open-ended. If the former, then you will likely get an "L Permit" which will severely limit you when flat-hunting. Basically, it's not very convincing when applying for an apartment if your permit states that it expires before the end of the accomodation contract.
IF your contract is permanant and you will hopefully manage to get a "B permit" (which I think allows a stay for 5 years) it should be easier. However, at the end of the day you're still a foreigner and will be at the bottom of the pecking list if the landlord has a choice of 20-50 people in total, some of which are lovely locals.
I would say that remote flat hunting is impossible. There is a crazy amount of competition (for 'affordably' priced flats) that it's hard enough as it is. Plus, majority of flat applications specifically state that you must visit prior to applying.
I think your best bet would be short term renting for the beginning and once you're here, use that time to sort out your permits, contracts, visit flats and apply for them.
I found these guys very useful: https://www.ums.ch/moeblierte-wohnungen/ ... first, it's short term and much easier to rent something provided that you still meet the 1/3 rent affordability rule. It is also furnished, which means is perfect for just having moved to a new country.
Of course, if you happen to have a decent career and coming into a high paid job, the high-end apartments probably have fewer people fighting for them. Such lifestyle sadly I have not experienced
---
Bullshit story in case you're interested:
My wife and I wanted to move to Switzerland and it happened by her securing a temporary 6month work contract as an intern. Meaning, shit money enough to rent a bin and not die from starvation.
We first rented a room in a family's apartment for several months. During this time, we applied and both received "L permits" based on the expiration date of my wife's contract.
Searching for apartment to rent often involved either emailing to arrange for an appointment date or phoning. The viewing often took the form of an 'open house' with 10-20 people viewing at the same time. Once viewed, you fill out a form with your details, stating that the rent is less than 1/3 of your/your joint income.
I had no success with this method. I reckon because:
1. our joint income was a joke
2. we were on L-permits expiring in 5 months
3. we're new foreigners competing against locals
I adjusted the tactic and started looking at more expensive new blocks of apartments. The bonus here is that 1 year prior to completion, you're looking at 100 of apartments which are 'available'. At this point, there's technically less competition as the landlord's agent just simply wants to sign contracts as quickly possible and take in the profits.
Applied for two new build flats and were doing well with that. While moving towards the paperwork on one of them, they suddenly got back to us stating that they just realized we were on L-permits, which the landlord supposedly did not rent to.
On the 2nd apartment which was our favourite we ended up using a guarantor to meet the 1/3 rule and possibly to alleviate the problem of L-permits. This was a success!... Plottwist, the flat was to be ready in 9 months. This meant we needed to get out of the room we were renting and find a temporary flat until our permenant home was actually built. This is where UMS came in. We managed to find a flat that ended exactly on the date of our move in. Also, it was in a lovely town/village, which was equally interesting to experience.
So much faff. Good luck with your move.
Indeed, I am only staying for the duration of my 6 months internship and I will have an L-permit. Fortunatelly, I have some friends to stay with at the beginning until I find my own place.
What is your experience with this site? ( https://roomestate.com/ ) It looks easy enough to find a place here. Is it legit or some kind of a scam?
SVIT Zürich (see to logo in their impressum) is the regional industry association for real estate agents, brokers, renting agencies, etc. They list Room Estate as a member.
The company behind the site is Logicom Logistics & Communications AG (LLCAG), in existence sind 1997 according to the national company registry . Their share capital has been increased from 100k to 300k less than two years ago, that's less than one year after their claimed appearance on DigitImmo18 .
The address behind the latter company is a single family house owned by LLCAG mentioned above. If I wanted to defraud I'd definitely not do that, I'd wan distance.
Additionally you could check some addresses of some offers on google maps for validity. I'm just not sure how complete Google's registry is in that regard.
In that case, you're right that you're best off staying with some friends until you sort out everything else.
I have no experience with this particular company but these "co-living" apartments started popping up in London in the last 5 years in huge numbers.
It's basically glorified student halls, but aimed at recent-graduates or new professionals who have recently moved into the city and are in your position.
In UK they always severely overcharged when compared to the cost of renting a room in any other flat with strangers, or people you know. Their reasoning is that everything is included in the price and thus no stress for you (internet, electricity, water... with some sporting gyms, cinema, etc.). I believe vast majority of people in such accomodation disappear after a year of living in it and often end up renting something privately with the same people they met in this 'co-living' place.
Judging from their website it seems like they've got a lot of small properties dotted across the city rather than one giant block of apartments. ... also I think some of those apartments have no communal room, only bedrooms and shared kitchen.