Dear all,

This is my first post, but I have been visiting this site often over the last few months as I prepare for my move to Switzerland in 2 months. It seems like there is a great community feel through this forum, and I look forward to getting involved once I am out there!

So I am starting a PhD in cancer biology at UNIL on Jan 3rd 2012. I have read a good deal on here about searching for flats and have spent ages on various sites, sending emails etc to try to find a place and have had no luck so far. Sadly it seems like official student accommodation is pretty thin on the ground and is in high demand. Starting to worry slightly that I may be headed for an expensive stint in a hostel/hotel when I arrive!

I am holding down a busy job in London right up until I leave so making a flat-hunting visit to view some places before Jan is not really possible. I guess I am hoping that some of you have encountered similar problems in the past and may have some help or advice to offer on how to get this sorted from back here in England! From what I've heard finding a place to live in Swiss cities is not an easy task, let alone trying to do so from afar...

Thanks in advance!

Tim

Hey Tim, and welcome to the forum, Lausanne and UNIL! I'm a postdoc at UNIL in ecology & evolution, so I guess you will be in the same building (Biophore) as me! We must meet up when you're over here.

I know exactly what you mean about the difficulties in arranging accommodation from England. I've taken my apartment over from a PhD student who is leaving. Maybe you could try to contact your group secretary and see if they could send an email around the department to ask if anyone is leaving their apartment soon.

I have also had a good experience with renting a temporary apartment for 2 months from Arc Lémanique Immobilier (http://www.arc-lemanique-immobilier....ion_courte.php). They offer fully furnished studios on a monthly contract. They also have some long term furnished studios (which is useful as nearly all apartments over here are unfurnished -- I'm grappling with Ikea delivery at the moment for my new place!).

Hope that helps a bit!

Hi Simon. Great to hear from a fellow UNIL scientist! And yes I would really like to meet up once I've made the move - always a bit scary moving to a new city so it's nice to have a couple of acquaintances around town!!

Thanks for the Arc Lemanique recommendation - I checked out their website and it seems very promising i.e. they appear to have places available for short term lets in Jan. I filled out the online form so fingers crossed. Good suggestion about the dept secretary too - I've been in touch with her about this already but don't know if she would have emailed within the department - I'm going to send her an email just now.

Had a peek on the map for the Biophore buildings - I think we're at different sites unfortunately. My campus is up at Les Croisettes - a few of the biochemistry labs are clustered up there. How long have you been out there for by the way? And what's your subject?

Dear all,

This is my second post on the same topic. I've now arrived in Lausanne and I'm a week into my PhD at UNIL. Thanks to some kind advice from SimonP I managed to arrange accommodation for the whole of January in advance - a minor god-send.

Now that I'm here and getting down to the flat hunting I am realising how tough it is going to be to find a place! This evening after work I went to a kind of open viewing for a studio just over to the west of town - there must've been 50 people waiting to see the place! Many with their application packs ready and waiting...

So I suppose this is a plea for anyone who knows anyone who knows anything about an apartment in Lausanne that will soon be vacant to please get in touch. A studio would be my preference but I'll consider most things at present...

Thanks in advance!

Tim