Relocating to Switzerland pros and cons please

Hi clelland, funny to read your post. We are relocating to CH as well by the end of May. But my advantage seems to be, we came from there 5 years ago ;-) I would definitely recommend going with an relocation agent as you can get the whole package (housing, familiarization, arrival services) in one hand. If you want to build your own opinion on the market go for comparis.ch or immoscout.ch You can contact me, if you feel like on info at nicilicious dot com Wishing all of you a lovely day...

You might want to have a look at www.homegate.ch for real estate. And you could try to contact the Anglo-Swiss Club Basel for some help and info. My parents were members at the ASC for many years and I remember that we went to many bbqs, walks and visits with them. We had a brilliant time there .... although that was 20 years ago.... and I haven't been back since we moved here in 2006. But my brother is still living there with his family and they never considered moving anywhere else ... so it cannot be that bad. ;) Good luck!

In Geneva, you don't necessarily have the scary interview, but it is up to the owner to decide who they want. They take financial references and sometimes if you have a foreign name, they won't rent to you. We had to put a large refundable deposit down (I think it was a year's rent) in Geneva 20 years ago, things may have changed now and be different in the Basel area anyway. http://www.expatriates.com/classifieds/switzerland/housingavailable/ Is another place you could look for housing. As to real estate contacts, for Geneva at least, you have to look at ads in local papers, real estate agents just place ads, arrange viewings and take the money. You might do better looking for a relocation specialist in the area, I think accommodation is very hard to find in Basel itself.

Immoscout24, and imobilien.CH are property finding websites, englishforum.CH is also a good source of info. Dizzydubai mentions she didn't come across the vetting for property finding, I rented 3 properties in CH and it was deffo the norm in the Zurich area, so maybe differs from the German / French speaking areas ?

hi clelland.. from my experience (in Geneva) - pros Ch is intensely dog-friendly, they go everywhere with you including into shops and restaurants. kids become fiercely independent and transport themselves to and from where-ever from fairly young - you will not find yourself taxi-ing as you do here (assuming you have children) I put ours into international schooling however if i could do it again id put them in local and move over to international towards the later years. Friends who did this had bi-linqual children very quickly. The seasons are gorgeous, the outdoor life and the magnificent on-your-doorstep ski resorts in winter (and summer for hiking). Back to nature - the farmers sell their produce outside their barnyards and the wine farms have open days - lovely! the sbb train service can have you over the border and in Milan Paris Venice in a couple of hours - and if you book the specials, at very low cost. Easyjet will have you to London in under 2 hrs. Summer is fantastic - outdoor festivals, fetes, free music bands, lakeside cinemas - the city comes to life. cons houses are generally smaller than here on a price-to-price comparison - take less furniture and invest in good pieces to take with you - furniture is very expensive. the locals are hard to meet and the language difference can be severely challenging. Even calling a hairsalon or dentist can give you chills ! you will find yourself corrected on several occasions - this is when not knowing the language is handy. Laugh and pretend they said something nice, which they probably didnt. No huge malls - enjoy the mall experience now! Manis pedis massages & housekeeping will cost the earth (again, compared to here) The selection is far more limited - you wont find the vast array of furniture stores, bookstores, products as you do here. English bookstores are scarce and I bought mostly off Amazon. There's an interesting book: Living in Switzerland, Paradise (Apparently).. it gives a very accurate description of the very unique Swiss ways from a foreigners perspective (living there) in a humorous setting. When you read it you will think its exaggerated - its not :) I never had the appliance or scary rent interview challenge mentioned below, and will be taking all my appliances back as they are also much pricier there. However they will need to be brands recognised that side otherwise you will be struggling to find a repairman. Second-hand cars are very inexpensive, and over 10 years need to be "roadworthied' every year (if i remember correctly). New cars also seem cheaper tho i've never done a direct comparison. Good luck !

Don't know about your furniture, though I think furnishing a house from scratch in Switzerland is not cheap - even Ikea is expensive! I wouldn't take things like cooker, dishwasher, fridge, washing-machine with you as they are a standard size (different from everywhere else in Europe) in Switzerland and kitchens are built to take only the standard, or, in any case, already have the equipment fitted. I wouldn't bother with taking the cars, you may find the ones you have now are not up to Swiss standard and in any case, second-hand cars are normally very good value there.

Also meant to say when renting property in CH it's a very different system from most places, basically you look at a property you like, along with other people ( usually desirable property is few and far between, and the Swiss are big renters they don't usually buy) and then the owner of the property chooses the tenant sometimes through an interview process, this happened to us we found a dream rooftop apartment rang agent and said yes we'll take it, when the agent stopped laughing , he said 10 others were up for it, needless to say we didn't get it! You really have to be quick and have all your deposits in place and sell yourselves to the owner in order to secure somewhere decent. also keep your fingers crossed a local doesn't want it or you have no chance, don't want to sound negative but just be quick and get stuck in it's not for the fainthearted ! One massive tip too is when you move into a Swiss property you will notice it is pristine, ovens and fridges are like new and paintwork is fresh every time , just bear in mind when you leave this is how you must leave it, the owners expect you to steam clean the place, they will charge you otherwise for every speck of dirt or scratch. I was once charged for new shower head replacements because they had limescale inside the heads ( they had to unscrew them to find it ) Good luck !

Please, take me with you I'm SO jealous - just think of all the exciting places you can visit from such a central location, not to mention the skiing, mountains, chocolate.......... we have friends who moved to Berne from the UK and they will never ever leave

Take me with you! We did over 3 years in Zurich I loved it and could have stayed for ever , the seasons are so beautiful in Switzerland. The only down side for me was the shopping I found it was either high end or cheap tat when it came to clothes, and shoes, but that really is my only grumble. So jealous now :(

Basel is a really nice friendly place, if a little on the cold side after Dubai! Do you and your family speak German, or French, though? English is not necessarily much understood in that area, you will find more people speaking English in the Swiss-French part. Salaries not that high compared to cost of living. Good local schooling free, only one or two "international" (American) schools there, I believe and they are expensive, I think and I would make sure that private education was part of the package if you want/need it. Basel is one of the least racist of the Swisss-German cantons. I have a good friend there whom I can ask to suggest where you should look at to live in, if you'd like. Quite a few people find it easier and cheaper to live over the border in France and commute from there to Basel town-centre. How interesting, I didn't find the "natives" in Geneva friendly, even though I speak fluent French. Most of the friends I made were foreign, or had foreign connections, so were more open to us. I have only two good *local* Genevan friends whom I miss - and neither of them are actually from the canton of Geneva originally! Ex-pats there are often left to keep themselves to themselves, because they are considered to be of no interest as they will be moving on after a short-term contract, and/or because they very often do not make the effort to speak the local language or participate in local activities and only mix with people who speak their own language in any case. Particularly true of Anglo-Saxons working for multinationals.

OH YOU LUCKY LUCKY PERSON!!! Have a friend who moved from Dubai to geneva and loving it. ( especially if you have kids they will have a great time) We visited a couple of years ago and i think if you have a good job and a decent place to stay, you will love it. Its a friendly nation in general. :) ENJOY!