Hi,
Is it possible for apartments in the same building to be rented for significantly different monthly rent ?
Here is my situation, I am renting an apartment in a brand new building and recently found out my neighbor is paying signifcantly less rent than I am (about 1200 CHF less). As I mentioned I am in a brand new building so the other tenants including myself moved into the building within a month or two of each other.
Both apartments are about the same size. Apartment A is 3 spacious bedrooms, better view, and is furnished. Apartment B is 4 smaller bedrooms, has more built in wardrobes, and is unfurnished. Apartment A is being rented out for 1200 CHF less per month than apartment B.
I know of many situations where similar apartments can be rented for significantly different monthly rents, but that is usually in older buildings where tenants move in and out frequently.
In my situation my neighbor and I moved into a brand new building around the same time into similar apartments. Can anyone provide some clarificationas to why we are paying signifcantly different rents.

Mobeen

Some tenants may be paying "old' rates ie the agreement renews by itself without changes to the rent amount ( they will likely have been staying put in there for years ) cf. new tenants who usually end up paying more owing to "market" rates.

Can anyone provide some clarificationas to why we are paying signifcantly different rents.

You got ed*.

*or politely:the landlord/agency/régie has made you an offer which you accepted. That offer has been made official in a "contract" which you all signed.

Is there anything else to say about that?

You also mentioned that apartment A which is cheaper is also rented furnished. Are you sure the person isn't paying a cheaper rate because he/she is just taking a short-term sublet from someone else?

Going with that idea also, I believe in some areas / buildings, individual apartments are sold, perhaps as investment properties, and then rented out. Sometimes such apartments are handled by rental agencies and sometimes by the owners themselves. In any case, it could be that the rental agreement held by the folks in unit A is different than that held by B, and hence, the difference in rent.

Another thing that could be happening too is that unit A is "held" for folks working for a specific company who are promised special rental rates through their company relocation department or something like that. Given the housing situation in the Geneva area, I wouldn't be surprised if some companies do snap up blocks of new apartments to rent out to their employees and / or have special arrangements with leasing agents for preferred treatment for their employees (whether easier access, reduced rent or both). Perhaps this would explain the differences you see.

As a third example, I know that in the US, many of the properties near large employers have "preferred employer" programs (Kissimmee area near Orlando is one example, Rio Rancho near Albuquerque is another), offering discounted rents to folks who work for specific companies (Disney and Intel, respectively).

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The Joys of Opticianry

Yeah. I though that was strange. Furnished apartments are usually more expensive.

Are all of the apartments owned by the same person/organization? Does the other person have subsidized housing?

It's rather simple. A 3 bedroom apartment will rent for less than 4 bedroom apartment irrespectively of the actual metrage. But that's just our experience with this in GE and VD. A three bedroom flat counts on fewer people fitting in, than a 4 bedroom one.

Both apartments are owned by different individuals. The tenants in apartment A signed a 1 year lease whereas we (apartment B) signed a 3 year lease. I don't think the tenants in apartment A get subsidized housing, since they have been in Geneva for less than 3 years and are not EU citizens.
Intially I felt we had been taken advantage of by our relocation agent (A1 relocation), but we do have a lot more closet space in our apartment.
The problem I am facing, is that I have been made redundant by my company and will not be able to maintain this apartment at my current rent (4500 CHF/month). The fact that my neighbor is paying about 1200 CHF less per month is confounding. I guess there is not much I can do except continue to search for a more economical apartment.

I may have missed that but is the more expensive place higher up? The higher up in the building, the more expensive the place.

Sorry to hear you lost your job, good luck with finding either a cheaper place or - who knows, a job that allows you to keep your current place.

IMO this is a wise decision, you may want to save the energy for other battles, i.e. job search

I wish you luck!

You're probably right in that the difference is the extra bedroom. But the furnished bit was a confusing. Usually a furnished 3 bed will be more than an unfurnished 4 bed.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter. The two apartments are rented by two different owners and thus they can set & in GE get the rent they want.

Mobeen is right, her best bet is to look for a cheaper place to live.

Good luck. I hope you find a new job ASAP.

Thank-you everyone for the well wishes. I am hopeful a new employment opportunity will come my way by end of June otherwise I am preparing myself for a visit to RAV in July.

capitalism?

Boo!

Wise-acre answers no good... the thing is, depending upon where one is from, it could be extremely uncommon to see rental apartments in the same building but with different landlords / leasing agencies.

If it weren't for my very short-lived stint in reservations at a hotel with condos (which were let, depending on whether the owner was in house or not), it wouldn't come to mind for me either.

As someone else said higher up the building the higher the rent. Aso I would assume rent is calculated on sqm rather than how many rooms?