Anyone know of a website where you can view family homes for sale in Basel?

[carla]

Not me me, I hasten to add, but for a friend who wants to move there with her DH and six children (gasp in awe!)

Thanks!

No, but the family I used to look after moved there nearly three years ago, they are renting and it costs megabucks! I'll see if they can give me any estate agent addresses on line, or perhaps there relocation agent.

Thanks allibubbles! We trawled the internet for a full two hours today, and came up with nothing

Try www.immo.ch or www.homegate.ch which cover both sales and renting but both in german. There are plenty of relocation agents which an employer might recommend and pay for to relocate an employee. Some of these are listed on www.xpatxchange.ch. It is more usual to rent than buy over here and something to suit a family of that size might be quite scarce.

hth

LIZS... that's enormously helpful ... but why is it so? Just what my friend suspected .... but why?

tbh I'm not really sure. However home ownership is just not high on the priority list, it seems. Mortgage rates here are really low atm, so it can be cheaper than renting, but prices are not low in many areas, you have to stump up a substantial deposit and fulfil certain residency status as an expat to be entitled to buy. The mortgages seem to be indefinite and interest-only so that the debt gets passed on to the next generation. Also population density tends to be high in urban areas, in order to keep large expanses of green land, so they go for apartment blocks and staggered terrace houses. A traditional UK detached house with garden does not really exist in cities here ime , but you can find a compromise in areas outside the city.

The up-side for your friends is that at least prices are cheaper in Basel than in Zurich. They should also be aware also that definitions can vary according to which region of CH they look at so what is advertised as a 4 1/2 room could be 3 beds, lounge and dining area/hall.

hth

How many bedrooms would she want? Like lizs said, you usually need a deposit of 20%, up front, and a 61/2 room house (ie 5 bedrooms) is in the region of 1 million, so they'd need a deposit of 200 000 chf, which is around 85/86 000 pounds.

Buying is unusual like others have said, and appartments much more common, although they are invariably nice and to a high standard, with playground for the kids.
btw the tax is much lower in Basel Land than Basel Stadt. Also Estate agents as we know them in the UK do not exist. You don't have chains of Halifax or Foxtons or whatever in every town, and finding propert is often done through word of mouth, looking in the bank, or driving round looking for building sites!
Saying that, there must be some web sites

Think she'd need five or six bedrooms. Thanks for all the advice - explains why we kept on drawing blanks!

Anything to add here before I print this off for my friend? Anyone???

only question, if it's not too late, is why they want to buy and how long they intend to stay. Most people now going on work placements tend to stay only 2 or 3 years. Unless they are definitely going to stay for a long time, much longer than that, I wouldn't recommend buying, as selling is very difficult & time consuming. also there are strict laws for foreigners buying property and going on to sell it quickly/rent it out. Lots of investigation & double-checking recommended.

Forever, monkey. I think (and not wishing to get it wrong with my pal, he's something to do with soil, and apparently Basel's the place for it/