Factors to Consider when Buying First Home

Hi everyone,

I am considering buying a house/apartment to live with my family (Wife + 2 toddlers) and I am looking for advice on some key factors to keep in mind (beyond just the type or price of the house, budget, etc). I am on B permit and have no real ties to any particular Canton/City. Ideally, I’d stay around Lausanne area as all my social life lives in between GE and VD, but is not a must.

Looking at the long term, and with the family in mind, I guess I am interested in understanding better how to judge and weight factors like neighbours, quality of public schools, social environment for my kids, etc.

For those who purchased a home property, how have you though about the above factors?

How could asses them without even living in a giving area or city?

Are there well known places where public schools and social environment tend to be better?

Any other factor along those lines that I am missing?

Thanks, everyone!

We’ve looked into this and we couldn’t find a clear consensus.

On paper, it tends to be very, very similar. Now, some cantons have bigger budgets for additional classroom help and social programs. (most French cantons, and that side of the country, including BS, and BL)

You can’t. You could rent first, but what if you don’t like it? Rent again for X years? You mostly need to commit and put a higher weight on giving the kids the opportunity to grow up in a house where lifestyle choices can differ.

Neighbors are a big thing, you’re committed for the long run, if you find yourselves between some crazy ppl you’re screwed. Hence we’ve found the most future-proof option to be an individual house, with no common walls.

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IMHO, school quality is not an issue, but I would recommend to look at school-peripherals, eg existence of facilities to host children after school and for lunch (UAPE in VD), as well as public transportation for off-school activities. Villages in the countryside where the post-bus goes just a few times per day are not easy for teenagers (= in 10 years only for you!), unless one parent wants to play the role of a chauffeur…

For us, we chose to live within 10 minutes walking distance of the school up to 16 yo, and with good bus connection to the next city where the gymnasium was located. Our kids learned independence early and liked it.

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Excellent point!

Any particular place you have had, or heard of, a good experience with?

Problem solved :slight_smile:

Hah. Yes and no, unfortunately.

We’re not yet house hunting but in the looking around phase.

Everything that is completely detached does either need renovation, or there is a 20-30% price premium on top.

Our eldest (5 years old) is very impulsive and he had/has some issues in the kindergarten, mostly with teachers and strict structure in general.

We’re based out of BL canton. In our experience, even at this stage of schooling,

They have a hard time handling divergence from the norm, be that small or big. Pushing for a label to get allocated money for additional staff. (it can be a problem if the divergence is small and the child cannot be labeled with anything)

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I think you should make a list of things you currently value about the place where you live currently and what you do not like. Think really hard about this.

For the place you buy, ideally you should have all the good things and none of the bad things.

Often small things matter and they are very individual.

Regarding other things -: neighbors and neighborhood matters a lot. Neighborhoods you can choose, neighbors you cannot :slight_smile: