Hello

I need some advice on cost of furniture, appliances, TV's etc.

We are contemplating selling our stuff here in South Africa and buying new stuff in Zurich when we arrive in November. Is furniture etc expensive or should we rather ship our furniture across?

Some advice would be appreciated.

Tx

T

for computers, they are very reasonable but as I have never been to your country I can not compare. See our site for some examples.
other items,
From Canada to Switzerland, I cut the Swiss prices in half and found it to be very similar to my old city.
The CDN dollar and CHF was 1 to 1 then.
You need to judge the state of what you have, the price to ship it and move it, and see if it is similar value to here.
check ikea, fly, migros, toptip, comforama, for the cheap stuff.

It also depends on how you are getting over there. Are you being offered a relocation package? Are you wealthy enough to get rid of your current stuff and just buy new furniture at European prices? Is getting your stuff shipped over an inconvenience? How long are you planning to stay?

If you have money and consider sending your stuff over in a container a pain in the tail-end, then sure, sell it and buy more when you get here. Otherwise, you might find that the Rand is much like funny coloured paper here, monopoly money, and that your wallet will hemorrhage and bleed when you buy a loaf of bread here.

TVs are different, there is information on the site about voltages and other such technical jibber-jabber that I am not partial to. The same goes for your electrical appliances, check out what might be required to run them here. For example the plugs on appliances. Switzerland does not use the South African 3 prong plug, we have another, far more aesthetic plug that babies couldn't stick there fingers into. The smaller South African 2 prong plug could work here, but check the voltage jibber-jabber.

Bring a potjie, it'll probably go down like a house on fire here.

A what?
A swiss house on fire or a Canadian log home?

I have brought a couple of electrical appliances over from SA and they have worked fine. Two pin plugs fit the sockets fine, three pin plugs just need to be changed for the more aesthetic ones. They both use the same three wires... I don't know about voltages but I have had no issues.

How big is that thing? Can it do fondue (I imagine that is what Gooner was alluding to)?

wouldn't want to clean the bottom of it!!

They come in various sizes. I am sure it would be possible to make a fondue in it but it's traditionally used for making a kind of stew... it's not my favourite.

The big question is do u get reloaction allowance or shipping costs from the comapny?? Furniture here is very expensive unless u want IKEA kinds. We shipped our entire furniture ( comapny paid for the shipping, the shipping cost was more than the furniture's). I am sure I couldn't afford good furniture over here. If u have good stuff with you which u love and it is not too expensive to ship, bring it over is my suggestion.

PS u may need to know roughly the size of accomodation u will land up getting, if ur furniture is bulky.