Basel and condo apartments

Accomodation, House and Garden
1
Hi all,

I came on the forum a couple of months ago seeking information about life in Basel, liked what I was reading, and will be making the move in September!

This post is about housing, but as there are tons of threads on the topic I will try to be a bit more specific. Basically, I am looking for a western-type apartment with an open-floor kitchen and a balcony/terrace. This preference is very close to being non-negotiable, which I very quickly understood to imply that my choice of neighborhoods/residences will be rather limited; I am fine with this.

Regarding location, I am ideally looking for a neighborhood that is within a 10 min commute to SBB and within a 10-15 min walk to the old town, where I would presumably go for entertainment. A decent grocery store in the neighborhood is a must, and a couple of coffee shops/restaurants would be nice. I have lived in NY for quite a while, and loved Brooklyn. Basel is of course no Brooklyn, but any neighborhood with a bit of character and an arts presence would be very attractive to me.

I have been searching for places on comparis, homegate, and alle-immobilien for a while now, and in general the neighborhoods that appear to offer the kind of apartment I am looking for are the area around the Novartis campus, the one around Freilager-Platz (Münchenstein), and Gundeli. Among these three areas, only Gundeli seems to meet my locational preferences (the part closer to Margarethenstrasse) but given the available stock of housing, currently my options seem to be limited to the other two areas, which seem a bit too "dry" for my liking.

To my questions:

(a) Any feelings for/against any of these areas (including Gundeli)?

(b) Any other areas you think I should be looking into that may have western-type apartments that I am missing out on?

(c) Also, is it safe to assume that the kind of apartment I am looking for would be listed online (vs only in a local paper?)

(d) Final one, is it true that if I miss out on the summer housing market then the supply of housing becomes very limited very quickly? My original plan was to try temporary housing for a couple of months (starting September) until I found what I am looking for, but I was warned that not too many apartments enter the market "off season"...is that pretty much the case?

Thank you for reading through and please let me know if I need to be more specific on any of the things mentioned above.

Cheers!

2

Can’t help a lot, but some other sites to try:

www.immoscout24.ch
www.immostreet.ch
www.home.ch

For private renters, i.e. no agencies, try:

www.petitesannonces.ch
www.anibis.ch

You could also use www.local.ch and then type in estate agents and Basel and then access the individual websites to see if they have anything suitable. Newer properties are more likely to be open plan design so check those first.

If going the temp route then you might need to think about it being longer than a couple of months if you arrive September. Most contracts are geared around the various canton official moving dates; Fribourg’s for example are 31st March, 30th June and 30th September. So it’s unlikely that there’ll be as much available from end September until early the next year. You might be lucky and find something available at other times, but they’re usually few and far between.

3
This is actually very helpful, thank you.

4
Those two buildings might fit your needs when it comes to layout and location. I don't know whether there's anything available at the moment, but if you check the websites regularly I'm sure you'll eventually find something.

http://anfoshaus.ch/

http://www.markthalle-basel.ch/

5
You can find that everywhere. Provided you're willing to pay.

10mins by foot? Tram? Car?

First off, it's Basel. Nothing is far. It'll take you longer to get from Williamsburg to Midtown Manhattan than to get across all of Basel. You'll be at the SBB within 15-20mins by tram pretty much no matter where you live.

Neither Gundeli nor St. Johann (Novartis Campus) have a particularly stellar reputation. They've been trying to "upgrade" the latter neighborhood for a couple of years, though, and I understand it's better than it used to be (have only lived here for some 5 years, so can't really compare). Well, some say at least the neighborhoods have "character", whatever that means. Personally, I think there's nicer parts in Basel.

Münchenstein is not Basel anymore. Well it's right adjacent to it, but still. Freilager/Dreispitz is an OK area, even though not particularly charming. Looks like an industrial area (and probably was at some point).

However, this being Switzerland, a "bad" or even a "so-so" neighborhood here is still much better than in pretty much every other country.

Still, if I were you, I'd also look into St. Alban, Breite, Kannenfeld, Spalen.

Yes

Who warned you about that? There's no real "season" for housing. Apartments are available year-round. There is a slight tendency for more apartments to become availble as per 1 April, 1 July and 1 October, even though in recent years, that has sort of changed a little too as notice for most (not all) apartments can now be given more frequently rather than just every quarter. The only time you probably won't find an apartment is in the months of December and January.

But I really wouldn't worry about timing too much and only revert to temporary housing if you can't find what you're looking for right away. Which might well be the case, especially if you're not in the country to look at the apartments yourself... Or are you here?

6
Ok Basel is not the tightest housing market in CH, but still you seem to have strict if unrealistic expectations. I would be prepared to make compromises unless you want to live in temp. housing a long time. And if you want to stand a chance of getting that dream apartment if it exists, you may increase your odds by having a relocation expert working for you.

7
I like Gundeli - and certainly compared to Manchester (UK) where we moved from it could not be considered a bad area in any, way shape or form. We live in Klein-Basel near Wettsteinplatz. I also really like it here, more than Gundeli. It's close to the City Centre, close to the river, close to green spaces, quite buzzy (for Basel) and plenty going on. I don't really understand what you mean by Western-type apartment but it is very likely that you will have to compromise. Even after being in temporary accommodation for three months, it was quite tricky to get an apartment that met all our requirements - there was never more than one apartment in any given area at any given moment in time that matched our requirements. I'm sure that if your budget is limitless then you'll find exactly what you want but if your budget is fixed then be prepared to compromise. That's all part of moving anyway. Good luck.

8
Thank you, both of these buildings are close to what I'm looking for!

9
You are right, I am rather strict with preferences but so far so good. I've spotted at least a few places that fit the bill so I will postpone the grounding for later Thinking about the relocation agent though, that might be the quickest route to getting things done, thanks!

10
Thanks, I've started looking into Klein-Basel too but for now I think I have a slight preference for the other end of the river. Will keep looking though on both sides though!

11
Thank you very much for the detailed response. I am currently in Frankfurt so I did visit Basel a couple of times and walked around quite a bit. I will be moving to Basel in September and for some reason I got a bit worried that if I don't secure housing now (particularly in light of my rather strict preferences) then it'd be tough luck come September, but it is good to know that there is a decent market year round.

On your other point, I am not too worried about safety, rather more interested in assessing the livability of various neighborhoods given my lifestyle. I will check out Freilager/Dreispitz next time I am in town, as well as some of the other neighborhoods you mention. Oh, and I meant a 10 min commute by tram but I am of course flexible on that one.

Thanks again.

12
Then you can really just pick the neighborhood you like best and where you find an apartment you like

You may want to look into this too: http://www.erstbezug.ch/ , usually modern and newly built apartment buildlings, some may become available just in a few months (or even years), but there's always some that are available for rent in a few months' time. Most are on the expensive side. Note: filter for rent, as some are for sale.

Well, it might still take a while to find a permanent apartment. Although, if neighborhood doesn't matter (see above) and you got some decent cash, you'll find something.

Speaking of cash thoug - how many rooms are we talking about and how much were you planning to pay? That may indeed have quite an impact.

13
Spot on, thank you!

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4k tops for a 3.5 room apartment but I would of course rather pay less than that. From what I've seen online it seems feasible, what do you think?

14
Should be no problem to find something with that budget.