Where to live near Nyon

Hi all,

My partner has just got a job in Nyon and we're going to be moving over in the Autumn. We will then have a 3 yr old and a newborn baby. He will be earning around 6800CHF (net) per month. We would ideally like to rent and ultimately buy a 3 to 4 bedroom house with a garden somewhere within a 1 hour commute of Nyon. We know nothing about the area however what I've found on the internet is purely apartments. Do we have unrealistic expectations? I'm conscious that many of the posts I've read are looking for housing at a cost of more than our entire income so please keep our figures in mind for your reply. Can anyone recommend which towns may be suitable or estate agents which might be able to help us? Any advice will be much appreciated.

Hi there

Rent is quite expensive in this region even more so then the Zurich area and I would think it would be difficult to find a house close to Nyon. You also need to consider the tax rates and medical insurance as this is different (sometimes significantly) from Canton to Canton. I presume you have looked at the regular sites like homegate.ch and immostreet.ch. etc. You might also consider whether living in France would be an option for you. Agents are a pain in the ass in this area as there is so much demand it has been a landlord market for a quite a while.

morges is a beautiful area, still expensive but i think it'd be a lovely place to have a family. if you will have a car and really want to buy, i agree that it would be a good idea to look into being in france. the communte is not bad and the prices are very different from swiss rental and purchase price.

good luck!

We moved here last year and were also looking for a similar size house within an hour of Rolle. We had a teeny budget of 3000chf and found our best bet was to head inland a little, away from the lake, where you get more house for your money (and more houses than apartments). We now live 15 minutes north of Morges, on the Lausanne side (about 30-40 mins drive from Nyon), in what is probably considered a less 'dynamic' village but we have a great house with a lovely garden if you can live with being somewhere more rural. Most villages have some kind of shop, many have a post office so they're much better served than villages in the UK. Overall most of the houses we looked at between west Lausanne and Nyon were nearer the 3500-4000chf mark and the choice in this budget range was really quite limited. Hope this helps to set your expectations. Good Luck!

It will be a struggle to find a house. The good news is that an hour's commute will open up pretty much the whole of the canton of Vaud to you. As others have mentioned, if you have your heart set on a house, your best bet will be to look away from the lakeshore towns of Nyon, Rolle, Morges, Lausanne, Vevey and Montreux where there is enormous pressure on supply and high demand/prices for what little is available. We're talking CHF 4,000 plus plus assuming you can find it.

The Chablais area centred around Bex/Aigle might throw up some cheaper opportunities or the lower end of Canton Valais between Monthey and Vouvry. That would be a full hour's commute by autoroute but I know people who commute to Geneva from there and there's two trains an hour to Geneva which stop at Nyon which might make the commute easier in bad weather. Otherwise you could look at the area between north of Lausanne around the towns of Orbe, Moudon, Echallens and Yverdon. This area is quite rural though and you could end up feeling isolated outside the main towns. Another thing to bear in mind is that the further away you move from the lakeshore, the fewer expats you will encounter and the greater the difficulty of communicating day to day without some French. I can understand all of that is a tall order if you don't know the area. Maybe it might be wise to rent an apartment at first as near to Nyon as possible then when you've settled here look around for a house when you have a better feel for the pluses and minuses of living away from the main lakeshore centres.

Well I live in Nyon (renting) and pretty much it is mostly apartments around here for rent. That's if you are lucky. There is a large property shortage here because the state of Geneva refuses to build any more significant housing. That is why prices are so high between Geneva and Lausanne to accomodate all the commuters. The further you go down the lake the lower the prices. Buying a house in Nyon on your budget is not realistic. For a new apartment with 3 bedrooms you are looking at around 900000 CHF.

Options apart from the ones above are to live over the border in France, it is a lot cheaper in terms of property prices, but more complicated life wise. e.g. Taxation, work permits etc. The border is 10-15 minutes away by car.

Hi am in Nyon, place is great to live and work so why not look up apartments in Nyon. Especially if you have kids you can enrol them nearby. All around Nyon is about the same price maybe Gland isnt too bad as the rent is lower but once you move over here from the UK believe me it is really nice to live in Nyon. Great place.

Come over for the weekend and go to agencies that way otherwise www.immopool.ch you can search for apartments in english.... as not sure if you speak french or www.anibis.ch is a good one if you search under nyon. There are some nice places but the regies can be tough, subletting is a good option if you want to buy after and doesnt tie you down so much. Good luck... your company should also be able to help and write a recommendation to the regie. Best start registering with regie (housing agencies) now even if you are moving over in Autum as the housing market is that slow to find a place. Good Luck......

Thanks for all your advice, it's so much appreciated as we really do know nothing about where we're about to move to. We're coming over for a couple of days next month to drive around the region so will take note of all your suggestions and we already feel like we know where to start looking.

Hello - welcome to Vaud! We live 20 mins from Nyon in an old house that no one else wanted to rent which we got for a good price! When we saw this house - the agent was walking away apologising but we were like wait - this is fabulous compared to London!!!! Honestly - there are a lot of empty places that you might be able to look at and many people are going home whatever the news says - PM me if you think I can help.

Hi,

I lived in Nyon for over 12 years and loved the town. Everything that you could need is at your doorstep and you have the most stunning lakeside views. I moved to Leysin in the chablais region a few years ago as Hubby thought the family would enjoy the mountain life. (I have since discovered that I don't and would love to be back in Nyon).

The house prices and rents in the chablais area are less than half the price that we paid in Nyon and this is what is stopping us from moving back. We just couldn't afford to live there at the moment.

I still commute to Nyon to work 3 days per week and it takes me 3 and1/4 hours round trip taking the train from Leysin to Aigle and then the main train to Nyon. The commute is not too bad. I've only been late to work a handfull of times due to train delays in the last 4 years. So if you are on a budget and don't mind the daily commute, the chablais region could be an option.

Hi,

I lived in Nyon for over 12 years and loved the town. Everything that you could need is at your doorstep and you have the most stunning lakeside views. I moved to Leysin in the chablais region a few years ago as Hubby thought the family would enjoy the mountain life.

The house prices and rents in the chablais area are less than half the price that we paid in Nyon and this is what is stopping us from moving back to the Nyon area. We just couldn't afford to live there at the moment.

I still commute to Nyon to work 3 days per week and it takes me 3 and1/4 hours round trip taking the train from Leysin to Aigle and then the main train to Nyon. The commute is not too bad. I've only been late to work a handfull of times due to train delays in the last 4 years. So if you are on a budget and don't mind the daily commute, the chablais region could be an option.