I think the best areas are Paquis, Plain Palais and Grottes.  The thing with Geneva is its small.  So city center, well all the list I have given are city center, and virtually every other neighbourhood with the exception of a few are.

Everything is well connected by bus, trams, boats and trains so getting around is easy.

Be open minded when you arrive in Geneva, its a Swiss city, so considerably smaller and possibly very different to citys you may know.  However the countryside and plenty of activities with a mix of city and country life is possible, so where you miss certain things from bigger cities you gain in other ways

Wow... You are to move shortly to Geneva and expect to choose where to live... Unless you have the budget of the US defense, you'll be happy to find a decent place within a 5 miles radius to your place of work...

Gotta agree with Casuistik, depending on what you will be earning, chances are you'll end up in St Genis Pouilly in France or around Meyrin with a lot of the rest of the CERN folks and transport links into town. I'm always bumping into CERN people in Charlys pub in St Gen. Everything you are looking for is there too albeit on a smaller scale.. 

Have a harder google, check homegate.ch, classifieds here, worldradio.ch classifieds and CERN relocation website for an idea of average housing costs and advice. 

General rule is rent cannot be more than a 1/3rd of your income. And this will be checked. 

We have been trying for a few months to get an apartment/house we liked, applied for dozens and turned down for various reasons. As an example we were offered a 2 bed apartment in the very centre of Geneva, 70 m2, small balcony, for 2600chf a month, with 3 months required as guarantee. 

More in depth info on rental is here http://www.lifeingeneva.com/#!property-rental/c1hea

Cern to Cornavin (main station city centre) takes about 25 min I think on the tram. 

Check tpg.ch for routes, times etc of trams and busses. Commuting is easy here. Trams usually go to midnight from town, and then there are night busses, a cab from town to Cern is 30 bucks +. 

Not wanting to scare, but Geneva is a different place when it comes to 'choosing' where to love, its generally Geneva chooses where you live not the other way around. 

That said, its a kickass town, and if you want energy and integration, you will get it!

Paquis is ok.......if you don't mind the drug dealers and prostitues lol. 

Hey guys,

thanks for all the responses so far.

@Casuistik, @Kevin M I will arrive in Geneva in one month and then I have a place to stay for another month. I hope two months will be enough to find something decent. I have heard that housing can be very troublesome in Geneva so I'm not expecting to find a perfect match for me, but at least I would like to make a conscious decision on where to rent my apartment. If I cannot find/afford living in the best place in the city, then be it, I will try to find something in the neighborhood. That's why I would love to hear about your opinions, where do you reckon the excitment parts of town are, as knowing that would allow me to focus on these places. If I failed, it's ok, at least I tried.

Also maybe (as suggested by @peaky) the model of city I have in mind is way different than it's in Geneva. The last time I moved abroad I was living in Melbourne which is extremely vast city and not living in the city centre there means you will loose a lot of staff going on there. If that's not a problem here just let me know.

From what I have been seeing online so far, there were few studio apartments in the city for around 1500-1800chf, which is not cheap but I reckon I can afford that. 

Regards,

Lukasz

Hearing everyone's advices/opinions, at least you have an idea.  And yes, living in the city is expensive, the nearer you are in the city the more expensive the apartment rentals are.  Hopefully you will find a place within 2 months.  When we arrived here in Geneva, in 2 weeks, I was able to find an apartment. You just have to give more time in searching.  You may want to be a member of CAGI, a welcome centre  where they can also help you find a place.  Here is their website.... www.cagi.ch

Goodluck in your home search.

Łukasz, don't expect too much of an excitement either. If you are from one of our big cities, it is non-comparable. Geneva is a great town, but you don't have to live in the city center to enjoy most things. Trains, trams, buses in Switzerland work pretty well, so don't worry about commuting. Think of going shopping during the week, because shops are closed here on Sundays. And all those above are right, you'll be lucky if you find ANY accommodation at all, so don't be picky.

Anna

Hi Lukasz,

I suggest trawling the classifieds here to begin.  I'll repeat it again, I found my current apartment (in Paquis) through the glocals classifieds, within a month of looking around, so it's definitely possible.  It helps if you're already in Geneva, so you can actually do the foot work (ie visiting to look at the apartment and the area it is located in).  Just start by choosing a general area you want to find an apartment in and widen your search from there.  In parallel, google "regies in geneva" and start looking through the agencies to see what they have on offer.

Know that Geneva is quite compact and it is quite easy to go from place to place even with public transport. (you would benefit from a bicycle during the warmer months though) so it is not so important to be smack dab in the center of the city.

Good luck on your hunt.

Best choice would be along the tram line 14 Cornavin-Servette-Avanchets-Meyrin.  You'll be near or reasonably connected both with the city center and the CERN. 

To live in St Genis you need a car, as public connections from France to downtown are quite poor.

And remember that, after signing the contract, you are allowed to have your rent lowered if it is abusive: http://www.glocals.com/forums/geneva/where-how-in-geneva/Renting-in-Geneva--READ-THIS----206526.htm

If you can, go for Paquis or Plainpalais - both areas are lively (on Geneva standards...) and well connected to the 18 tram. I wanted something a little quieter but still well connected to CERN and the city center, and I ended up in Servette which is just perfect for me: 15min tram ride to CERN, 10min walk to the train station with Paquis just behind, shops and everything you need just around the corner, yet a small side street where I can sleep at night.

Finding a place to live is admittedly not easy, but doable if you can afford it and are willing to make some compromises. From what you say you can afford I am guessing that you are actually paid by CERN. In that case you'll be fine, just have your documents ready to present. I still well remember my first encounter with the regie - their friendliness improved drastically after they had seen my contract! Needless to say, I got the apartment and happily lived there for two years 

Hi All, 
Again many thanks for all the replies! I think I understand the housing business in Geneva better now :) Also the link to lifeingeneva.com proved to be illuminating in many others fields as well - great stuff to read.

@TheOmegaMan: lowering your rent seems like a great idea. I might try it. Though, I wonder whether when looking for the next apartment regies will not discriminate one for using this trick at the first place.

Lukasz

Unfortunately that's a real risk.  Regies, relocation agencies, and greedy homeowners here are a big mafia.

Please note that this is not a "trick" -- you are actually exercising your inalienable right to get a rent that's not illegally overpriced.

I think it's good to know that this possibility exists, but in particular as a newcomer you should also be careful not to believe that every rent can be lowered down to a reasonable amount. The definition of "reasonable rent" in Switzerland is quite different from most other places in the world.

Łukasz!
Super exciting, more Polish people in town! If you are going to work at CERN you can always try to find someone at work who's looking for a roommate - that would make things a bit easier - you would find a place to live plus make friends faster! ;-) I know one polish guy who works there and if you are going to need help he's the one to talk to! :-)
Don't worry about being far from the party scene, we all live in different parts of Geneva- some of us even in France and we still manage to go out and have fun :-) Polak potrafi!

I have spotted a lot of interesting apartments to rent in the Old Town with a walking distance to tram 18. From the Google Maps I can see that there are a lot of interesting amenities/restaurants in the neighbourhood and I started to believe this might be a right place for me to stay. Nevertheless, none of you have pointed this place as an interesing area to live. Was there any particular reason not do so, known only for locals?

Let me know!

Lukasz,

Old Town is really nice and a lot closer to where things are happening yes. If you do not need to live next to work, it's a good place. You will be able to take tram 18 from Bel Air cite directly to Cern no problem!

Well, the Old Town is pretty expensive.  And in any case, if you do put in a bid for an apartment, there’s no guarantee that you will automatically be accepted as a tenant.

The reality is that, in this city, you live where you are offered a place, not the other way round.

R.

I almost feel foolish for hoping to live where I want. Of course I will accept what fate brings me, but nevertheless I will try my luck with my prorities list first. Wish my luck!

Many thanks,

Lukasz

If you’d like my tuppence worth, find a short-term arrangement to have somewhere to stay on arrival and do the looking around in person once you’re in situ.

It’s the only way to dovetail what you’d like and where with what will be available at a price you can afford.

It can’t be repeated often enough.  Geneva has not been a buyer’s market since the end of WWII.

R.

Lukasz,

You can always ask the CERN Housing Service to stay in one of their apartments, which can be rented up to 6 months by anyone working at CERN.  They're quite conveniently located (in Meyrin and Gd Saconnex) and not expensive.  This would give you some time to find an apartment to stay for a longer time.

Thanks for the support. I have already booked an apartment in CERN for my first few weeks in Geneva so that I have more time to look around.

Lukasz

I thought that maybe I should let you know how my story ultimately unfolded.

I have just signed up a lease with regie for my very first apartment in Geneve. Much to my suprise, it was the first and the only place I have applied so far, which I guess makes me one of the very few with 100% application success ratio. What's even better is that it took me only two weeks to get it. And yes, the apartment is located in the Old City*, so I am even more happy that I was able to achieve my initial goal.

Once again, I would like to thank all of you for your recommandations and tips. But for them, I would not be so aware of the housing industry here. Lots of thanks.

Lukasz

* At least according to this page: http://www.schenk-photos.ch/GENEVA_1/Plan_vieille_ville_geneve.html

Your next step...

Seems like you qualify...

Congratulations Lukasz... just like what I told you before it is feasible to find a place in 2 weeks, just like what happened to me.  I found a beautiful place in Carouge in just 2 weeks!  And I actually had 2 more offers that time. Anyway, all the best in your stay here in Geneva.

Bonne weekend!

Well Łukasz, you have a good timing, there are less people coming in that out due to a recent change. Witamy, witamy w CHF!:)

First of: Congrats! 

It took us two months to find a flat and majority of people considering us lucky (by Geneva standards) to have found one that "quick".

With that said, your posts about Zimmerman and your update about a flat in Old City makes me wonder. Is it on Rue de la Cite by any chance?

PM me if you'd rather continue the discussion offline.

Hello, 

No, it's not Rue de la Cite. Should I be worried if it was?

Oh ok!

Yeah, I believe the person that used to live there posted the ad for the flat on this site (maybe they can explain in detail).

Long story short, this person wanted to break the lease and move out. It's not unusual here as long as you can find a replacement. The tenants found people willing to take the flat (including us) but Zimmerman rejected everyone that applied or claimed they (the applicants) refused the flat.

In our case, they rejected us but told the tenant we rejected them. Odd.

I think they went to court over it, because Zimmerman had her paying double rent unnecessarily and finding takers on a flat that expensive is not easy.

Either way, we are ultimately thankful b/c it was extremely overpriced 3.5K a month for a 1 BR and we found an incredible 1 BR flat with a loft (twice the size) in Eaux-Vives for less than 2/3 that.