Housing in Switzerland

Switzerland Knowledge Base
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Welcome to Switzerland!

So you took on the endeavour of moving to a brand new country and you are eager to start your new life! But you find out you are a bit lost when it comes to Housing, well:

DON’T PANIC!

Let’s start at the beginning:

Renting

1. Finding an apartment/ house to rent

Maybe you noticed already, housing in Switzerland is, as a general rule, very expensive. And good flats are sometimes really hard to find. But your dream home is out there to grab. Here are some good search points:

http://www.comparis.ch/immobilien/default.aspx

2. Learning to read the plan

The Swiss system of room counting might confuse you, probably because it is different from your home country. In the number of rooms it includes: living room, dinning room, sleeping rooms. In the most typical modern Swiss apartment, the kitchen is open to the living/dinning room, counting as a half room.

Examples:

2 ½ room = 1 sleeping room, 1 living room with an open kitchen
3 ½ room = 2 sleeping rooms, 1 living room with an open kitchen
4 room = 3 sleeping rooms, 1 living room (kitchen is an enclosed room)

Most kitchens are already furnished (fridge, stove, oven). Appliances like microwave, boiler, coffe machines are not included.

Not every home has clothes washing machines! Some have communal rooms with a washing cycle schedule, others include a washing machine and dryer, and others have the space for it but do not provide the apparatus. Best to ask directly (this information is usually included on the offer).

You don’t need to be a savant for lights: either simple bulbs are already provided, or you can buy a bulb in www.migros.ch, www.jumbo.ch or www.coop.ch and screw it yourself.

3. Finding the apartment

Finding an apartment is hard. There is a lot of demand, and not enough offers. This gives the landlords the possibility to choose between the possible applicants. You might have found a gorgeous flat, but the landlord still has to accept you! Some tips to help you:

  • go visit the apartment in person!
  • talk to the landlord in person and be polite and friendly.
  • take the application form seriously and fill it out correctly.
  • make sure the flat/house applies correctly to you (children friendliness and pet allowance).

Good luck!

Disclaimer: You might still be refused for outrageous reasons such as being a foreigner, having/ not having a family, etc. Just relax and continue searching.

4. Applying

You found the apartment of your dreams? Congratulations. To apply you will need to fill out the contract and probably present a bunch of documents:

  • The [list of paperwork (to be updated)

You will also have to pay a caution (which is usually what really hurts).

„Bei der Miete von Wohnräumen darf der Vermieter höchstens drei Monatszinse als Sicherheit verlangen.“

Rough translation:

“On the rental of residential premises, the landlord may require at the utmost three months rents as collateral.”

It is legal for the landlord to ask up to 3 months of rent as a caution. This will probably amount to something you cannot afford. But even for that there is a solution:

http://www.zurich.ch/site/en/priv/re…etkaution.html

One thing you must pay attention: the caution money should be put on a bank account created for that sole purpose, to avoid future problems! This is in the landlord interest, but especially for your own protection.

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Feel free to delete this after you update your post. Not all homes have light fixtures. We had wires hanging from the ceiling and had to install fixtures. One can also plug lamps into the wall sockets, if not inclined to wire and attach fixtures to the ceiling. Bulbs alone would not have been useful, for us (and as such, there weren’t any).

Edited to add: This could have been our landlord though. Maybe others do connect a bulb or two.

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I think the French speaking parts also count the rooms differently…

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It’s only Geneva which counts rooms differently. They include the kitchen in the room count there.

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My 2007-built apartment has only one place to attach lights to the ceiling: the dining area.

The rest is either spots in the ceiling or you have to get creative with LED lightstrips or floor lamps.

It’s not too bad. Multiple tenants over the years all attaching their lamps to the ceiling tends to ruin these…

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Expect to have to sell yourself. We were told to include a photo of our family and a brief description of ourselves.

Whilst looking, join Asloca / Mieterverband and ask for someone to accompany you when agreeing the inventory. We wish we had as we had just arrived in CH and the person accompanying us - a relocation agent provided by the company - was worse than useless.

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Estate Agents in Switzerland ( certainly in the ZH) are pretty crap. Terrible descriptions and even worse photos of properties for sale…if there are any at all. And they can and will bend the truth…we were lucky to be able to buy our house from our landlord as he was desperate to sell due to his third divorce…so no estate agent fees. If you feel confideny enough and its possible, try and buy direct from the owner unless they are tied into an agent as they will have to pay them regardless if the agent sells the house or not.

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This was the photo the agent chose to showcase the house for sale:

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Vibrant urban life, contemporary aesthetics!

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The worst part is that the agent put the bin bags there himself! It was full of the rubbish they they cleared from the house!

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We had a couple of surreal experiences (looking for a flat to buy) with several ‘high-end’ agencies (I will not mention the names, PM if you want to know). We found a couple of good ones with Neho - I found them to be the most honest of the agents. Yet, still, most of the work was on our side…

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Honesty is very much not in estate agents vocabulary in this area. When we rented this house before we actually bought it, she said look at the wonderful view across the field…and you what she says? they can never build on this field…4 years later we are watching the last of about a dozen houses being built in front of us. We still have our views as we are elevated above the field…but don’t believe a word they say.

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Our first rental in Switzerland was the same…no fittings and no bulbs. They even took the bulbs out of the fittings they did leave behind. As for the rental agent, two years after moving out and after everything was signed off in good order, we received an invoice for nearly three thousand Francs for garden work…obviously the owner refused to pay it and they were chancing their luck with Jonny Foreigner…they didn’t succeed.

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There’s usually a lengthy planning process which is pretty obvious because they stick marker poles up where they are going to build. During this time you can lodge an appeal with the authorities. I’m guessing that the estate agents wouldn’t know or think to look if there are any plans in the area to build, but show me any estate agent anywhere in the world that will divulge any similar information that would cause them to lose a sale.

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Show me the country where you can trust any salesman.

Your problem is that you wanted to believe her (otherwise you’d have double-checked), and that’s not her fault.

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I’ve actually heard good reports about Sotheby’s. Prepared to work outside office hours, taking time getting to know both seller and buyer.

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Yeah - but they don’t sell 35 year old, 900k CHF row-houses with little or no land and the original bath-room in the middle of Aargau.
At least, I would assume so, without checking their website.

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I had the same experience with some agents, only it was five years later we recieved a bill for cleaning. Needless to say we refused to pay it.

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The poles arrived after we bought the house…I am aware of the process and how it works in this country and appeals were lodged and changes made…but they still built.

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You don’t tend to check planning applications when you’re renting do you? And the poles arrived after we purchased, Unlike the UK, planning applications are not posted in the same transparent way.
And by the way, I was in sales for over thirty years and I like to think I was trustful…don’t tar all sales people the same way.

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