best areas of residence around Bern city.

Accomodation, House and Garden
1
hi, we will be moving to Bern for my husband's work in about 5 months time. we need to first of all find a temporary accomodation and find a permanent address to live for a bout 3 years. can anyone suggest a suburb around Bern city that is close enough to the city, nearby train/bus, clean, safe and has modern apartments built? Thanks for your advice!

2
Bern is a pretty small place, so the idea of a "suburb of Bern" doesn't really mean much, you can get from the edge of the city to the centre in about 10 minutes.

Difficult to help too much - most places are clean, safe and have good train connections.

How much do you want to pay for rent and how close do you want to be to the city or to the green open spaces?

3
Bern is pretty small, as Caviarchips said. You're quickly outside the city center.

Most expats that I know seem to live in either Muri bei Bern or Thun. In general, I'd go south from the city center, along the train lines. (The expats that I know are mostly American, btw).

Muri is closest and is connected by tram. You might also check out Worb, also on the G tram.

Thun is about half an hour by train from Bern, it's on the lake and quite pretty, but if you don't live close to the train station, you'll need to connect via bus.

There's also Rubigen and Muensingen on one side of the Aare, and along the other side, there's Kehrsatz and Belp.

We live in Belp, about 11km from the city center. We're on the outskits, in a fairly modern apartment complex, but we have a car since we're at the top of a big hill. Still, there is a bus every half hour till 7pm on weekdays that takes you to the train station (1km or so), and a half hourly train that takes about 15-20 minutes. There's a lot of new construction in the area. I like living here - nice mix of rural and modern, and the small town of Belp has an excellent butcher, grocery stores, good doctors, and access to the highway. On the downside, you can be a little far from the train station, but we choose that. There are apartments in town, too.

You should get a map and look south of the city center, on either side of the Aare between Muri and Thun, those are, I think your best bets. We've been very happy here... there are a lot of kids, the apartments are modern (10 years) and we have good views. We do pay for this, of course... We feel very safe here, and our neighbors, all Swiss, are very nice.

If you want to be a little closer within the city, but not quite in the center, check out the elfenau (I think it's post code 3006). I'm of course biased because I'm south of the city, but there are other areas such as Koniz (sort of west), Brunnen (near the westside mall), Ittigen, Bolligen (more north).

What are your space and price and distance requirements? And, have you started to look?

PM me if you want more details....

good luck.

Elaine

4
Spiegel (gemeinde Köniz) is very good and not as expensive as Muri.

Haven't met many expats here though!

Depends on what you're after.

5
The last time I posted where not too live I got groaned at.

So maybe the groaners can now offer their better advice?

Me, bitter? Of course not!

6
I live in a street in Bern where 3 people were murdered in 2 years...

7
It depends on the circumstances of the murder of course, but if they were random events, then Ittigen might not be such a great place to live. I still think south of the city is better, but that's just me.

8
Useful post

9
You disagree that "most places in Bern are safe" compared to, say, every other capital city in the world?

10
Just what I was thinking. More probably than not domestic disputes gone terribly wrong (which can lead one to hypothesize that it's a low socio-economic area. Massive assumption being that rich people kill each other at a lower rate than poor people do). A worse scenario would be random street violence (again low socioeconomic indicator) and worse still is the Ittigen-Ripper!

Bern is a safe a place as anywhere in Switzerland, as an expat I assume you're not going to start sleeping under the bridge with the junkies so that danger has been alleviated.

I live in the city center and I love it.

11
We live in the Breitenrain District of Bern and love it. It's an area with tons of kids and families and one of the best parks in the city. It is more expensive, but the value of being in the city with easy access to everything has outweighed the cost for us. We have friends that live in Muri bei Bern and Gumligen and love it, too. Both are super convenient to getting into the center of Bern, but provide a quieter area to live in.

-Alison

12
You should see wylergut the place is super near the city just 3 cartwheels and bamm ur in the city hehehe but d place is very family friendly hard to believe well u should see it yourself suburban livin in the city it cant get any better den that PLUS plus plus the rent is also not expensive

13
Why not live in the center?

Bern is so small, quiet, green...

14

I am also in the process of moving to Bern right now and would be grateful for any advice about good/bad areas or specific places to avoid. Please send me a pm if you like.

15
hi, thanks everyone who has given me such quick and detailed reply. Of course cheaper the better it is for us but we are thinking of spending perhaps up to about $1800 CH/mo and ideally 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a car park, at least 110 sqm in size. bigger the space is, the better it is of course but you pay more for space. we have two kids so kids friendly place sounds good. a modern apartment on a hill sounds very nice also. hmm.. when my husband returns from work, we'll have a look at the google map with areas mentioned by you. we did start looking at some places online like immostreet.ch and homegate.ch. homegate seems a bit too expensive. how did everyone sort out temporary accomodation before settling into a permanent accomodation?

16
Here:

Best places to live in Bern

Moving to Bern

You will be hardpressed finding something matching your description for 1800 CHF unless you move further out of the city centre. Try places like Munsingen? Personally, I loved Thun. Such a charming and beautiful town.

17
Yeah, your budget seems a little low for what you are looking for to be honest, especially for something new and somewhere nice....

Somewhere else maybe worth looking is Bremgarten, just north of the city. Its a very nice area but I think you will be paying something like CHF2500-2700 for the kind of thing you want.

Why do you need something temporary? Are you looking the rent then buy?

18
I like comparis.ch as well... it seems to harvest property listings from a wide variety of sites.

You can specify your search criteria if you select "extended search". The search parameters are in english (if you select the english), although most adverts are in German.

Apartments are expensive here, especially if you want space and rooms. My guess is that you're looking for a 5 room flat (3 bedrooms is usually 4.5 -5). CHF 1800 might not do it for you...on the other hand, I haven't looked in ages so I might be wrong.

ETA - I'm thinking 2200-2500. We pay a bit more than that for 6 rooms, modern, large terrace and lots of space.

19
I'm looking for a 3 room apartment at 70+ m2 and 1400-1600 seems to be standard there, so yes you will probably not get away with 1800.

20
I have moved to Bern about two months. One important aspect is where you will work. I work in the east side, not far from Muri, so if you live in Belp for instance, although is geographically not far, the river divides the city and will have no direct transport.

That south-east area is quite nice, maybe a bit expansive though, as there are lots of embassies in the area and Elfenau park. I'm moving to Rufenacht close to Worb. Anyway, I like the south and east side of the city, I think they are the best areas.