A family from Geneva, who moved to France only to return to Geneva five years later, was interviewed by the Geneva newspaper GHI about their hellish experience.
Unable to buy in Geneva and attracted by cheaper property in France they moved to Annecy in 2010. Shortly after their dream started to turn into a nightmare.
First they realised that they had underestimated the commute, which turned out to consume three hours a day and cost hundreds of Euros a month in road tolls and petrol. French hospitals were the next unpleasant shock. Long waiting times, masses of paperwork and regular strikes all part of the pain. Then in 2012 Francois Hollande’s tax changes stretched their finances almost to breaking point. In the end they decided it was cheaper to live in Geneva, sold their house in France and went back to renting in Geneva.
Statistics suggest they are not alone. An article in the Tribune de Genève reports that there were more Swiss returning to Geneva than leaving in 2014, something unseen for decades. Last year more than 3,600 Swiss came back to Geneva, an increase of 50% in two years. Of the more than 3,600 around 2,500 returned from France. The total number of returnees is likely to be much higher once non-Swiss internationals are included.
Daniel says
I am currently a Geneva worker commuting daily from Annecy. My experience has been the opposite to that of this article based on “one families experience”.
Lets understand why –
Rent in the old town of Annecy vs the rent in the old town of Geneva for a one bed apartment (CHF 700 vs 2000). Utility bills and grocercies are generally around a third to half cheaper in France compared to Switzerland saving you another 300-500 per month minimum. Savings are already up to CHF 1,800 per month which don’t include higher medical insurance pricing and other factors. In addition the French govt provides great social benefits and sports and social clubs are generally a third of the price of Geneva,
I admit that the commute needs to be planned – as I have felxibility in my job I start at 7:15am and leave at 4:45pm – giving me the opportunity to miss peak hour traffic – the commute is 45 minutes each way on average. It is expensive with tolls being CHF 14 a day using the Motorway.
As for the health system, my wife recently had a baby at the Annecy hospital in Metz-Tessy and having experince with both the Australian Medicare (good) and UK NHS (bad) this was the best treatment I have seen anywhere from a national health system.
Overall it was cheaper in France and still is if you are on a low Swiss wage.
I suggest the reasoning behind workers moving back to Switzerland is based around the new health tax (being implemented on the 1st of May 2015) at 6.5% and moving up to an estimated 14% over the next few years. (PS this was supposed to be implemented in 2008 and had been delayed twice). This is crippling for a 2 parent family earning CHF 100,000 each or CHF 200,000 in total. It is envisaged that this year these families would pay an additional CHF 13,000 while only saving around CHF 3,000 in private health insurance. If our situation was that of earnings in excess of CHF 200,000 per year I too would be making the change to Switzerland based on this fact alone.
I plan to remain in Annecy as my salary still makes it much more economic but this may change in the future as my earnings increase and increased or new French taxes come into play.
Pretty Blue Fox says
Working in Geneva, why did they only move to Annecy and not even further, like Nice for instance? They could have enjoed a 14 hour commute instead of only 3!
Tim Young says
I’m not sure what the point of this article is? If it’s to say that some people are naive, don’t do their homework, and pay the price, then it’s doing it well.