Dear All,

My husband, two kitties and I will be moving to Basel and we would like to rent a small house (3 bedrooms) with a garden either in Basel or anywhere near (30 minutes commuting time is the max).

We would love to know how much would we be expected to pay for such a house and which neighborhoods are nearest to Novartis campus St Johan...Any ideas?

Thanks!

Since you are looking for a house with garden instead of an apartment 3 floors up, have you thought of looking across the border in France or Germany ?

The Novartis campus is in the north of Basel, very close to the French border. You have lots of options within 30 minutes commute (by car) of there - you could even live two thirds of the way to Freiburg (Germany) or Colmar (France) in that range.

I can't recall seeing many houses with gardens in the immediate vicinity within Switzerland, but once you cross the border things open up. Cross-border living/working has lots of other issues though, so living in Switzerland would be simpler. But if you start looking to the west of the campus (in the Bottmingen direction and further), you'll find houses and it's not too far from Novartis.

Have a look here http://en.comparis.ch/immobilien/mar...=intro&title=1, you can enter the details you want, and it will do a search for you, e.g how many bedrooms you want

Hi,

It's not impossible, it just costs more :-)

Really depends on how much you're willing to pay. Rents for houses usually start at around 3500 Fr. / month in the greater Basel area + accessory charges (which are normally higher for houses than for apartments).

Then again, if you're able to afford 4k in rent, you probably make enough money to substantially (and I'm talking in excess of 10'000 Fr. per year) save on taxes if you live in an adjacent community in Baselland (Binningen, Oberwil, Therwil, Bottmingen spring to mind). All of these offer excellent access to Basel via tram and are much nicer living areas than anything Basel can offer. There are ok areas in Basel (in terms of living quality, and none anywhere near Novartis campus - Novartis Campus is in the middle of a low-income, high-crime (for Swiss standards, that is) area) but there are no great areas except for the Bruderholz neighborhood where 3000 Fr. per month won't even get you an apartment.

Also keep in mind that both in France and Germany, taxes are drastically higher than in Switzerland. I studied in Basel and lived there during that time. Right after I graduated my wife and I moved to Therwil because we'd save about 12k in taxes.

So my advice is: look in Therwil, Binningen, Bottmingen and Oberwil.

Peter

Dear All,

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I did not know that the Novartis campus was in a "funny" area . We really would like a house and were willing to pay 3000 (hubby still needs to find a job).
THe problem about moving to France or Germany is that I am not an EU citizen so paperwork could take forever. Nevertheless I do have a residence permit from the Netherlands and my husband is Dutch, maybe this will make things easier?

Otherwise I will try the areas you guys suggested THANKS!

Angela

I am in a similar situation -- we would prefer someplace with an outdoor space, although we are not particularly fussy about whether we have a house or an apartment (if it has a large terrace, for example). Based on the advice here, from a tax perspective it would be better if we were based in BL vs. BS.

How long is the commute from [Binningen, Oberwil, Therwil, Bottmingen] to the Novartis campus using public transport? What about by car?

Rodersdorf is great it's rural but at the end of the 10 tram route about 40-45 mins to novatis,also being Solothurn canton its cheaper than BS & BL for tax.

Hi, my wife, little son, cat and I moved to CH recently and we got lucky -- we have a great apartment in Binningen, with a garden and just 5 minutes from the tram. From our place it's a 24 minute commute to Novartis Campus. Living in BL is DEFINITELY more tax-effective than in BS, and health insurance is cheaper, too. I wholeheartedly endorse the recommendations (villages near Badel) made elsewhere in this thread. Alschwill is also very nice although a little more expensive.

To judge commuting time by bus and tram, I suggest you use the SBB travel planner (in English) at http://sbb.ch/en/index.htm. Type in Novartis Campus in the "To" field, and select Station/Stop in the "All types" drop-down menu. Don't forget to add walking time to and from the tram/bus stop at each end -- the planner gives an estimate but it's a little excessive (it allows about double the actual walking time).

Finally, think about howmany tram/bus changes you want to make on your daily commute. In some areas you may need to make 2 or 3 changes, which gets a little wearing after a while.

Hope this helps!

... yep, that would be "Basel", not "Badel" ...

... and it's "Allschwil", not Alschwill, in case you want to google it ... I always do that ... why???

Speaking of Google, Google Maps has a handy travel directions feature ("Get directions"), including time estimates for the journey. The public transport option is NOT reliable -- sometimes it doesn't make any sense! -- but the driving option ("By car") is reasonably good. Should help in estimating commuting times by car from various locations.

can you say which company you used to find this property ...?

Hiya, we had the help of a "welcome service" (paid for by my wife's employer) -- however we had already spotted the apartment on homegate.ch (highly recommended to get a good overview of the housing available). The apartment complex was developed by Stamm & Co, who sold off some of the apartments but retained a few to be let. Stamm has quite a few properties around Basel.

Best approach, I think, is to check out homegate.ch and immoscout24.ch. Good luck!

Oh, and get in quick with your aplication ifyou find something you like. It may even be a good idea to have your application filled out and ready to hand in when you inspect the apartment.