I have read the important and informative threads in this forum and have one basic question for the members: we (my husband and I) will be in the Lausanne area for a minimum of three years (we honestly don't know whether we will stay beyond that at this point). We have enough money to put down 20% on a large-ish apartment. Would anyone advise us to buy or should we invest elsewhere and buy later?

Thanks.

You will also have read that it is not worth buying unless you are thinking of staying at least 5 to 10 years. I would say, unless you have already a particular apartment that you want to buy, you will spend the next 2 years looking anyway...

When I first moved here I thought the only way to go was to live in Lausanne since that is where I work, but after some time I realise there are many very pretty villages nearby with quick commute times to work. So I would say spend some time renting to learn which parts of the area you like before you commit to any particular location.

I now live in Vevey, which looks to be a long distance away from Lausanne on the map but it is actually an easy train ride to work every day.

Once you decide on an area, there may be new developments happening and you could buy an apartment being built and sit tight in your rental property until it is finished. A few of my work colleagues are doing this and it did not seem like they took years to find the location/building they were happy with.