Hi there,

my husband (also dutch american) is  most likely going to move to Basel shortly while the rest of the family  will  join him later, we have to kids of 12 and 16 ,would you suggest any specific area to look around for an appartement?somewhere nice , may be even in  town? all suggestions are welcome THX Marina

p.s

btw I am Italian

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Karte_Basel_Quartiere.png/1040px-Karte_Basel_Quartiere.png

This is a map of Basel and its districts. IMHO, best places to live are:

Altstadt (Grossbasel) and Vorstädte (if you don't mind not having a parking space at your place of residence). There are great and worse places though.

The western districs, St. Johann, Iselin, Gotthelf and Bachletten, have some nice spots, but can often have a lot of traffic and are closer to the airport..

Gundeldingen and Breite mostly is bad, there are some nice places though, especially near the Rhine.

Bruderholz and St. Alban have a lot of nice spots, are expensive though.

Kleinbasel (north of the Rhine) is not that good. Hirzbrunnen though is mostly ok, just stay off the main traffic routes (streets and railway).

Riehen / Bettingen have many nice spots. I live in Reinach. The tram lines 11 and 10 strech out like three fingers from Basel to the South. There are many good spots, just remember the aitraffic.

We live in Gundeldingen in a 7th floor apartment facing Bruderholz and love the view. We also like the neighborhood -- there are more immigrants here and so that means there are shops open at night and on Sundays, and more English-based communication. There are lots of kids and parks; it is particularly nice to live near the large Margarethen park. The rent isn't bad either.

Thank you guys, this is very useful already , what would be an appropiate rent for an apartement with 2-3 bedrooms in one of the nicest areas?I have checked on homegate and it actually seems quite lower than Geneva.

Cheers and have a nice week-end ( not so sunny here! :(

I would guess, that Basel is less expensive than Geneva or Zurich. For CHF 400.00 to CHF 500.00 per room you should get a good appartment.

There are many housing cooperatives in Basel, those are mostly cheaper but may not have the same standard as private owned, like lacking an elevator.

For example: http://www.immoscout24.ch/IS24Web/_V2/Detail.aspx?what=2&where=380&type=1&lng=de&wl=1&objectid=2770979&total=11&index=5

Thank You!!!