Just narrowly avoided the Nigerian apartment scam. Two ads were about very nice studios for 700 CHF in Lausanne. What alarmed me was the request (after a few emails) to make wire transfer of the several months rent "deposit" to some account in UK. Both are not living in Lausanne also. I google the text in their emails and found out it's a scam.

The problem is that it seems I cannot find any legitimate advertisements. I searched around and could only find scam-like ads (bad english, phone starts with +447, too good to be true, etc.).

I got a post-doc position in EPFL for one year, starting 1st of May. Now I am residing in Singapore and will only come to Lausanne on 29th of April. I have never heard about such scams in Singapore.

Do you know how much is the rent for studio or 1 bedroom apartment in Lausanne? With all these scams around, I cannot even figure out what is the market price!!

Could anyone recommend a good course of action in this situation? Is it better to rent bed&breakfast or youth hostel for a few weeks while looking for an apartment?

It seems impossible to secure a place to stay without physically being in Switzerland. This is just sad.

Well done avoiding that scum! You need to expect to pay at least Fr 700 per month for unfurnished

http://www.immoscout24.ch/IS24Web/_V...114736&index=2

http://www.homegate.ch/rent/10359354...ault&l=default

Reserve a place in a hostel. The EPFL should be able to recommend hostels in west Lausanne.

You cannot easily rent a flat while you are in Singapore as the landlord will want to meet you first!

Its very easy to identify, most likely nobody will rent you anything without you being here and most importantly when you visit the apartments you will see there is another 50 people waiting to get the formular to apply for the same room/apmnt.
If anything looks easier than this is a scam

Seriously Im not trying to bring down your hope but its really difficult to find an apartment here. Take into acount that here is required to have a salary of minimum 3x your rent cost, so the more you can prove above that media, the better chance you get.

Good luck!

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Have sent you a PM with another website that might be interesting.

homegate.ch just search this an you will only find ligitimate information.

I recently started Post Doc in EPFL too. I rented a studio for two months in Hotel du Marche in Lausanne (750 CHF/month). I found an appartement during 3 weeks.

I live in Lausanne and know how difficult it is to find a suitable apartment! I suggest homegate as well. Currently I am a student and know from May there should be several apartments up for rent because my semester is graduating then.

Best of luck!