It is unfortunate you are having a hard time getting a place.
No, you don't have to be Swiss to rent a nice apartment.There is no hard and fast rules,it is all very subjective(as you can see from the various responses and experiences of others).
I saw a few old,not so nice apartments, before I came across my current apartment. It is modern and new. I immediately applied. And got it!
Out of my own experiences really can't agree with this. We saw 3 apartments in March 2010 as we moved from USA. First one we saw was the "this is it" place but just for the heck we saw 2 more (which were very nice as well)...So when we asked the agency for the rent it was a shocker (way to high + 200 chf for underground parking). So I told the agency I would take it but include parking into the monthly price...Funny when I remember now what the look was from the agent "Oh my God nobody asks for price negotiations when it comes to the apt", and she said that to me flat out, refused to ask for a deal...But after a while she tried and immediate answer was ok you got it...
We are a family of 5, with not a huge budget, and got our apartment in Adliswil for just over 2000chf a month.
We were also offered two other apartments....
One reason why we got this one, is that it was advertised on the EF, and the current tenants need a 'nachmieter' (take-over) and they only forwarded our application to the owner...thanks a million!
We included in our application
- credit rating
- copy of renters insurance policy (it was just a quote, not a contract, but that was enough)
- letter of recommendation from my husband's employer.
Also, in our case, we chose not to declare that I was working too. We felt that it might actually undermine our application as then it would look like we earnt 'too much' money, and could be paying 3500 or more per month for a 'fancy' apartment...
I had no problem renting a nice apartment in Basel. There were three apartments and they all went to non-Swiss people. Maybe all the other tenants around there are fussy Swiss people and the landlord thinks it would keep the peace better to have other Swiss people move in.
If you earn rhat much then surely common sense would dictate using a relocation company, of which there are many here in zurich. To do the work for you? Schmid Relocation is a very good example and should get you good. Results.
This could be one of those cases where your income works against you. At that salary level you can afford to pay a high rent. This doesn't mean you want to, just that you have the ability to. There are others who are not so fortunate and many landlords/owners would prefer to rent to someone who can't afford more. Sometimes the landlords/owners also feel that someone with a high income would consider themselves to be settling if paying a lower rent than they can really afford.
I am sure you must be disappointed. Since you can afford help, in your situation I would consider hiring someone to help you with your house search.
This may have worked for you but I would never recommend omitting information on an apartment application which you must sign declaring that what you have written is true. You are not "DINKS", right? Most landlords/owners know that raising kids costs money and paying more rent is not necessarily an option when you have a ton of other expenses. In my experience landlords and owners are skeptical of single people and couples without kids with high incomes who apply for apartments with rents well below what they can afford.
Why are they sceptical? I really dont understand. It seems very narrow minded to me.
Not everyone is keen to spend so much on rent when they prefer to save it for other stuff - like holidays, etc - or maybe they have other financial commitments.
Here in Binningen it is full of expats, foreigners and immigrants. You can find a place easily, it is a very nice neightborhood and you have lower taxes.
Look in Homegate for the area. And if you want more information about 1-2 appartment to rent in our building, PM me.
Last 3 times I moved I heard about someone moving out, called the landlord & that was it.
Easy deal for the landlord, no advertising, no organising viewings, no selecting one tenant from a list.
Incidentally I also never ever had to fill out a form, declare my income, give credit worthiness details, etc.; but then I guess Landlords are human like the rest of us and vary from extreme to another.
I and my wife have a third word citizenship (no kids yet) and we have heard many horrible stories about how difficult it is to rent an appartment in Switzerland. But I guess we got very lucky. We applied for several apartaments in Geneva and got rejected only once. At the end, we were presented with several appartment offers and we have chosen the best one. So, I guess it is just luck.
I think the problem with our application was that all three apartments that we applied for were of very high demand so even if we were the first to apply it does not really matter.
The other thing is that i heard rumours that the company that owns 2 of the apartments that we applied for are not so fair lets say. They usually give such apartments to people that include some extra money for the agent in the envelope. It is a shame i know and i could never expect this to happen in switzerland but i heard it from someone that did this in order to get an apartment with them
In our experience the letting agencies have a policy of first come/first serve and it does not matter if you are Swiss or not apart from the obvious language barrier if you don't speak german. You obviously also need to meet there minimum criteria in terms of salary. Most Swiss locals know wats of seeing apartments before they appear on homegate, so I would say some lateral thinking is required in terms if your search.