Hi John,

Best you can do is check http://www.homegate.ch/

Once you have an idea what you will be paying for housing, you can consider what wage to ask. Reasonable paid housing is not easy to come by, neither is parking. You basically need a permit everywhere in Geneva to be able to park or find housing that includes it. Finding housing in the region is easier, well or you could always go live in France, but the French border towns are far from charming. Schooling and childcare are also a thing to check.  

the schooling decision is easy at pre school level,

Either you immerse the child in a local French speaking school, and can therefore expect your kid(s) to be fluent in 6 mths... or you go the (private)  International school English curriculum route which will cost you CHF20'000 per year...if there are spaces available.

Home location is determined by whether you and your family want to live in town... or in the countryside in a sleep village, commuting times here vary, but the swiss consider a 45mins + commute to be very long.. so it will be a breath of fresh air if coming from London or NY or such, where 45 mins is considered short... frankly a 30 min commute is very doable, so allows you to look in quite a wide circle around geneva...

Salary (allowances etc) will determine the size and quality of your living quarters... houses here cost from 5 or 6 thousand per month... appartments are cheaper ish....

Thanks people..

as i say, early stages. But would likely be looking at a house outside the city. Partly/probably due to dog. Commute is fine, in the UK my commute is around an hour.  Pretty sure my employer will sort out quite alot but just trying to build up some knowledge too.

Hypothetically. If one earns roughly 60k gbp pre tax in .. what does one need in CHF?  Hard to work out, for example - i can buy lunch in the UK for 3 gbp! Do i really need 8 x uk salary :)

60k in the UK is above average , but is 87K in Swiss at current xchange rates, which is only marginally more than a secretary would get.

If your employer pays for housing (which will be your biggest cost by far)  then you can live comfortably... if not then you should be looking to earn 180+CHF to afford a house (or semi detached) since that will cost  you around 60 to 80 minumim a year... on 160/180+ you'll have a comfortable life...

health insurance for a family of three is around 1000 per month...

Car lease is around 500 depending on model and value (can be three times that or more)

Schools  ; local schools are free... private are from 20k per child per year as said above... from age 6..

Travel...depends on where you live... figure from 60chf per month for inner geneva.. outside add more depending on distance.

Have a look at Nyon area Gland, prangins, founex etc etc for houses on www.immostreet.ch... you'll get an idea of costs.

Commutes from here are 30 mins train and car.

Wow .. Health insurance!!  I get mine free from employer.. But wife and child privately are only 100 here!

Browsing at the moment.. looks like plenty of choice, if only it was as simple as saying 'that one please' and paying!