Hello, I am moving to Zurich next month and I will need to start looking for an apartment.
I would like to receive some advices about where to look and what to expect.

I am 28 years old and I will work at Dietikon. I am surely not looking to leave in a pub, but I would like to be in a lively area. I know prices in the centre are really expensive, but some people advice me to look in the centre since is very hard to establish relations if you are outside the area.

I surely expect to go out and know people since I am alone and must start my life from cero.

Any comment advice will be more than appreciated.

Best Regards,

Due to the wonders of an economic downturn I have been looking for work further afield and seem to have got lucky in Zurich.

Due to the short notice of this opportunity and leaving a long term partner in the UK for 3 weeks of every 4 I am in accommodation limbo..... So my goal is to try to find something that I can call a home for a couple or more of weeks so I can get my bearings etc..

My new job is very near Hottingen, Zurich, very close to what I think is a tram station Zurich Romerhof.

I was wondering what advice people have to accommodation that works well with a commute to that are.

This map apparently shows how the cost of renting is distributed, typical luck...

From this map http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_XeO0T3m-E4M/R4VBNpZAvOI/AAAAAAAAAAw/QS24FTg-y7Y/s1600-h/Karte_Quartiere_Stadt_Z%C3%83%C2%BCrich%28colorize d%29.png

I am open to all suggestions, I am not really familiar with what public transport is like, but I am guessing is makes the TFL look like its permanently broken. So I am not really sure which quarters are unreasonable etc..

Any information will be very much appreciated, until then I will trawl this forum for more general information, damn this is a great find!

Welcome!

It can take approximately 2 -3 months to find accommodation here. I got lucky and found my place in 5 weeks. It's a hard slog, but keep your chin up.
Try:
www.homegate.ch

Keep an eye on the forum.

There are lots of posts already on accomodation seeking here.
here's one-
Frustrated in flat hunting [in Zurich]


and another:
Why is it so complicated to find accommodation?



Public Transport here is very good, on the whole buses and trains connect well, though I have been late a few times
Trams run until 1am-ish.

Yup, that's a tram stop. Served by three tram lines, each of which runs every eight minutes. Most Zurich trams run every 6-8 minutes (except late evenings and weekends) so if you do miss a connection it's not the end of the world.

Römerhof is 5 minutes from Bellevue or Stadelhofen, 9 minutes from the main station, 11 minutes from Paradeplatz... basically you can live anywhere you want so long as it's not clear out the other end of town (e.g. Höngg or Altstetten.)
I'd suggest looking out toward Hirslanden and Witikon - rents get cheaper the further you go from downtown.

I'm merging this with the "Where to live in Zurich" thread... have a look at the first couple pages for some good characterizations of the different areas.

I'll try o ask my question again for people having heard of the UBS accomodations in Eibenstrasse.
Is it ok for a temporary stay in Zurich (4 months) ?
Any good things to do around, go out, sports, etc. ?

Because accomodation is so hard to come by I'd guess anywhere would be good for a tempory stay. It could take weeks or months to find something near to your ideal choice.

I never realized it was popular to expats. can we have a drinks night in a bar in Wipkingen one night?

or not, whatever.

We spent a few days to find out where to live in Zurich and traveled
on trams, trains, and walked. Below is a summary of places we've been.

1) Limmatstrasse side of the train station: very liveable, bakery
opens on Sundays, bio shop, wine shop, Migro, restaurants
extreme central, there are even two story houses with (baby) gardens.

2) Around Romerhof (uphill): Cafe, shop, nice, central.

3) Seefeld toward the lake, seems a great place for easy access to the lake
park, some shops and restaurants nearby.

4) Zurich West for reasonable rent (?) and club scene

5) Zurich Enge area, beautiful houses, park, convenient, one french culinary
school restaurant, convenient. Expensive area.

6) Oerlikon : lots of large shops. Easy living.

7) Kreis 6. peaceful, some cafes, one even open in the evenings,
grocery shopping easy, nice Gemeinde center, park for walking

8) Kustnacht along the coast : public space, BBQ on the beach,
public walks along the lake, and other places. A community center
with gym, restaurants

9) top of Zurichberg near the forest. Lovely walk along the forest and can
forget one is in the city. But no grocery.

10) Toward the airport between the two flight paths, we were told good and reasonably priced

11) Greifenensee, the middle of the trio lake. Village feel (no first hand experience), but apparently a place to be for real life, e.g. a house with some garden, a rarity in Zürich.
12) Zollikon . Larges houses, some shops. Houses on the hill. Tram but we walked there from the center and back. Tax advantage.

In summary, there are nice places to live, affordability and availability aside. There is one particular place we liked and found out that the houses there never went into public if and when it became available. We also find some attractive apartments which apparently have a 3-year waiting list.
We looked at some pictures of the apartment for rents more closely, the kitchen are generally small, with small working surface and crowded with overhead cabinets. I have designed my own kitchen, no overhead cabinets lots of windows, good long working surface for making dough , cutting, and cluttering, and was a little disappointed with the kitchens on the market. Guess rental properties do not care about well functioning kitchens.

Family of 5 (English, French and German speaking) moving to Zurich needs to understand if it is possible to find a house to rent with 4 bedrooms in a nice area in the 3000 - 4000 CHFrange. Please not in the middle of teh woods

The school is located at Gockhausen.

Ideally a 20 mn public transport is acceptable. 30 or so door to door?


What would you recommend and why?

Thank you

Oerlikon is a nice place to live.

How is Kuesnacht?
Heard there are nice houses,but the residents are especially boring and uptight.
My friends with two kids are thinking of buying there.

Markjones!

Come to Kreis 4. It is the coolest area with an up & coming vibe, many bars, cool little shops and it doesn't feel like snotty Zwitzerland at all. Its close to all other central areas but feels like its own entity! You will love it.

HI all. My husband will be doing some training at Balgrist hospital, so our family will be needing to live there for about a month. We have 2 small kids. Can anyone suggest a great place to look for temporary housing?? Thanks! My husband was thinking aussersihl - as it was suggested.

Megan

Hi lalalalalililia,

This reply comes rather late but I only saw your post now. Hope it still helps.

I lived in Eibenstrasse for almost a year before I was able to find a decent accomodation in Zurich (yeap! being a foreigner does not help to get a flat!!)

Eibenstrasse is in an ok area: not too far from the center and with good S-bahn connections to Opfikon. However, it is not very lifely and you will find that S-bahns do not run at the times you want and you'll end up waiting at the station for 20 mins for just a few minutes ride to the center. My advice is to get a second-hand bike and become less dependent on S-bahns!

All in all, it is great for a short accomodation since finding a flat in Zurich can be a real pain in the ass. But it is not the place you want to stay very long.

Enjoy Zurich! It is a great city!!

What about Schlieren, Urdorf and Dietikon areas?

Hi everyone! Me and my family (wife and 2 y/o boy) are moving to Zurich in October. Once I've got my head around where we're going to live temporarily (which I'll post on a separate thread) we need to find something more permanent.

We haven't got a fortune to spend on rent but we'd like to be near the lake (east or west) will need three bedrooms, and a nice community to fit into. I'd prefer no more than a 20 min commute to Zurich centre.

Any suggestions? I'd appreciate any help!

thanks!

Wollishofen, Adliswil, Thalwil,Horgan and so on along the lake have good train connections. It can be a fortune if you are too near the lake or have a nice view of it! Check out homecate.ch to get a good idea.

Anybody has any thoughts about Wetzikon?

I'm moving to a friend's house (it was the best offer I got) there in October but I've never been there before. My friend obviously likes the place, or else he wouldn't live there, but I'd like to know what other people think
Thanks in advance.

I'd say anywhere is good to get a start and get a feel for the place.
I don't know Wetzikon, passed by it once. Maybe check out it's web page, bound to have good info.