Leaving St.Gallen

I’m sorry to say that after many years in this beautiful little town I am moving on. It has been a pleasure to be able to provide this blog and I hope that people to continue to benefit from it for years to come :-). I won’t delete any content, but I’m afraid that eventually most of the information will become out of date.

But who knows. One day I might move back and I will for sure start to blog again. And thanks to everyone who followed the blog and all of the e-mails of support I received.

And if you ever decide to move to Frankfurt next, why not take a look at my new blog: www.frankfurtexpat.wordpress.com

As if I would actually stop blogging entirely 🙂

Enjoy St.Gallen!!

Housing in St.Gallen :-)

In honour of the strange sense of design that many locals here seem to have:

Happy April 1st!

10 things I wish I’d known before moving to St.Gallen :-)

1) Just because French is an official language that they all learn at school, doesn’t mean the locals are happy to hear it! If you can’t speak German, try English next 🙂

2) The Swiss are different from the Germans and Austrians. And that is the only thing they want to hear you say. Never group the three into a single statement!

3) Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because Switzerland is a rich country, that all accommodation is 1st world standard. Take no basic service for granted!

4) Swiss don’t seem to cook at home. So prepare for a small, inconvenient kitchen even in the largest of flats.

5) “Switzerland has high quality education” does not equal “all Swiss schools are good”.

6) Most Swiss people use public transport, not because it is so good (which it is), but because owning a car is so bloody expensive and inconvenient!

7) Figure out how to shop over the border in Austria. For everything. Its all a lot cheaper.

8) Don’t expect to ever be invited round to a Swiss person’s house.  Be happy when it happens, but prepare for it never happening.

9) Working from 9-6 is unSwiss. 8am is already late in the office.

10) Plan your life around the shops opening times. You’ll save much stress…

Cost of living in St.Gallen

If you are considering moving to St.Gallen, this is probably one of the two most important things you are going to search for.  The second is salary levels in St.Gallen and they go hand in hand when you have to decide whether the famously high salaries of Switzerland will afford the infamously high living costs.

Trouble is that as you have probably found, almost all of the info you have found online is either a national average or it is focused on life in either Geneva or Zurich area.  Salaries in St.Gallen are lower than in either of these areas but thankfully so is the cost of living.  There is also a large disparity across the country.

Housing
Single person: CHF350/mth is just about the bottom end of the scale for a single room studio apartment, but don’t expect any luxury. Reasonable studios and 1/2 room apartments go from about CHF 500 to 800 with the upper end being CHF 1200. For students, you may want to consider joining into a group of 3-4 people and for CHF 400 each you could get a very nice shared apartment with all the mod-cons. These prices are for unfurnished places as there are very few furnished options. Add about CHF 2-300 per month on for furnished apartments, but it may just be cheaper to pop to IKEA when you arrive.

Couple: Starting a about CHF550 for rock bottom 2 person studio apartment, but reasonable quality would be between CHF 700 to 900.  Bear in mind that many landlords won’t rent to you if they think that the apartment is too small for the number of people. So don’t think you can squeeze a family of 4 into a 1 room apartment to save money. The immigration office will also regret family visas if they think that your accommodation is too small.

Family (3-4 people): You need to start looking at apartments marked 3 rooms (zimmer) or upwards. The cheapest I have seen is about CHF 800/mth but if you have a child you should think of the area and basic hygene standards and start budgeting for CHF 1100 upwards.  Nice 4 room apartments start at around CHF 1500 up to CHF 2000 depending on the area.

And if you budget is above this then you probably don’t need my advice 🙂

Transport:
City bus: CHF 67/mth or about CHF 650 for the year gives you unlimited city wide (zone 10) travel on any transport.  You need a 1/2 price card (halbtax) to buy the 12 month version though.

Parking: Bluezone (roadside around the city) costs CHF 106/mth but don’t forget that you need to budget for parking at your apartment. This is rarely included and can cost anything from CHF 50-200/mth depending on the part of the city.  Landlords rarely include the parking for free but often have it as an extra rental cost.

Food:
The actual cost of food is pretty standard around Switzerland if you shop at the Coop or Migros. The big difference is when eating out. A cheap hot meal will cost about CHF 15-20,  an average restaurant will be CHF 30 and a nice place will CHF 50.  The one Japanese restaurant can get up to about CHF 80-100 per person though unless you plan to leave hungry 🙂

Generic costs
In case you don’t want to do your research else where, this is the amount I budgeted monthly for one working adult for some of the other generic costs:
– Groceries CHF 500
– Health insurance CHF 250
– Health costs CHF 100
– Mobile phone CHF 50
– Facilities (TV, phone, internet, water, etc.) CHF 400
– Miscellaneous CHF 1000 (trust me, this part disappears quickest of all in Switzerland)

Where to live

When you are looking at where to search for a house/appartment in St.Gallen you are probably going to end up on google maps or similar pretty quickly.  Most likely you have already been there.  The reality is this is great to look at but pretty useless when you are actually considering what is important for your surroundings.  So below you’ll find a map of the city districts in St.Gallen and a brief summary of the area.

Now strictly speaking St.Gallen is a town, and not a particularly large one at that, but in Switzerland it counts as ‘the largest city in Eastern Switzerland’.  The city is long and thin and rest along the centre of the valley with housing areas going up the hillsides.  The egg-shaped old city centre is underneath No.10.

First a disclaimer though.  Switzerland on the whole is a very safe place to live and bring up children.  There are good and bad places to live, but everything is relative.  I was told when I moved here (by locals) that every school is good because it is Switzerland and that people just send their kids to the local school. This is not true. However a bad school in St.Gallen is not the on the same level as a bad school in the US or UK.

1) Schoren
This district is entirely hillside behind the main trainstation and includes the exclusive Rosenberg Institute, an English speaking private school.  The housing here is mixed, going from the very cheap to very expensive.  Not really an area that is suitable for children as there is little open flat space.  This is a fairly good place to look for student accommodation as the distance to the University is not far.

2) Rotmonton
Home to the University of St.Gallen‘s main campus and Executive Campus.  The primary school is located directly between these two campuses which could be good or bad, depending on who you work for! The school here actually has an excellent reputation and is nicely situated.  Depending on your background, though it may not be ideal as the school population is overwhelmingly white.  The housing lives up to the expectation of a good school area by being overpriced. There are some affordable places though and students manage to find plenty of spots here.  Biggest drawback is the lack of grocery shopping. There are few shops so you either need to head out of town (Neudorf/Abtwil) to a large store, or head into town. Highlight for the kids is going to be the fact that if you just walk over the hill a little, you are in a really nice green valley with Wildlife Park Peter & Paul at the top and a river at the bottom. Great for Summer walks.

3) Oberzil/Krontal
At the far end of the city near the private hospital (very nice if you can get it on your insurance). The school has a nice feeling and there is plenty of affordable housing.  There are lots of large blocks of flats though and the distance from the city can leave you feeling a little remote even though it is only 15 minutes by bus. Highlights for the kids include the Botanical Gardens, but to be realistic that will only keep the kids happy for a couple of visits at most!  You will probably want a car if you live out here, irrespective of your family situation.

4) Halden/Neudorf
Halden is a good place to live for young families but less so if you are single or a student. The area is fairly open with lots of green spaces and home to the second of St.Gallen’s good primary schools.  The housing is more affordable than Rotmonton and comes with the added benefit of the only indoor public swimming pool and Gallusmarkt (the city’s large Coop superstore). The school has a good reputation but is also very mixed in nationality and social groups reflecting the range of housing options available.

5) Grossacker/St.Fiden
Grossacker has a lot of a affordable, albeit old, housing. The buildings are fairly tight although you will find plenty with private gardens or enclosed shared courtyards/spaces. Interestingly there is a large Italian population here and when you go to the local Migros, you’ll hear Italian more than Swiss-German.  The school’s reputation is not as good as it used to be, and could be due to the increased number of non-german speaking immigrants to the area (not being racist, since this includes me!).  The area is well served though for shops, has multiple bus lines going through, and its own trainstation (St.Fiden). Good choice for working couples who want to be in town in under 10 minutes.

6) St.Georgen
This is the last of the areas recommended for schooling. St.Georgen is more like a village stuck on the side of St.Gallen.  It lies in a small off-shoot valley going out of the city and you need to hike up a pretty steep incline to get to it – so don’t count on walking home from work ;-).  Not good for students as you’ll have to go down one side of the valley and straight up the otherside! The village has some really nice housing once you get up there, both cheap, expensive, new and old. Excellent for both adults and kids are the ski-run for beginners and the three lakes. The lakes are regular summer swimming hotspots and have ample green space for picnics, out-door get-togethers and frisby…. School-wise, good choice for a state-school (again very white though), and also has a nice little Montessori School.

7) Riethüsli
Next off-shoot along from St.Georgen is Riethüsli.  More like a poor cousin or just somewhere you want to get through on the way to Teufen (very nice village if you want to live out of town).  The primary school is not great and suffers from being attached to the large vocational secondary school.  Strangely, someone in the city decided this would be the best place for an Integration Class, so if your children don’t speak German, they could end up here for their first six months.  More about Integration Classes later. You may guess that I don’t think much of this district, and you’d be right.

8 ) Lachen/Bruggen
Good location here for people working in the city but housing and schooling is an issue. If you have a look at Lachen school results they are some of the worst in the city.  The housing is a mixture with some new build but tends to be on the old side.  As you get further away from the city, so out of Lachen and more to Bruggen, both the housing and schooling improves.  Nicest thing about this area is that you are within a few minutes of the city and easy access to the shopping an leisure available in Abtwil at Säntis Park. The area is also very well served for bus lines.

9) Wolfsganghof/Winkeln
The far end of town to the West has some really nice affordable housing, but is fairly inconvenient. You’d think that being close to IKEA and Säntis Park would be useful, but it doesn’t seem easy to get to and there is no direct bus route.  If you have a car, then this is a great place to be though as the area is quiet and calm with plenty of space for children.

10) City Centre/Spelterini
This is probably the best location for a student or childless couple but steer clear if you have kids.  Housing varies, but there are plenty of bargains to be had for students and many live around the city above ground floor.  There are also some really nice plush appartments for professionals, and all of the shopping and social benefits that you would expect from a city.  The primary school, Spelterini, is one that most people try and avoid, so be warned!