I'm 18 years old and I'm living in Australia right now. I have dual Swiss and Australian citizenship, and I have family in Switzerland. I'm hoping to move to Switzerland in February 2023. I would like to live in the French region as I'm hoping to improve my French to attend the University of Fribourg. I have done some browsing, and it seems that I can rent furnished rooms for around 750 CHF/month. Is this value realistic, because I was expecting it to be a lot higher. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hi,
Hi Stephan,
that is within the normal range for a room in a shared apartment. Just check how well connected the cheaper places are with public transport.
Important note: don't pay anything without a signed contract, and any deposit you do pay should go into a proper rental deposit account, not somebody's personal account. The rental deposit accounts require both parties, yourself and the rental agent / owner, to sign off for money to be taken out (as is normal at the end of a rental agreement).
There are many scammers who will try to take your "deposit" to secure an apartment they don't own or control, and then they'll disappear ...
Might find a few even cheaper than that around Fribourg.
Have a look on www.wgzimmer.ch See what you can find.
That's a good budget for something comfortable and reasonably close to town centre.
You could try and find accommodation through the university. They’re quoting from around CHF 375
https://www.unifr.ch/studies/en/choo…-fribourg.html
Are you saying that you intend to improve first, attend uni later? Like, improve from Feb till August, then start at university?
If that's the case, you may want to live closer to the border, or in France to begin with. Language courses in France are bound to cost significantly less, same with cost of living.
Thank you everyone for your help. I'm sorry I haven't been able to reply sooner.
From a budget point of view, France would be a more logical place to live, and then I would be able to move to Switzerland a bit later if things work out. As a Swiss citizen with a Swiss passport, what would be the difference between trying to find accommodation in Switzerland compared to France? Can I realistically find accommodation just outside of Switzerland, like close to Basel or Geneva? If I'm lucky enough as well, is it possible to live in France, but work in Switzerland, since Switzerland has better wages?
Of course.
In principle yes, but cross-border worker cost optimization depends on income level, tax rate, family situation, etc. It mostly works for people working part-time, lower salaries or families with children. You’ll have to make your own numbers to see if it’s convenient or not.
Also, there are several discounts/subsidies for students under 25 YO in Switzerland. From mobile phones plans, to riding the train after 19h00 for a flat price. Also discounts in health insurance https://en.comparis.ch/krankenkassen…nge-erwachsene Not sure what other discount for the youth is out there that makes life a bit cheaper for students, EFers?
Back to your question on the rent for a room. 750 CHF per month seems average price for a nice apartment with good public transport outside big cities like Geneva, Zürich, Lausanne, Basel. 1’000 a month is more realistic in big cities. 500 a month would be the lowest to avoid renting in an old apartment full of problems or that is only accessible with a car.
One disadvantage of living in France is that depending on where you work in CH you might be practically obliged to have a car. The regions bordering the west of Switzerland in the Jura have pretty poor public transportation, and if you want to be able to get out and explore on the weekends you'd be very limited without a car. Even your daily commute might need a car if you intend to travel between France and e.g. Fribourg every day. Note that Basel is German-speaking, and housing around Geneva is hard to find, very expensive, and often poor quality.
Even though CH is more expensive than France, at your age I'd recommend living in CH close to where you intend to study in order to build up a network of friends that you can hang out with during your free time. And have you considered doing Uni in Lausanne? Fribourg is pretty small, there is definitely a lot more going on in Lausanne, and access to the mountains using public transportation is pretty easy from the city. You could easily get by without a car.