Apartment-hunting tips

Apartment-hunting tip 1: Define your starting point

If you’re looking for a new apartment, start by establishing your starting point – this will be the basis for your apartment criteria. 

• And of course the logical place to start: your hard-earned money. Look at your income alongside your expenses and determine how much you can or want to spend on rent each month (as a rule of thumb, housing costs should not exceed one-third of your net income).

• What is your family situation? Are you single and looking for your first solo digs? But at the same time you wouldn’t be averse to a flat share? Or do you already have a family of your own, and maybe even more members on the way?

• Do you have a pet that requires permission to live in rented accommodation? For dogs and cats, you will need to get permission from the property manager (on the other hand, you can bring small animals such as fish or hamsters anywhere).

• Are you bound to a specific area by your work or could you consider moving to another region? For example: if you work in nursing or a manual trade, logic dictates you have to be on site every day – so a long commute is not ideal. But if you spend a lot of your time working from home, you may be prepared to put up with long travel times for the few days that you’re needed in the office.

• Personal preferences: How important is it to you to live in the area where you grew up? Perhaps the idea of moving to another town or city appeals more? Maybe you even want the opportunity to learn the local language in a French- or Italian-speaking region?

• Just as importantly, what are your long-term plans? Maybe you’re planning a long international trip or to work in another country? In that case, perhaps a furnished room in a flat share is all you need for the moment. Or are you looking for somewhere to settle down for the long term?

Apartment-hunting tip 2: Prioritise your apartment preferences

Once you’ve outlined your starting point, add the apartment criteria that are important to you. How many rooms do you need? Do you really have to have a balcony? Is a dishwasher essential? Do you need a bathtub or will a shower cubicle do?

It’s best to make a list of these aspects and rank them by importance. But keep in mind that you’re unlikely to find your perfect dream home where everything is just right. So you need to be honest with yourself about where you’re willing to compromise.

For example, if you want to live in a period apartment in a certain neighbourhood, naturally you can search for that – but you may have to accept the fact that it is on the fifth floor with no lift. It’s up to you to prioritise your preferences and make compromises if necessary.

And another point: Always check the public transport connections in the area and work out how long it takes you to get to the nearest train station, shops, and so on. For example, you might consider an apartment in a somewhat remote location if there’s a bus stop nearby because you will still be able to get places and back home again easily.

Apartment-hunting tip 3: Use your filters

Once you know what you’re looking for, it’s time for the exciting part: browsing the ads. Enter your key data here in the search function and you’ll immediately see what’s on the market:

And another tip: If you already have a very specific idea of what you are looking for and where, you can refine your search with the relevant filters so you only see the ads you want – maybe you’ll find an ideal apartment that meets your needs right away.

But if you don’t find what you’re looking for, remove the ‘less important’ filters step by step to see more listings. 

An example: Let’s say you’re looking for a two-room apartment in the city of Lucerne with a maximum rent of CHF 1,500 with the filters ‘balcony’, ‘lift’ and ‘period building’ set – and you haven’t seen anything suitable. You now have the following options:

Rethink your filters

Do you absolutely need a lift? Sure, a lift provides a bit of luxury, but it’s also hard to find in a period building – and if you set this filter you might miss an otherwise perfect apartment that’s ‘only’ on the first or second floor. Unless you have health issues, that’s no problem.

Rethink your filters one by one and you might even find benefits in what you thought were disadvantages. Climbing stairs, for example, is a very simple way to integrate healthy exercise into your daily routine.

Expand your radius

Adding just 1, 2 kilometres to your search radius can greatly increase the number of listings. If an apartment is located just outside a city with excellent public transport connections, it’s definitely worth checking out (and you may even be able to get to the centre faster than you could from an outlying district of the city).

Increase your maximum rent slightly

In our example, the maximum is set at CHF 1,500. This means an apartment listed at CHF 1,520 won’t be displayed – which is a shame, because of course with a bit of clever budgeting you can come up with the few extra francs.

Simply set the maximum rent CHF 100 higher and see if it gives you new options. 

But don’t forget: The rule of thumb is that rent (plus utility costs) should not exceed 33% of your net income. You don’t have to be exact to the centime, but we strongly recommend this as a guideline.

Pro tip: Compare taxes to increase your maximum rent

Of course, any good budget will include the taxes you have to pay every year. But remember these change depending on where you are – not just the canton, but the municipality as well. So you can use tax competition to your own advantage. If there’s a local municipality adjacent to your search area with lower taxes, the fixed costs you save can go toward your rent, which increases your price range.

Apartment-hunting tip 4: Tap into your network

Many people find a new home through their personal network – why shouldn’t you?

Let your family and friends know that you are looking for an apartment. Putting a message out on social media can also help. Perhaps a former colleague you’re still in contact with on one of your social media channels is about to move and looking for a replacement tenant – it works for you, and she’ll be happy that she gets to present a workable solution to the management company.

Apartment-hunting tip 5: Don’t waste time

Once you’ve found a suitable apartment on Homegate, don’t dawdle. You can be pretty certain that there will be other potential tenants ready to snap it up. The best thing is to contact the management company immediately and ask for a viewing appointment.

Making contact

There is a contact form to the right of the listing where you can enter your details (if the company wants another contact type, they will put this in the listing). When you first start searching, it’s worth contacting multiple listers to keep your options open. You’re probably not going to be accepted for the first apartment you apply for – especially if it’s in a sought-after urban area.

Viewing appointment

If you’re invited to a viewing, it’s important to make a good impression – you need to impress the landlord, just like you would a potential employer. An extreme example: If you turn up 20 minutes late in dirty clothes smelling like last night’s party, of course your chances of getting accepted will be low.

Applying for an apartment

If the viewing went smoothly and you like the apartment, submit your official application. Here, too, time is of the essence. If the management company has several equally valid cover letters, they will often go with the first one they receive.

You can find more advice in our apartment application tips.