Moving to Switzerland? And where?

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
1

Currently I have a very nice and interesting job offer for which I’d have to relocate to Switzerland. I could live anywhere in Switzerland and work remotely with maximum 2 days/month in the office in Zurich.
I have previous experience living abroad in Stockholm, London and Bavaria. I’m in mid 30s and I can speak English and some German (not Swiss German and not as well as english). Beyond my tech job I like skiing, cycling (road, gravel), running, hiking and ice hockey.

So my question is more or less:
Where in Switzerland would you live and why? Given that location would have no impact on your gross salary (in range 400k-500k / year)?

I was considering:

  1. Canton Zug (Zug/Baar), based on chatgpt + seems to be lot of expats and english speaking people + low taxes, lake proximity. - seems to be a bit further from Bavaria (I have connections there I’d like to maintain) a bit further to ski resorts skiing, but closer to ZRH.
  2. Canton Schwyz (Wollerau, Freienbach, Altendorf, Lachen), I don’t know much about this area except lower taxation, but it seems to me as a viable alternative to Zug/Baar. Probably less expats? Right in the middle (access to Bavaria, skiing, ZRH)
  3. Chur (I like Innsbruck a lot and chatgpt mentioned Chur as the Swiss city that’s the most similar to Innsbruck), I’m not sure if it’s a good idea as an expat? Higher taxes, but lower cost of living and it’s just next to Laax, Lenzerheide, etc. No lake, but probably a really nice city (I’ve never been there).
  4. Living directly in Davos - I’m not very sure about this. Idea of living on the slope in the winter and doing pre-work skiing or ice skating sounds tempting. At the same time I’ve never lived in the mountain resort and I guess I might find many downsides of this (on the other side Davos seems to be the most city like resort in Switzerland?). I’m not sure how it’d be as an expat + taxes seem to be quite high, same as housing prices. + is also that probably my family members would be frequently visiting for skiing :).
  5. Widnau, Balgach (Kanton SG) - Quite low taxes low price of housing, proximity of Bavaria for my frequent commute, proximity of Austria for cheaper groceries, etc. I’m not sure how much suitable for expats?

Would anyone have some other suggestions? Which from 1-5 would you chose and why? Is there anything else I should be considering here?

Thank you very much in advance for any help / suggestions.

2

Switzerland is a small place, so it depends on what kind of social life (if any) you want to have and what you want to do in your spare time (and how much spare time you have). Given the salary range, tax is also a consideration.

3

Depending on your permit, you might be restricted to living in the canton where your work is based. Are you an EU citizen?

1 Like
4

Beware the low-lying fog that can go on for months…better check it out.

5

Yes I’m EU citizen.

6

Hello and welcome!

I’ll just leave this link to iamexpat.ch website, it says something about Freienbach :slight_smile:

As bossybaby mentioned, if you’re free to choose think about living under the fog or not.

7

Of the 5 choices listed, Chur. Gateway to the outdoors. Ski lift right downtown. Good infrastructure and connections to Zurich. Also check out the Alpine club. Swiss Alpine Club SAC

8

So why not Zurich. All the other areas are redneck territory.

1 Like
9

Probably because they’ve read your multiple posts complaining about how bad Zürich is.
Nothing is right in Zurich according to you.

3 Likes
10

the europeanguy forgot one important point - for how long? if your intent is to live for a couple of years, the location is less important than if you want to stay for the long run…

1 Like
11

with that salary I would stay in Zug/Baar, Freienbach or Wollerau, these municipalities will have a very positive impact on the tax bill.

You could save significant amount of money, up to 30/40% compared to Zurich I guess.

See a reliable tool (form the swiss tax authority) to assess the tax bill in different municipalities:

In these places Zurich is easy to reach with train/car.

Good luck and welcome!

12

Expanding on this, settlement permits (C type) are dependent on living in the same municipality for 5 years.

13

Since when? I got my initial permit in SH, after 2 years moved to ZH and got my C permit after 5 years in Switzerland.

3 Likes
14

If you only speak some Greman, I don’t see why a proximity to Bavaria makes any benefit to you.

You mentioned cheaper shopping. I can bet that you’ll never think about wasting time on this with that salary. In reality you can only save peanuts, your time is much more valuable. I live in canton Zug and go to France through Basel about once every 1 - 1.5 months for shopping, not because of savings but for the variety I can get there. You’ll quickly learn that food choices are limited in Switzerland. Not that some essentials are missing, but when moving from Europe to Switzerland you can’t forget that more variety exists.

The list you made is based on tax and driving proximity to your choices. There’s much more to choosing a best place for living.

  1. months without a clear sky is a problem or you won’t care?
  2. snow around, occasionally blocked roads, paths just when you’d like to go somewhere, what about that?
  3. air pollution, living on a hill slope can be very tricky, I lived for a short time in canton SZ, happy with the low tax, but when autumn came I run for my life from that place
  4. what would you do when your nice job ends? The more commutable to Zurich the place the better long term.
  5. when you have the money to spend proximity and convenience getting to airport is on the top, you’ll like exploring Switzerland in the first year, but then you’ll start traveling
  6. In low tax area the rent will eat a lot from the tax benefit. I was having a nice flat in a nice area, only 15 min from Zurich HB, but money optimization is a life ongoing game, so when one summer an opportunity to move to SZ realized (with a very low rent for that location, 1.6k) I was jumping to the roof from joy, but the joy didn’t last long, as they say it was too good to be true. Moving back to previous area suddenly was more expensive, I’d need to spend ~10k more annually compared to my previous rent, so renting an expensive flat in canton ZG didn’t look that bad. Since I was in a hurry to move an expensive flat was quicker to get accepted to so I landed in ZG. Hindsight, obviously the prior flat near Zurich was a better deal overall.
  7. How much is your “some German”? If it’s nowhere around B1, I wouldn’t prioritize location based on language. A1/A2 can be learned withing the first year with minimum effort, but French/Italian will only keep building up whilst German is pretty useless here. With expats you’ll communicate in English, with most Swiss you’ll also communicate in English rather than high German.

Bottom line, don’t plan too much, as everyone else you’ll land in a first place that you get then explore and move around.

15

Sorry, need more coffee :confused:

The naturalization process requires some years in the same place. C permits do not.

1 Like
16

After living in and working in OB (Engelberg), BE/NE, and SG (by the lake), I can only recommend Engelberg for fog-minimal weather, although it entails a cogwheel train ride. Even then, I fled every winter to Florida. If I had to live low, I would be really depressed. Today we had blazing sun at 700+m in AT.

17

…for massive car & road congestion experiences…

18

continue with the rest of the sentence…for fog-minimal weather.

19

I’ve lived in Ausserschwyz for over 20 years. My 5Rp:

I’ve mostly enjoy my life here, although it hasn’t been without difficulties.

When I moved here I was at the phase of life where a good night meant cuddling up with the dogs and a book in front of the fire, after a day working in my garden. Apologies if I’ve missed it, but is an exciting local social life important enough to you to be a factor in your choice of where to live?

My corner of Ausserschwyz was once a farming community, with the charm that goes with that life, but in recent years has morphed into a Zürich dormitory suburb. I came for that tradition, but have been OK with the change, largely because I am, as above, at a point in life that is mostly home-centered. If I were younger, though, and still felt the call of ‘bright lights, big city’, this might not have been a good fit.

Yes, Ausserschwyz is well situated for travel to other parts. But ‘ease of escape’ might perhaps not be the best reason to choose a place to live.

Sure, local taxes are low, but I’m an American so it doesn’t matter. At your income level you will find an army of tax pros here in Switzerland eager to help you optimize your situation. Where to live can have a large influence, of course - but there are other options to accomplish tax optimization as well. A chat with one or two tax advisors might serve you well as you make your choices. Where you live should first be about finding a place that makes you happy.

On a practical note: In my village, it is vital that a foreigner makes the effort to speak German, punkt fertig. It is expected, as a sign of respect. At the butcher, baker, candlestick maker - you need to converse in German. Not unsurprisingly, the tax office is happy to take your money in any language. But the Einwohneramt, not so much.

Now that doesn’t mean you need to be fluent. You need to be functional, and you need to be seen as trying to fit in. Again, the respect thing. If you speak some German you should be OK. Once you have made the effort, the butcher, baker, candlestick maker might take pity on you after their ears start to hurt.

The most important factor in living in my corner of Ausserschwyz, as in many small villages, is to accept the social norms, even if you don’t quite understand them, or how to fit into them. And plant the right color geraniums.

As said, I’ve been mostly happy here. But if I were younger or less ‘settled’ ?

When you can work from anywhere, prioritize living in a place that offers most of what you think makes you happiest.

2 Likes
20

Well, it’s a nice city, but:

  1. I’m quite introverted person.
  2. In my free time I go cycling, hiking, running, skiing instead of restaurants, bars or music. The only thing that’d be + are speciality cafes to get a good coffee.
  3. Taxes are much higher and I assume housing market more difficult?