Hello all!

I've been looking for a place to rent in the bi-lingual area around Biel/Bienne...however, the pickings seem poor.

So far, I've looked at immoscout24.ch, immostreet.ch, homegate.ch and a few others. Lots of appartments but only a dozen or so houses at reasonable prices (under 3000 per month)

Any hints on where to look?

Thanks in advance.

Hi,
Any individual house will cost a lot here. You may need to increase your budget if you really want a house, as most will cost from 3000chf and up. You may consider a contiguee/attached house, has some garden but shares wall/garage with another house. Usually not as expensive. Or consider moving out to far-lying villages. But there is usually a compromise of more commute and less amenities, less public transport.

Hya

Well......have u got a car and how far are you prepared to commute ( distance and timewise) ? Do you prefer to go more to the french speaking part or would you prefer to be closer to the german speaking part.

If you state a little more detailed ( how many rooms,have u got kids,garage,overall cost you are prepared to pay) what you have in mind i can point you into a few directions....... as well as give you some more links .


Cheers

Sylv

"Well......have u got a car and how far are you prepared to commute ( distance and timewise) ?"

got a car - commute upto 70 minutes is no problem each way and the place MUST have a french community (bilingual or french only) for the missus/kids who do not speak German at all but are fully fluent in French

"If you state a little more detailed ( how many rooms,have u got kids,garage,overall cost you are prepared to pay) what you have in mind i can point you into a few directions....... as well as give you some more links ."

Let's see - 2 kids + wife, motorcycles (so must have at least a single closed garage), current budget is 3k but am willing to look higher if needed (lower is better for the same house), dog so need a garden and finally a single house is preferred but open to attached/farm houses/villas whatever is included in the search - just want best combo of location/price/house I can get.

"consider moving out to far-lying villages. But there is usually a compromise of more commute and less amenities, less public transport"

I don't intent to live in a city itself as I prefer a bit of leg room as a Canuck and the budget seems about right (upto 3k) but...there's just not very many houses (individual/attached/ex-farm whatever) listed on the websites I've found so far in or within 30 miles of Biel (I have a job offer in Zurich and Biel/Bienne seems the closest community that has french - please feel free to correct me if this info is wrong).
Of coures on the other side, some ammenities or at least access to them within reasonable distance is needed - so no sumit cottages that need a helicopter to access please

So as I understand you want to live in a french speaking area and commute to Zurich daily. If so, you will need to be up for a long commute. I think the closest acutally would be living in France just outside Basel, but then you'd have to deal with being non-resident in Swiss, crossing border, with all the associated permit hassles.

If communting from Biel/Bienne, even by the most direct train it is 1h10m, which is only from the main stations, including travel to/from the station in Biel and Zuerich adds to this even more. So it will be well over your 70 min. maximum. Finding a house in outerlying Biel/Bienne in french speaking area is all to the west, ie. even further from Zurich, so add some more commuting time.

I guess it is up to what compromises you are willing/not-willing to make. I think you will have to decide to live in a german speaking area, or have a very long commute more like 1h30m or more, or perhaps live in the center of Biel/Bienne with close proximity to transport on both ends.

I have to agree with runningdeer here , what was written is correct, also to get to a proper french speaking village you'd have to caluclate about 30+ minutes more ONE WAY.

Yep Biel has a direct motorway connection to Zurich and if everything goes well you drive about 1 hour 15 minutes from town to town...BUT the A1 is notorious for accidents, traffic congestion and the like.

Even by train.......some of the more remote villages hereabouts have only bus service to town( if anything at all) , car parking space at the main train station in Biel is very limited as well and thus you would easily look into a 3-4 hour commute in total. I think this , just to live in a french speaking region is a bit OT ( but that's just my 2 cts)


I think your family would actually profit from living closer to Zurich ....coz the international community is much more diverse as well as you have much more on offer for your family and kids in regards to school ( international ones) as well as pastime activities than here, I am not downtalking my region after all i live here and love it very very much...but i think to get what you want is not feasible easily.