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Geneva rents: World’s 7th most expensive city

A report from the consulting company ECA International has ranked Geneva as one of the most expensive places to rent accommodation in the world.

Published: 14 February 2012 11:30 CET

Geneva rents: World's 7th most expensive city

Romano1246 (File)

Geneva was ranked the world’s seventh most expensive city in which to rent a three-room apartment, and was found to be the third most expensive city in Europe, behind London and Moscow.

A year earlier, the French-speaking lakeside city was the 10th most expensive globally for rent, and seventh at the European level.

Zurich followed close behind as it too climbed the global rankings, from 20th in 2010 to 12th in 2011. Switzerland’s most populous city was the fifth most expensive place to rent in Europe.

ECA reached its conclusions by comparing rental prices for three-room apartments with approximately 80 square metres of floor space. The performance of Swiss cities was affected by the strength of the franc, ECA said.

“In Zurich, the price of renting a three-room apartment reamined stable in Swiss francs in 2011, but converted into euros we noted an increase for the year of 15 percent,” said ECA spokesman Frédéric Franchi in a statement.

According to the Mercer Cost of Living Survey conducted for 2011, which compares prices for some 200 different items, Geneva was ranked the fifth most expensive city in the world, with Zurich seventh.

Despite the higher costs, the Mercer Quality of Living 2011 survey showed Zurich and Geneva as second and eighth best cities to live in worldwide. Factors analysed in this survey included political, environmental, economic, health, education and transport.

ECA 2011 world rankings based on price of three-room apartment:

1 Tokyo

2 London

3 Moscow

4 Caracas

5 Hong Kong

6 Singapore

7 Geneva

8 Sydney

9 Bogota

10 Stockholm

11 Abu Dhabi

12 Zurich

13 San Francisco

14 Paris

15 Amsterdam

16 Seoul

17 Rio de Janeiro

18 New York

19 Istanbul

20 Oslo

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Basel is Switzerland’s best city for international workers. Photo by Nadine Marfurt on Unsplash

Basel is Switzerland’s best city for international workers. Photo by Nadine Marfurt on Unsplash

Basel is ranked in the 9th place out of 57 cities surveyed in the new Expat City Ranking 2021.

Carried out by InterNations, the annual survey rates cities around the world in terms of advantages they offer to foreign nationals who move there for professional reasons.

READ MORE: The best commuter towns if you work in Basel

The survey, which polled 12,420 people for its 2021 edition, ranks cities based on criteria such as Quality of Urban Living, Getting Settled, Urban Work Life, Finance & Housing, and Local Cost of Living, along with their sub-categories.

Of the four Swiss cities analysed in the study — Geneva, Zurich, Basel, and Lausanne — only Basel was highly rated, and is one of only three European cities ranked in the top 10 (the others are Prague, in 7th place, and Madrid in 10th).

This is why

A popular destination for international employees because of its pharmaceutical industry, including giants like Roche and Novartis, Basel ranked well across all categories.

For instance, it is in the 1st place for its public transportation network, in a 2nd position in terms of Quality of Urban Living, and in 3rd for Safety & Politics.

All expats in Basel (100 percent) are satisfied with public transportation, versus 69 percent globally. The public transportation system is excellent”, one respondent said.

Nearly all participants (97 percent) feel safe there, against 84 percent globally. The city also performs well in the Urban Work Life Index (6th), particularly for the state of the local economy, which is in the 1st place and the working hours (8th); additionally, 75 percent are happy with their working hours, compared to 66 percent globally.

More than four in five expats (84 percent) find their disposable household income enough or more than enough to cover their expenses (versus 77 percent globally), and 77 percent are satisfied with their financial situation (against 64 globally).

Where Basel is doing less well is in the Finance & Housing Index (34th place), though it still ranks ahead of other Swiss cities: Zurich (37th), Lausanne (39th), and Geneva (53rd).

But the city ranks 48th in the Local Cost of Living Index: 69 percent of foreigners living there are dissatisfied with the cost of living, more than double the global average (34 percent).

The Getting Settled Index (39th) is another of Basel’s weak points. Internationals struggle with getting used to the local culture: more than one in four respondents (26 percent) state that they find this difficult — this figure is 18 percent 1globally.

It is worth mentioning that in the 2020 InterNations survey, Basel ranked in the 24th place, so it progressed impressively this year.

What about Geneva?

Switzerland’s most “international” city due to the presence of a number of United Nations agencies and multinational companies, places near the bottom of the ranking, in the 47th place.

“It has the worst results among the Swiss cities included in the report and is the only one that does not rank in the global top 10 of the Quality of Urban Living Index”, InterNations said.

Similar to the other Swiss cities, Geneva ranks among the top 10 for political stability (1st) and in the bottom 10 for the affordability of healthcare (56th). However, it lags behind for all other factors, with expats particularly dissatisfied with the local leisure options (23 percent versus 14 percent globally).

“Interestingly, the comparably low quality of life does not make Geneva any easier to afford: on the contrary, it is the worst-ranking city worldwide in the Local Cost of Living Index (57th) and by far the worst-rated Swiss city in the Finance & Housing Index (53rd)”, the report noted.

It added that “while Geneva comes 26th in the Finance Subcategory, it ranks 55th in the Housing Subcategory, only ahead of Dublin (56th) and Munich (57th). Expats find housing in Geneva unaffordable (87 percent vs. 39 percent globally) and hard to find (63 percent vs. 23 percent globally).”

READ MORE: Why is Geneva’s rent the highest in Switzerland?

Geneva has a fairly average performance in the Urban Work Life Index (28th) but receives worse results in the Getting Settled Index (43rd). It ends up in the bottom 10 of the Feeling Welcome (52nd), Local Friendliness (50th), and Friends & Socializing (48th) subcategories.

“It is certainly not easy to integrate into the local culture and community,” said one respondent. In fact, 35 percent find the locals generally unfriendly, against 16 percent globally).

The difficulty is making friends in Switzerland is a well-known phenomenon among the international community.

READ MORE: ‘Suspicious of the unknown’: Is it difficult to make friends in Switzerland?

Maybe this is also why they find it hard to get used to the local culture (32 percent versus 18 percent globally) and do not feel at home — 33 percent compared to 19 percent globally).

Zurich and Lausanne

The two other Swiss cities with a high proportion of international residents fall between the “best” and the “worst”, with Lausanne in the 21st place and Zurich in the 34th.

“All of them rank among the bottom 10 worldwide for the local cost living but among the top 10 for the local quality of life— except for Geneva, which lands in 21st place.”, the survey noted.

This InterNations chart shows how the four the cities are doing in each category. Please click here for a larger version of the chart.

Image: Internations

You can find out more about each of the four cities from these links.

READ MORE: Ten things Zurich residents take for granted

Zurich versus Geneva: Six big differences between Switzerland’s two biggest cities

Swiss town ranked the ‘world’s best small city’

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