Hello!

Just joined the forum - I am moving to Lausanne in a couple weeks with my husband, and this whole finding an apartment thing is a wee bit intimidating (especially since I am on lesson one, unit one of my Rosetta Stone french lessons )

I was wondering if anyone might have a recommendation for a rental agent in Lausanne? Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks so much and happy new year!

-em

Good luck and a stiff drink or drug of your choice.

Have a look on homegate.ch, they will give you an idea of the agencies, here you visit the apartment then sign up with the agency. With something like a 0.16% vacancy rate in Lausanne, it is a really tight rental market (much easier than Zurich although not as bad as Geneva). Any chance yours or your husband's job can do the looking?

Another option would be to do a short term sublet while you are looking for your real apartment. Some can be found on www.anibis.ch

Otherwise Swiss Access (for a stiff fee, http://www.swiss-access.ch/) can do most of the footwork. They are effective if you are willing to shell out a couple thousand, which may be worth the headache. If I were ever to move back to Lausanne and be out of accommodation, I would just go with them rather than spend four+ months hustling for an apartment or going from sublet to sublet.

If you want to rent something short-term, furnished while looking for an aprtment, talk to Nogan SA or OK Logements. All bills etc are included so it is easy to start that way (that is what I did).
OK Logement is min. 1 month stay and Nogan requires 3 months.
Good luck!

Awesome! Thanks so much for the ideas - will definitely make use of them all.

maybe starting with that stiff drink....

-em

I'm in a similar position and it's hard. OK Logements have no availability as of today, but they work on 1 month's notice so they said call back at the end of this month when they will know what availability they have for March. Not much help for you!

Otherwise, Swiss Flat charge CHF300 up front and CHF1000 once they find you somewhere. They will accompany you at visits, suggest some apartments and help with general permit and paperwork stuff. Again, not a lot of help.

Check out this thread for a list of sites.

And... be pro-active, there is a lot of info about getting your paperwork in order (copies of permit, salary, contract, proof of no debts (poursuites), nice introductory letter etc.) and expect to put in for a lot of places before you get offered one. Last time I looked for an apartment in Lausanne, I applied for 32 before getting lucky.

Given you have only a couple of weeks, you may have to rely on paying an agent to find you somewhere - try asking your employer for help in this, they may well be aware how hard it is, otherwise you could help them understand your situation!

Good luck!

Hi, the apartment I rented is managed by Naef (www.naef.ch) who is a big agent in CH, and more importantly I feel they are quite good!

They have offices in Lausanne:

16 place Chauderon
Case postale 7495
1002 Lausanne

tél: +41 21 318 77 77
fax: +41 21 318 77 05

e-mail: lausanne@naef.ch

Hope it helps!

I was supported by a company called Welcome Service (http://www.welcome-service.ch/) at my relocation, they have an agent living in Lausanne. They can search for suitable apartments for rent as they keep contact with many real estate agencies.