Affordable Housing Solutions for Students in French-speaking Switzerland

2023-09-18 18:02:54

Students from French-speaking Switzerland are returning to university and higher education institutions this week. But between a shortage of housing and rising rents, for many of them, finding housing remains a real obstacle course.

This year once more, finding a home is a real headache for those who continue their training far from home.

“We always have students who arrive at us in panic mode, saying that they have no housing solution,” explains Cédric Rychen, director of the Social Affairs Department at the University of Lausanne, in La Matinale de the RTS.

Available accommodation is rare and rents are often far too expensive for student budgets which rarely exceed 600 to 800 francs.

“It’s true that it adds an additional difficulty to have housing with increasingly high rents,” believes Cédric Rychen.

>> Reread: The reference interest rate for leases rises, rents might follow

The rise in rates has in fact led to an increase in rents and it is not uncommon today “to see accommodation or even rooms in private homes for 900 francs”, observes Cédric Rychen. “Which, a few years ago, we didn’t see at all,” he adds.

>> See also the 7:30 p.m. topic on students in precarious situations:

More and more students find themselves in precarious situations / 7:30 p.m. / 2 min. / today at 7:30 p.m.

Commuting students

Finding a room, even in a homestay, proves too costly for many students, so many decide to travel.

Cédric Rychen observes this phenomenon year following year. More and more students from the University of Lausanne coming from neighboring French-speaking cantons are commuting. “Unable to find accommodation in the region, they have to hang around,” he says.

According to him, this solution, however, has other disadvantages. “If they commute from home, to their parents, they save on accommodation, but on the other hand there are additional transport costs,” explains Cédric Rychen.

“And it’s a lot of extra fatigue for students whose course schedule is sometimes extremely busy,” he continues.

The canton of Vaud built nearly a thousand student accommodations three years ago, but there is still a shortage of between 300 and 400 for this start of the school year.

>> Reread: Student accommodation desperately sought by UNIL and EPFL

Friborg and Neuchâtel are doing a little better. It is especially in Geneva and Lausanne that goods are rare and rents are unaffordable.

Virginie Langerock/noble

>> See also the interview with Yves Flückiger, rector of the University of Geneva:

Yves Flückiger, rector of the University of Geneva, takes stock of the measures taken to combat precariousness among students / 7:30 p.m. / 2 min. / today at 7:30 p.m.
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