Basel-best neigborhoods?

Accomodation, House and Garden
1
Hi Everyone-

Me American- Husband is Swiss.

We are considering moving to BASEL because we cannot find an apartment (or a job for my husband) in Winterthur in our modest price range of up to 1350chf. It has been over a year and one half of searching with no result.

Can anyone tell me which areas in Basel ( area codes please ) might work for us and be nice as well?

Even though we have such a low budget, we are particular too and are hoping with a little "insider" knowledge, we can find inexpensive but still

nice.

We need the bus system close by as I have some issues walking- and fairly conventional criteria is sought like clean, quiet area, close to grocery, etc.

If you know Winterthur, we like the area around St Peter and Paul's Church which is sort of behind the Bahnhof, or even the Hinterwiesli area near the soccer field.

Appreciate any ideas and help with Basel. We don't know the city at all

but Winterthur has not been very positive for us so we are looking at changing our scenery and perhaps changing our luck.

Please private mail me and thank you in advance!

2
Firstly, I don't know Basel at all but I wish you best of luck in your search. Considering that Basel is so close to the German border, you might want to consider moving to the other side, where housing could possibly be much cheaper than on the Swiss side?

Second, I'm a bit curious why you did not like Winterthur that much. Is it the mere problems with housing and work that you don't like or was there anything in particular about the city or living there that put you off?

Again, best of luck in your search!

3
Lot's of students so very few apartments available. Food not great- durners at every turn. I think we just need more to explore and to really fall in love with a city.

We will know when we find it and we have given Winti a good chance for 1 1\2 yrs now. I think we are looking for something a bit New York-y but with home town values and lot of lovely outdoor space we can explore too.

We are hoping with a more international feel and location, Basel might just bring us what we need.

Thank you for your kind response.

4
Commuting by car or public transport?

5
Not that much but yes, Lòˆrrach is around 10 euro /m2 this year and increasing steadily. It is cheaper but a big chunk of it will be balanced out or even exceeded in some cases by the higher taxes. Think also of the fact that there is little available just over the border. One has to go north of Lòˆrrach city (Schopfheim etc.) and north of Weil village to have more choice.

But it might still be better than Basel city. I haven't looked for a place to live there for a while now.

However: a border is not meaningless. Each situation is different, so it might be a bigger problem for the rest of social and work life and could be a negative sum at the end for some people. Not for me, ok, but for others, maybe.

6
The number of available flats in Basel City is really slim, only 0.3 % of the flats are empty or available, thats less then the tight market in Zurich .

I live in St.Johann (since 1.5 months), had luck , as the flat was available, there been 100 people to watch it, so my way to work is only 10 mins (by foot ), don't

need public transport .

St.Johann is nice, the Rhine is only 3 mins away, shops are close by, as well as the Kannenfeldpark (8.5 ha huge), connnections to the airport or to St-Louis(shopping in France) are in walking distance.

7
There are always apartments (well, small ones - it gets more tricky if you need 3 or more bedrooms and don't want to live in something decorated in 1970's brown) in Basel.

Homegate lists quite a few, and posts to here or Facebook nearly always find people who know of ones coming available. My landlord always has at least one free, but he tends to deal in small (2 room, 50sqm) places.

Basel does not feel anything like NY. Zurich doesn't either, but is made worse by the fact parts of it pretend to.

Living across the border in France or Germany doesn't make sense, usually, unless you (a) want to buy somewhere with land or (b) have a large family and prioritise tax savings over general convenience and ease of life living in Basel (Land or Stadt). There can be permit issues too for non-EU people. Most people I know living in France wanted to buy a house. Most people I know living in Germany are German and spend their time trying to frig their tax status.

Basel's not so big and doesn't really have good and bad areas; just different areas. I live in Brausebad - I got my flat by chance as I met a women on my second day in Basel and she told me the flat above hers was empty. (In fact, three people I met on my second day told me of apartments they knew about and I simply picked the cheapest as I wasn't meant to be here more than 12 months!)

I like this area as it's well connected (being next to an airport bus stop is surprisingly handy on those late Sunday night flights back) but it's no deal breaker. Klein Basel has a different feel - it's more lively, has more quirky venues, slightly cheaper and larger apartments, shit-awful architecture and seems dirtier due to its slightly higher density of housing. Gundeli (behind SBB) feels like a mix of Gross and Klein basel. If I was choosing somewhere to live I'd definitely consider that area, off the main roads.

8
Have a look at the Basel tram network and consider the towns in Basel Land at the end of it. There you'll find cheaper accommodation - and lower taxes than BS. So places like Ettingen, or Aesch. They all have the usual shops fairly close by.

Also consider the nearby towns on the mainline.

However, if you're looking for interesting take-away food or restaurants - I think you're in the wrong country. Try the UK.

9
It's generally easy to find an affordable apartment in Basel, provided you have a realistic budget. It's not even close to the awful situation in Zurich, where the only somewhat acceptable places are luxury apartments the average person cannot possibly afford.

That being said, I'm really sorry, but 1350 for two people is not a realistic budget for any city in this country. Not for an apartment big enough for two people anyway, unless you're fine with living in a somewhat older 2/2.5-room apartment (i.e. 1 living room, 1 bedroom) in a mediocre neighborhood (though needless to say, in Switzerland, even mediocre is still good enough). Basel might be cheaper than Zurich or Geneva, but it's not THAT cheap. If you want a somewhat modern 2/2.5-room apartment, you'll pay 1500-2000 in Basel too. If you want a 3-4-room apartment, expect to pay at least 1800, unless you really happen to stumble upon an awesome deal through someone you know, but that's hardly a scenario you can count on...

So it can either be a small apartment in a city - or you need to move to the suburbs, even though whether this actually makes a difference from a financial standpoint much depends on where you move exactly.

Also, I don't really get why you want to move to Basel, of all places, if you don't know the city at all and don't work here? Where/how do you live right now, since you say you can't find an apartment? I understand your husband is out of work, how about you though? Where do you work? You do realize Basel is some 1.5-2 hours by public transportation from Winterthur, right? Or are you planning to move because you're changing jobs or your husband is hoping to find a new one here? If so, then I would really strongly recommend to look for a job first and then move, not the other way around.

If there's no real reason to move here, then there's thousands of options in the Zurich/Aargau area. What is it you didn't like about Winterthur? I used to live there for a couple of years and live in Basel now, I can tell you it does have some similarities (in my opinion, others might disagree). So depending on what it is you didn't like, you won't like Basel either.

Last but not least, I assume you're rather tight on budget generally, so please be aware that health insurance and taxes are considerably more expensive in Basel than in Winterthur, or really most places in the Zurich area. Health insurance probably for both Swiss and non-Swiss, tax for sure for Swiss, not sure about non-Swiss on whatever permit.