Hi,

My wife and I are about to move to Zurich and will be working at Opfikon. I am interested in Glattpark as it is pretty close to work but doesn't seem too far away from the city etc.

Does anyone have any knowledge/opinions of Glattpark?

Thanks very much

Dear Friends,

We are living in Basel and our family had the plans to leave Switzerland by April, as my husband's project got over here. But now, he got few offers in Zurich (not central) and 99% we decided to accept one of those offers. Though we were in Switzerland for past 2 years, we don't have any idea about Zurich. Since I have seen lots of members belonging to Zurich area are active in our forum, thought of putting my questions here. All your helps are appreciated very much.

1. The offer we decided to take is in Schwerzenbach area. So, which are the areas in and around of Schwerzenbach would be good to live?

2. We have a son of age 2.9 years. We are planning to put him in English speaking / Internation school from next academic start. When I searched in map, found a school in Wallisellen area (school name ISZN). But looks little far from Schwerzenbach and also looks as if need to take more than one tram/bus. Could you please let me know whether any other schools avail in Schwerzenbach area?

3. Here we are living in a 1 bedroom house and rent is 1100 chf. Would like to know how much it would cost to rent a 2 bedroom house in zurich (Schwerzenbach) ?

4. Are we too late in searching an apartment, as we need one from June 01, 2010?

Any other tips to select a home / flat are welcome. Thanks in advance for all your helps / inputs.


No Zurich-ian got to read this thread so far ?

Got short of Zurich-ians in our forum ?

Personally I think the ISZN is ludicrously expensive!
I have a just turned 3 year old and he goes to the Happy Nest in Oerlikon - this is an English speaking pre-school/learn and play centre and is absolutely brilliant. Oerlikon is only 3 stops on the S14 train away from Schwerzenbach.
Another option I would consider is the WAC in Uster - they have an English pre-school and Uster is 2 stops away from Schwerzenbach on the S14 train.
Hope that helps!

Thank you so much for the input.

Could you please give me a rough figure of how much it would cost in ISZN per month / annum?

Also, while talking about your son's school or the other one in Uster, does it have only pre-school learning or has higher classes too? Because, I don't want to shift house after a year, in search of school for his next classes, as I prefer a house near to his school all the time.

Once again, thank you so much for your valuable inputs.

My son's school in Oerlikon (The Happy Nest) and the one at WAC in Uster are both from age 2 until kindergarten age.

ISZN costs approx CHF24,000 per annum plus CHF4000 registration - but it is better to check with them directly.

Thank you so much for your quick reply dear lemondrizzle. That really helps. I checked in the ISNZ site too and confirmed your reply is right.

So, now time to opt for other options.

Could you please give me the details of your son's school (like exact address and how much it costs there).

Thanks in advance

http://www.thehappynest.ch/
The website has all the details. Good luck with finding what you need!

Thank you so much lemondrizzle. Will be deciding soon.

Can I ask you why Eibenstrasse is a bad choice?
I was proposed thise accomodation by .B. and don't know Zurich at all.
So I am wondering if it is a good choice to stay there.
Is it ok to get to Opfikon from Eibenstrasse?

Hello, I am moving to Zurich next month and I will need to start looking for an apartment.
I would like to receive some advices about where to look and what to expect.

I am 28 years old and I will work at Dietikon. I am surely not looking to leave in a pub, but I would like to be in a lively area. I know prices in the centre are really expensive, but some people advice me to look in the centre since is very hard to establish relations if you are outside the area.

I surely expect to go out and know people since I am alone and must start my life from cero.

Any comment advice will be more than appreciated.

Best Regards,

Due to the wonders of an economic downturn I have been looking for work further afield and seem to have got lucky in Zurich.

Due to the short notice of this opportunity and leaving a long term partner in the UK for 3 weeks of every 4 I am in accommodation limbo..... So my goal is to try to find something that I can call a home for a couple or more of weeks so I can get my bearings etc..

My new job is very near Hottingen, Zurich, very close to what I think is a tram station Zurich Romerhof.

I was wondering what advice people have to accommodation that works well with a commute to that are.

This map apparently shows how the cost of renting is distributed, typical luck...

From this map http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_XeO0T3m-E4M/R4VBNpZAvOI/AAAAAAAAAAw/QS24FTg-y7Y/s1600-h/Karte_Quartiere_Stadt_Z%C3%83%C2%BCrich%28colorize d%29.png

I am open to all suggestions, I am not really familiar with what public transport is like, but I am guessing is makes the TFL look like its permanently broken. So I am not really sure which quarters are unreasonable etc..

Any information will be very much appreciated, until then I will trawl this forum for more general information, damn this is a great find!

Welcome!

It can take approximately 2 -3 months to find accommodation here. I got lucky and found my place in 5 weeks. It's a hard slog, but keep your chin up.
Try:
www.homegate.ch

Keep an eye on the forum.

There are lots of posts already on accomodation seeking here.
here's one-
Frustrated in flat hunting [in Zurich]


and another:
Why is it so complicated to find accommodation?



Public Transport here is very good, on the whole buses and trains connect well, though I have been late a few times
Trams run until 1am-ish.

Yup, that's a tram stop. Served by three tram lines, each of which runs every eight minutes. Most Zurich trams run every 6-8 minutes (except late evenings and weekends) so if you do miss a connection it's not the end of the world.

Römerhof is 5 minutes from Bellevue or Stadelhofen, 9 minutes from the main station, 11 minutes from Paradeplatz... basically you can live anywhere you want so long as it's not clear out the other end of town (e.g. Höngg or Altstetten.)
I'd suggest looking out toward Hirslanden and Witikon - rents get cheaper the further you go from downtown.

I'm merging this with the "Where to live in Zurich" thread... have a look at the first couple pages for some good characterizations of the different areas.

I'll try o ask my question again for people having heard of the UBS accomodations in Eibenstrasse.
Is it ok for a temporary stay in Zurich (4 months) ?
Any good things to do around, go out, sports, etc. ?

Because accomodation is so hard to come by I'd guess anywhere would be good for a tempory stay. It could take weeks or months to find something near to your ideal choice.

I never realized it was popular to expats. can we have a drinks night in a bar in Wipkingen one night?

or not, whatever.

We spent a few days to find out where to live in Zurich and traveled
on trams, trains, and walked. Below is a summary of places we've been.

1) Limmatstrasse side of the train station: very liveable, bakery
opens on Sundays, bio shop, wine shop, Migro, restaurants
extreme central, there are even two story houses with (baby) gardens.

2) Around Romerhof (uphill): Cafe, shop, nice, central.

3) Seefeld toward the lake, seems a great place for easy access to the lake
park, some shops and restaurants nearby.

4) Zurich West for reasonable rent (?) and club scene

5) Zurich Enge area, beautiful houses, park, convenient, one french culinary
school restaurant, convenient. Expensive area.

6) Oerlikon : lots of large shops. Easy living.

7) Kreis 6. peaceful, some cafes, one even open in the evenings,
grocery shopping easy, nice Gemeinde center, park for walking

8) Kustnacht along the coast : public space, BBQ on the beach,
public walks along the lake, and other places. A community center
with gym, restaurants

9) top of Zurichberg near the forest. Lovely walk along the forest and can
forget one is in the city. But no grocery.

10) Toward the airport between the two flight paths, we were told good and reasonably priced

11) Greifenensee, the middle of the trio lake. Village feel (no first hand experience), but apparently a place to be for real life, e.g. a house with some garden, a rarity in Zürich.
12) Zollikon . Larges houses, some shops. Houses on the hill. Tram but we walked there from the center and back. Tax advantage.

In summary, there are nice places to live, affordability and availability aside. There is one particular place we liked and found out that the houses there never went into public if and when it became available. We also find some attractive apartments which apparently have a 3-year waiting list.
We looked at some pictures of the apartment for rents more closely, the kitchen are generally small, with small working surface and crowded with overhead cabinets. I have designed my own kitchen, no overhead cabinets lots of windows, good long working surface for making dough , cutting, and cluttering, and was a little disappointed with the kitchens on the market. Guess rental properties do not care about well functioning kitchens.

Family of 5 (English, French and German speaking) moving to Zurich needs to understand if it is possible to find a house to rent with 4 bedrooms in a nice area in the 3000 - 4000 CHFrange. Please not in the middle of teh woods

The school is located at Gockhausen.

Ideally a 20 mn public transport is acceptable. 30 or so door to door?


What would you recommend and why?

Thank you

Oerlikon is a nice place to live.