You really though 2 steps were enough?! Ok, that wasn’t funny… Everyone who had to do this job knows how painful it can be. There aren’t that many available flats in Swiss cities. The Swiss federal administration reported around 0.5% of free vacant houses in Basel (June 2014). I found a number for Amsterdam: over 3%! I do not know if they count exactly the same way, but it gives you an idea.
I was looking for an apartment in Switzerland and I wanted to share the tips I found. Of course, if you have ideas, you are also very welcome to share them. We visited 35 apartments until we found the right one.
The usual apartment hunting websites
- My favorite one: Anzeiger.ch – it gathers all the ads from the other sites listed below. The site is a bit less user-friendly. But you only have on place to look at.
- homegate.ch, newhome.ch & immoscout24.ch
Other resources
The University of Basel has also a marketplace where you will find some ads. We found ours through this page.
Facebook pages
- Rent my place, Basel: a good and active Facebook group.
- Wohnung Frei in Basel: a stream of ads, they seem to be posted automatically. Not really useful.
- Expats in Basel: this is not really the place to post or look for an flat. But they are ok if you post your ad.
Post your ad
- Online: on tutti.ch and Anibis
- Offline in the supermarkets, hospitals and university. Migros and Coop always have board were you can pin you ad.
I hope this will help you find your little gem. Good luck with your search.