Just for information, room in my country is a room that has four walls and when we say 3 rooms apartment, we mean living room, bedroom and kitchen will be three room apartment. We never count balcony as a room, although some balcony might be closed. As well as we never count WC or bathroom as a room.
I am new to the forum and two the country, and now looking for an apartment. Many ads says that 3 room and 3.5 room apartment is available. So my question is what is 'a room' in Switzerland and what they mean by 3.5 room?
This .5 room is normally a kitchen. If a flat has a large living room & dining area /open-plan/, then it counts as 2 rooms.
So, 3.5 most likely refers to a flat with 1 bedroom.
Good luck hunting for a flat!
A kitchen with an open connection to a living/dining room is counted as 1.5 rooms. Otherwise a kitchen and living room count as 1 each, as does each bedroom. Bathrooms and the like aren't counted, but should be separately listed.
So a 3.5 is typically a (kitchen+living) room, plus 2 bedrooms, a 1.5 is a studio (kitchen + living/bedroom altogether). A 3 room apartment probably has 1 kitchen and 2 other, separated rooms.
Ours is 4 1/2.
Three bedrooms, and an extra large living/dining room (about 50% larger than the largest bedroom.
Bathrooms, hallways and kitchen are NOT counted. Our kitchen is a separate room and originally had a breakfast are, which I immediately used to extend the size of the kitchen (12.25 m2, just measured).
Tom
In Vaud kitchens don’t count as a room, and a .5 is a hall.
In canton Zurich:
Never seen a kitchen counted as a full room. It is a half at best when you can fit a dining table in it.
It's only counted as a room in Geneva. At least it used to be. Not sure if they have caught up to the rest of the country yet.
In the rest of Switzerland a 3.5 is a 2 bedroom.
That's because in Geneva they come without stoves or fridges. no?
Tom
I always thought the half was a combined living/dining room area as opposed to separate living and dining. Our rented house here was a 4.5 with combined living/dining and 3 bedrooms. The house we bought is a 6: separate living and dining rooms and 4 bedrooms.
That's how it works around here.
Tom
Kitchen is still counted as a 'room', we don't need to catch up.... The rest of the country needs to conform. Some things don't change!
3.5 in canton Geneva would be kitchen, living room, bedroom. Then the .5 could be several things; usually an above average size entrance hall or living room.
Depends; sometimes (most commonly in new-builds) a kitchen is fitted with white goods, sometimes there's not much more than a sink and the electrical/gas sockets required. If white goods are fitted that'll be reflected in the rent. An un-fitted kitchen still counts as a room.
In Geneva our 4.5 was kitchen, two bedrooms, and a large living room which counted as 1.5 because there was room for a dining area. Counting the kitchen as a separate room is annoyingly deceptive!
The 1/2 is not static. It depends on the layout of the apartment. It could be an eat in kitchen, an extra large hall, a combined living/dining, or just marketing talk.
It still has a kitchen layou, cabinets, work tops, sink etc. and these days most people leave the fridge and cooker.