If you are a Brit, it is unlikely that you shop in Knightsbridge and avoid the London 'tourist traps'. In Switzerland you might not be so savvy.

Additionally 3 years ago there were £2.50 to the CHF, Today you'll be lucky to get more than £1.20. Nuff said??

What about the other part of London?

Maybe I'm just an average schlub, but I don't see that much 'saving' with the taxes as, sure, it's lower at the point of source for the salary folks, but then you have a whole boatload of little things that eat you for breakfast, lunch and dinner, e.g. 2,50 CHF per 35L rubbish bag to dispose of your garbage, 40CHF for the highway vignette, etc. as every little thing has an added fee it seems.

It really depends on what you like to do that will make zurich seem wildly expensive or merely usurious, e.g. movies and film photography were a big part of my hobbies but, when a roll of film is something like 100chf to process locally and movies are 18CHF+, the cost is more than just money out of my bank account and that's much harder to put a price on.

Correction - Oslo.

4 years ago at 2.50 to the £ , salaries in many cases were lower in CH. However the hours worked here make work more a 'part time' thing. You dont need a watch people go to lunch & leave at exactly the right time.
I remember once changing the time on somebodies PC, it was funny to see him play on the internet for an extra hour at work before rushing home...

Internet is way cheaper in London

Those are some bad example. In the US I was charged $3 or more per trash bag that was hauled away, plus the cost of the bag. Yes, the bag was larger, but i have less trash here because I have more opportunities to recycle, bottles, metal, food/bio waste. Also if you dont live in in zurich, those same bags can be had for 1.75 chf.

The vignette is also one thing that is incredibly cheap. Im not sure what part of the US you lived in but in the northeast corridor I was lucky if I paid $40 per year in tolls. usually it was much more....the highways here are way better in quality and there are no tolls at all.
When you compare this with other countries in Europe....

Italy...from the Swiss border to Venice costs around 25 euros and there are a minimum of 4 tolls that you have to pay.

Slovenia...Slovenia!!... makes you buy a 25 euro vignette that is valid for 1 month...the yearly vignette is 90 euros

Switzerland has the cheapest vignette (road tax) in Europe......

not true, the vignette is for motorways which are free in Germany & uk.

I am talking of the countries that require us to pay a vignette....

Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia require a vignette

Many other countries require you to pay tolls on road section. (excluding UK, and Germany) Though the UK has local tolls (tunnels, bridges, etc), Germany has environmental tolls

So of the Original EU that would be 2 France & Austria. The German environmental tolls are for lorries AFAIK.

Check it out this website:
http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living


It's a database filled by people. With this you can have a nice idea about cost of living between countries and cities.

All wrong. It's Zurich that's disproportionately expensive in fact. I'm sorry you didn't feel safe, but you probably were, and if you couldn't make a go of it on two salaries....well I dunno.

Yikes abfab....that typo just madenthe fear bile rise....

For sure I think it's a question of knowing where to go. London can be really expensive, but recently, I went out in central London and only spent 20 quid. I can't envisage any night out in Zurich only costing 20 quid!

Austria has a vignette (1 year is 76.5 euro)...france, italy, and spain all have very expensive tolls on the highways. Germany doesnt but does require a car emision sticker when driving in some larger cities

Easy done
1 prix guarantee sandwich from co-op for dinner
6 beers from denner drunk by the lake whilst listening to tinny music turned up to full volume on your mobile (do as the swiss do eh)
Greasy msg laden kebab and pomme frittes for the late night munchies
Walk home
See a great night out in your desired budget, you're just not trying hard enough.

You've just proven that you never had a great night out :-).

And you have just proven that the word irony is not in your vocabulary

Sorry but a lot of these prices are just wrong.

Although I didn't check some of the capital items (car purchase etc) the price of many of the consumables seem pretty accurate to me.

Certainly not enough of the Zürich/London prices are "just wrong" enough to justify such an out-of-hand dismissal.

AYB

Food:

1. Type of chicken breast and source not included but I would agree that the Swiss is more expensive, up to 55CHF per kilo for chicken breast. Standards are very significantly different between the two countries though for animal treatment.
2. Milk: Sourced where. Direct from the farmer here can be cheaper.
3. Apples: Sourced where? Switzerland has a different attitude towards a lot of these sorts of products and people will make effort to buy local, or at a farmer's market. Prices will vary there. Also seasonal prices of fruit vary here more than in the UK, this is not taken into account.
4. Beer: Hmmm, What sort of beer? Same type in both places?
5. Bread: Yes and the quality is 5 times as high than shite in London shops that you would be able to buy for that price.

Housing (The whole housing scenario is just bullshit.)

1. You find a Mayfair 85 m2 appartment for me for that price......... Go one, I dare you! One in Kightsbridge then? Okay, lets stretch, how about Belgravia? No, still fresh out of luck....yes, I thought so. Sorry, yes, I know, heavy on the sarcasm on this one.
2. Yes and where I was in London I was paying £16 for 8Mb and getting 96k. Zurich has some of the best Internet connectivity in the world where as London hardly makes an entry.
3. Where these best prices, shop prices or Internet prices? Same product?
4. How many people in each appartment, what standards, what equipment were they using, etc. What were the prices for water? Flat rate? Prices per Killowatt hour?

Clothes

I have no idea, could not even dispute these, they could be perfectly true.

Transport

From what I understand this actually looks pretty reasonable although who knows what the currency situation is going to cause.

Personal Care

The only one that I can really agree with here is the haircuts which are expensive in Switzerland, as everything that has a labour component is. The other things, product for product comparisons are important, not these shot in the dark things.

Entertainment

Yes, going out in Zurich can be expensive, but you go out one night to Tramp or Crystal or Boujis (to name but three of the plethora where Zurich has a very small set) to show you a really freaking expensive night out like you had never imagined possible in your entire like compared to Zurich. £24 for a single cube libre in the Library Bar in London.

At the same time, show me all the free entertainment and concerts in London, the free swimming in the lakes, the free hiking in the nearby hills or accessible mountains, etc.

Different cities, different cost requirements.

Now even after totalling all of this stuff, according to this site which is the gospel then, Zurich is only 19% more expensive than London. I am sure your tax savings alone would cover that and we don't even need to go down the salaries route to kill off the financial debate.

__________________
Living it up in Gersau.

In all categories but one, the prices assessed seem to be higher in Zürich. I'm not quite sure about the overall average, but I can only presume that it is dominated by a "car purchase" in the transport section...

I have just realised that the graphic didnt appear...

By how much London is more expensive than Zurich
Food +80
Housing +29
Clothes +62
Transport -32
Personal Care +94
Entertainment +48


AYB