Hi Everyone,

In just received the approval to my residence permit in Zurich as a non EU citizen.

My company already appointed a relocation agency to help me with the move and I want to provide them with some areas I am interested in renting in, I was planning to take over an apartment from a friend currently living in Dietikon, but then read in the forum that most consider it as a "Dump" and less possibility to interact with locals than other places.

I am moving to Zurich and Switzerland for a better quality of life and culture and not into hoarding money, so any advice for "good" alright to be more expensive neighborhood areas where I will be more in contact with locals and interact with them (I am interested in hearing more swiss-german and learning it in the process).

Three questions:


- where are you working (which area/town)?
- how many people in the household ?
- what's your rental budget...

A few more:
- do you prefer urban settings or rural? (concrete or greenery)
- do you want a garden?
- are you into clubbing, fishing/boating, or any specific hobbies?
- do you drive, and intend to have a car?
- are you the type of person who goes clubbing all night, hosts parties at home or goes to bed at 8pm?

You don’t have to live in the city. Many expats live in the towns and villages along the lake. It’s only 10-20 mins on the train into Zurich from most places and the quality of life (close to the lake + easy access to open countryside) is high. More importantly, you get much more for your money.

Thank you or the quick replies, I will try to answer the questions.

- where are you working (which area/town)?
Industrial area, my work is close to Zürich Hardbrücke station (I can work most of the week remotely though)
- how many people in the household ?
Only me at this point.
- what's your rental budget...
I'd say along the line of 3k

- do you prefer urban settings or rural? (concrete or greenery)
I have no strong preference, but I'd say a convenient area (for daily household related activities - shopping fresh groceries ...) with greeny or nice scenery (lake?) setup would be my best fit.
- do you want a garden?
If I can yes.
- are you into clubbing, fishing/boating, or any specific hobbies?
Not really into clubbing, never tried fishing, I would like to do more hiking though, more into tech and cultural places (museum...)
- do you drive, and intend to have a car?
Currently not planning to own a car as I am not travelling a lot, but have some plans to get an EV within two years.
- are you the type of person who goes clubbing all night, hosts parties at home or goes to bed at 8pm?
neither, not into clubbing and hosting parting, but not that of an early sleeper.

> It’s only 10-20 mins on the train into Zurich from most places and the quality of life (close to the lake + easy access to open countryside) is high
Something along those lines would be perfect.

Here is a recent link with some info about all the different districts of Zurich (known as a Kreis in German)

https://www.homegate.ch/c/en/advisor...kreise_zuerich

Schwamendingen is the place to be! They have a great party scene

Looking at your answers, I think Districts 2, 6, 7, 8 and 10 would be a good fit for you.

Ok, long story short:
1. the "better" neighbourhoods are along both coasts of the lake. It used to make a difference between "gold coast" and "silver coast" but by now are they all just expensive. Your 3k budget would get you a decent place for one though. Not super convenient to Hardbrücke though... Thalwil for example would have around a 30min commute.
2. Dietikon is indeed at the low end of desirability. I dont know how much you earn, but if its over 120k will you probably make a tax declaration and the tax level varies massively. Thats a Swiss thing and rather bizarre. Simply put: Poorer neighbours usually translates to higher taxes, richer villages can afford lower tax rate. Therefore are the industrial suburbs of Zurich normally not the first choice: Dieitikon, Oerlikon, Wallisellen, Dübendorf sort of area... the one remark I dont agree on: Not sure where you read it, but "less likely to interact with the neighbours" is absolutely not true - these areas have high percentages of immigrants, but that typically does not mean less friendly people. In my experience are the various Balkan folks in CH way more open and friendly than your Gold Coast neighbour might be.
3. Well, as nobody spelled it out yet: Your workplace is in "Zurich West". Thats after Seefeld the area with the second highest concentration of hipsters around ;-) So why not live close to your work? Might be hard to secure a place, but would be convenient, lots of restaurants, cinema and so on around... the sort of area I would want to live if I was on my own.

Thanks, that's very helpful.

I will make sure to go over these and discuss with relocation agent, thanks

Thanks for the details.
1- 30mins commute is fine to Hardbruke, I am not planning to be in the office everyday.
2- When I mentioned less interaction with local I meant Swiss locals, as I mentioned before i am interested in learning swiss-german too, and being in a mostly expats area will not help much I guess? I have a lot of expat friends and colleagues so I am still have plenty of time (work and otherwise to interact with people).
3. Being next to the office is not really a requirement for me, not into much restaurants and clubbing life, and I have no issue commuting to meet people there, and as you mentioned it is hard to secure a place there so i worry I can only get second hand lower quality accommodations there.

I was under the impression that the tax will be a withholding tax at source for B permit resident.
I am supposed to file tax returns if I am above 120k ? (I am above that), for someone new to Switzerland this will be a little tricky to do I guess, anything in the forums her that details how this is done or what to do to be on safe and legal side of things?

Rule of thumb is that you need to learn High German first, as all your official documents, etc, will be in this, then 'unlearn' parts of High German to learn Swiss German
What kind or style of accommodation are you hoping for? If you want something really new and modern, it might be worth asking your relocation agent to look into off plan apartments coming to the market soon. Earlier this year, there were quite a number of such apartments within your price bracket in Oerlikon and Horgen (one of the lakeside villages).

I am sure there are fantastic places to live in Dietikon, but it does have a bit of a reputation as neither offering the advantages of small town nor of city life. It is a bit too far from the city to take advantage of city culture, restaurants and night life, but at the same time not small enough and having too high populatoin density to offer any quaint small town feeling. I personally can't evaluate if this is true or not, but this is Dietikon's reputation.

Now, if your were moving to Switzerland without support of a relocation agency, I would tell you to take the friends apartment and give yourself sometime to settle in and get a feeling for the country and then move after about six months, but since you do have the relocation agency, I would tell them that you want to live in closish to the city center in Kreis 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 or perhaps in some of the closer suburbs along the lake, like Zollikon, Zumikon, Küsnacht or Kilchberg.

Another consideration would be how high your income is. Difference municipalities have different tax rates but the difference becomes meaningful only for incomes above 200k (note that lower tax areas usually have higher rents). Here's a tax calculator

https://en.comparis.ch/steuern/steue.../steuerrechner

You mentioned you'd like to go hiking. In case it is just simple walking with some scenery you have woody places to walk around all around Zurich. Open a map and check how close by is the next green area. Lake in the city center, or along the Limmat river are also some of the nice places to walk.

If the apartment is very cheap, take it and pocket the money to get yourself set up - the cost of living here is enormous...


But I would only take it if it's within 5-10 minutes from the train station.


Just a tip - there are two official moving dates in Zurich - one of them is coming soon and with the lockdown effect, I think there are probably a lot more people moving house right now - upsizing to be more comfortable working from home, or changing because they really got sick of their home when they had to be there so much!


And the cost of moving house is significant - plus you can't just move after a few months - you will need to read your contract very carefully to see when you can exit...

The appartment is 21xx CHF, when removing the parking cost, it is within 10mins to transportation to Hardbrüke.
I am no fun of moving, so I want to carefully find a place I can happy with for a long while.

If you consider that you don't like moving, and how hard it can be to find an apartment in Zurich (it's not unheard of to submit >10 applications before finding a landlord who will accept you) - I would consider temporary accommodation for the first month or two.



There's lots of serviced apartments, get your stuff into a storage facility and "live" the city. Then you will know what areas you like.


Also, don't assume that you can get an apartment without being there in person - most landlords want to meet you in person (even with the annoying CV-style application some request).


Finally (and this is controversial) - if a landlord seems racist, don't get frustrated. Move on. I'll leave it at that.

While mostly true does not have to hold. I met the lady responsible for the apartment first at the key hand-over. I strongly recommend submitting a letter why you want the apartment (nice area, close to green, quite, lots of light, etc.) and shortly about you. Some stuff showing you will be a good renter and won't move very soon. Include a couple of photos (like hiking - hiking photo).

The relocation agency is taking care of the first 30 days temporary accommodation paid by the company (they can extend temp acc if we don’t find something), so I will be there and have help from them to provide options, send applications and schedule visits, what I needed is a rough idea on the best neighborhoods so I can point there to areas I am interested in and focus on those, people here shared some kreis numbers to check, I will use that as a reference.

I assume these letters and cv-like details to be in German, then I will need the agency to help this.