I say take all the help you can get. Switzerland is definitely not straightforward and there was a lot of unexpected extra admin. Once you push through the initial settling in it does get better though.
My boyfriend and I moved here from Cape Town and it was far more complicated and difficult than we expected - and that was with the help of Swiss family and my being able to speak the dialect.
There's countless people in every country that managed to do everything by themselves, without relocation agents or similar businesses. Most of the information you need you can find for free either by reading threads here for a half an hour, or having a cup of coffee with someone who's done it before. For instance, you really don't need anyone to help you open a bank account, all the big ones and, in my experience, even the small ones, have english speaking employees and english documentation. Have a friend or coworker read a lease for you if you can't, they're generally very straightforward documents, especially when from a larger agency.
When I moved here, my company used a relocation agent to help me through the formalities. They were good but there wasn't anything they did that I couldn't have done it myself.
The Zürich housing market is insane - take any and all help you can get. When a dozen, twenty, fifty people are vying for a flat, having a professional on your side might just be the thing that gets you the nod over someone else.
Unless you know Zürich well, unless you speak German well, unless you understand how very differently things work here than in many other cities, you'd be well advised to use a relocation agent.
However, if you have the choice of a company sponsored agent vs. taking the allowance - I'd take the allowance and hire the agent myself. An agent who worked for you, not for your company, would likely be of more use to you, be more understanding of - and helpful in meeting - your specific needs. You'd have more control over the process, which goes a long way to easing the usual frustrations.
Wishing you all the best.
I thought a relocation agent would be a great help, so when I moved to Switzerland I hired top perspektiven ag to help with the moving. I thought a professional might help find a better house than the usual flat you would find in the internet through an agency. I believed the agent was suposed to make it easier, but also that they would have access markets where a foreigner that doesn't speak the language would have difficulty contacting.
Instead, the relocation agent offered to us places we had already found by ourselves and sometimes even visited on our own. It is not hard to find a fitting place through internet and arranging a visit can often be done in English or with very basic German. It is true than the contract will be in German in most cases, but also in most cases the real state agent will speak English, French or Italian and can help you with the details.
On the whole, my experience is that the relocation agent was useful to certain degree, but she did not provide the added value we were expecting: local contacts outside the internet, houses not for rent through agencies, access to tips known only to locals. Basically she did nothing that we couldn't have done ourselves by searching a bit.
Besides, in my opinion her behaviour regarding the contract, budget and charging for the service was close to dishonest. When we first contacted her I clearly said that my company allowed for a certain budget and that we would like to use their services up to that amount only. She agreed to that, but wrote a contract where "VAT, transport and other services" where not included in the hourly price... However, in view of our verbal agreement, I never thought she would do work beyond the budget (at least without a warning). She never mentioned it when she actually did something to be charged apart, so we were truly astonished when she presented a bill for 200 CHF over the budget! My HR had to call me to ask me if it was ok to take the extra money from my salary...what an embarrassment!
On the whole, I believe the relocation agent service can only be useful if you find someone truly efficient and you have very little time on your hands .
Otherwise, it is just a person to entertain rich and ocious ladies when the husband is at work in a new country and then charge them without mercy for every minute of their company.
I would not use a relocation agent again! It was a very disappointing and disagreeable experience.
It depends on you. Have you moved and worked abroad before? I have, and that affects my decisions.
My company offered no relocation agent and no lump sum. Just a "sign this contract and start work" thing. So that's what I did. I have a very optimistic view on life, and came here alone so wasn't worried about things not working out.
I flew from London to Basel one Sunday evening (having never been before, even had to loook it up on google maps!), having booked a hotel for 3 nights, and started work the next morning.
At lunch on the first day I walked around and found a serviced apartment which was affordable. I booked that for a month starting the day my hotel time was up.
Then on a facebook group that I have never really used since, I asked about accommodation and meeting people options, and a great person (EF member Biff) told me about a weekly social group. That happened to meet Monday evenings. I met them and made some good friends. Then on Tuesday I met Biff and she told me that there may be an empty apartment in her block.
There was. And a month later I was in. I used google translate to help me understand the contract, but the landlord (there's no agency) spoke English and seemed trustworthy. Over two years later I'm still here, Biff is still my neighbour, and my landlord is fine.
I completely agree with the post of andrianlondon - it all depends on how much of exposure you have had living or working outside of the home country. when we moved to switzerland, a relo agent was provided by my husband's company and I cannot really say it was very helpful. the temp accommodation that was arranged happened to be the company's guesthouse! i didnt and still dont understand why we had to use the relo agent to book the company guesthouse - we were charged 500 chf for just booking the place!! then we were taken around one day to see a few houses in areas that we had no interest and then after a few phone calls to clarify things, registering at the gemeinde (which you need to do within the first 2 weeks of arrival) - the relo agent says the amount capped by the company has exceeded by 200 chf and we need to pay for the rest of the services from our pocket. we were honestly shocked. fortunately the agent had made an application for one of the apartments and since the agency knew the relo agent very well, we got the apartment. we did not take the services for even signing the contract or finding a school, doctor, insurance or any other thing. EF is a great repository of information and we relied on EF and a few friends my husband made at work in the initial month for the rest of the things. We moved as a family with a then 4 year old kid and everything including finding a krippe for my son in the first month worked well without the agent.
My suggestion would be to define your 'need' for a relo agent. for housing it will help as Mrs Doolittle has mentioned in her post because they will know the owners/agencies. My idea of a relo agent based on various other countries we have lived in is that of someone who helps you settle in comfortably not of someone who just finds you a place to live - i would call that a real estate agent or housing agent rather than a relo agent.
Hope your move goes well!
Oi! What about my vaccum cleaner?
relo agents here are no different that they are anywhere else, which means that (generally speaking) they are more or less the same as the mafia. a well-connected agent, however, can be gold if your housing needs leave you with only a small subset of the market to look at and you are a foreigner with pet(s) - we ended up in exactly the home we wanted and with an utterly fantastic location (after spending 2 days looking at nothing but shiite), all because the timing was right and the relo agent was representing us, the landlord and the prior tenant who was looking to exit a long-term lease early. naturally, any time we asked the agent to show us homes that weren't on their list for us, we were politely informed that the landlord didn't like "pets", "kids", "Americans", etc.
Sucker! .
Me or the vaccum? I hope it's the vaccum.... My husband may think differently though.... Oups!
It depends how much money they are offering & how adventurous you are. I moved here without an Agent. I don't speak German & I got by fine. I learnt alot by trying to find things out, asking questions online & to people at work. I did stay in Hotel's until I found an appartment though, it was easier being in Switzerland to get everything sorted & then got my stuff shipped over.
Good Luck
I've moved twice within Switzerland with work and each time was offered the services of a relocation agent. The key advantage is they know the local market, they made my search for a flat much, much easier plus they helped smooth my way through the residential registration and car approval process. They were worth every penny. I have a colleague who took the cash option and he had a disaster, he said he'd wished that he'd just used the company's preferred agent, at least that way if there's a problem you can get your HR department involved.
I think it helps a lot if you are actually in the area while you are trying to find somewhere to stay. i.e. staying in a local Hotel while you look at places & have local people to speak to to ask advice. If I had to find somewhere while I wasn't in the country it would have been MUCH harder.