I am very new to Switerland and hubbie may start work in Baar this year so I have many questions. Hope you can help

With a budget of 3-4000CH per month , do I stand any chance of getting a house in or around Baar? I havn't seen any and there are not many garden apartments available. Garden is very important to me and my family.

Also do most apartments have dishwasher , washing machine and dryer or is it more a shared washing room ?

And finally when it states ' basement room' is that normally a shared room or a private locked room?

thanks in advance for your help

Sharon

Hi Sharon,

My fiancee and I (we live in London) were actually in the Zug/Baar area, looking for flats this past weekend. We saw about a dozen places, and it struck us how high the quality was. There's all the amenities you could want, practically everywhere: dishwasher, washer/dryer in your flat + often a washing/drying room to share, extra storage space, garages, etc. There seems to be a building boom going on at the moment, and most of the flats we saw were new builds. Somehow, everyone is confident they will be done by April 1st.

As for pricing, 3-4K seems like the ballpark, so you should be able to find loads of places.

I don't know the market for standalone houses, but I can tell you that I once looked at an apartment in Baar (about 3 years ago) that was 3 blocks from the main station and had a 20-30 sqm lawn in back, with a small concrete patio, and if I remember my price range back then, it was maybe 1500-2000 per month. You can easily find a place with a garden in your price range - or at least, I saw many last time I looked (but I'm moving to uptown-zug.ch in July, so a garden obviously wasn't on my priority list).

Also, in that price range I would be very surprised not to have your own washing machine, let alone dishwasher, in the apartment. Dishwasher is more or less standard equipment, and a washing machine becomes standard somewhere between 2000 and 3000.

I don't know about the basement room, but if you're seeing ads with the word "Kellar", you've got a small storage are in a shared basement room. It's locked, but you don't put anything incredibly valuable there (i.e. bike, wine ok, expensive diamond jewelry not), because you can punch through the wood slats that define the boundary between yours and the next guy's without hurting your hand.

Hope that helps a bit.
Lance

Thanks for your replies, we are currently still in UK but should get things finalised by the weekend. Then we can house hunt.
We have a 4 and 7 year old hence the need for a garden

Everything about Zug/Baar is all so positive so fingers crossed!

Sharon

Check out www.erstbezug.ch too - as was mentioned, there's a lot of new construction in the area, and that will help you find it.

http://www.homegate.ch/www/ftp/hgof/...4554051_xl.jpg

Not sure if the link works but this place seems ideal for you and the rent (Fr. 2,935.00) is even a bit below your budget

It seems many of the apartment complexes have play areas for kids. It's not like the UK, where you have to either have a garden, or take them to a park. The gaps between the blocks are often playgrounds. You'll see when you get there.

In an area where we lived with lots of detached houses, the kids who lived there played together on the road outside or in the large communal green areas with sand pits, slides, climbing frames etc. belonging to the 'blocks of flats' nearby. And if you live in Baar, your children will probably want to spent any fine-weather days in summer at the open air pool or go down to the lake in Zug anyway!

Check out the Homegate website... although I highly doubt you'll find any houses in that price bracket.

I don't mean to be negative... but you are in the "expat ghetto" in that area.

Lots of high earning expats + low taxes = high real estate prices.

Good luck though

Here is a local Kanton Zug newspaper. It is the best place
to find an apartment. Unfortunately, it is only in German.

http://www.amtsblatt.ch/marktblatt/95/9500


You should be able to find a great apartment for less than 3000CHF.

Will your husband's company pay for a relocation agent? He/She
could look for apartments before you get here. It might be worth
it if his company is paying IMHO.

I think they will pay for a relocation agent which will be great. Although the one we had when moving to Stockholm was awful and we ended up moving house school etc... a year after we got there as she had totally misinformed us! total waste of money, so we are hoping this one will be better
Sharon