Around half a million people left the UK to live abroad last year, and it’s not just retirees. A survey by the British Council showed that 72 per cent of 18 to 30-year-olds would consider living and working overseas, with cold weather, the high cost of living, extortionate childcare, a lack of work-life balance and even poor romantic prospects among their motivations for leaving the UK. The i Paper’s Expat Files follows Brits who have taken the leap and settled elsewhere, detailing the ups and downs of their journeys.
Software consultant Flo Hayden, 32, left the UK for Switzerland at the end of 2020. She tells Maybelle Morgan how much life has changed.
It was in the thick of Covid when an old colleague contacted me out of the blue with a job offer. He had just launched a software startup in Zurich and wanted me on board in a challenging role. It sounded chaotic and exciting, but there was a little caveat: I’d have to rush to get out there before the impending Brexit deadline.
I was at a bit of a crossroads. I’d been living with friends and my boyfriend in Reading and commuting into London for my job in energy trading software. Rent was cheap, but after we broke up, it felt like the glory days were coming to an end.
I knew Switzerland was beautiful and a lovely place to live, though not easy to move to. I had a friend who lived there, and once visited for Street Parade, a massive techno festival where thousands of people descend on Lake Zurich. I remembered chilling by the lake and seeing views of the snow-streaked Alps in the distance. I made up my mind to go to Zurich.
In November 2020, I flew over to start the job. It was a massive rush as it was a month before we officially left the European Union (EU). I think I was probably one of the last permits before we left the EU; sadly, it’s now insanely difficult as a British person to be able to move to Switzerland.
At the beginning, I worked crazy hours. When you’re working for a startup, you get very much immersed in wanting it to succeed – it’s almost like a cult.
‘It was in the thick of Covid when an old colleague contacted me out of the blue with a job offer’, says Flo (Photo: Flo Hayden)
When I first moved, I stayed in an Airbnb, then I found a long-term sublet, which turned out to be a disaster as major building work began six months in.
Finding a place to live in Zurich is notoriously difficult. The agencies want someone who will be in the property forever, so they always prioritise Swiss-born locals. You’ll go to a viewing and there will be over 30 other people there. After work, I would race home on my bike, send applications with cover letters gushing that I was a perfect tenant, but it took me a year to find a place. It wasn’t until a friend of a friend caught wind of someone moving out of a place and pleaded with the outgoing tenants. I’ve now been in that place for three years.
My flat is on the outskirts of Zurich in Kilchberg, a beautiful neighbourhood overlooking the lake with lots of sprawling green spaces to go for runs along and also where the Lindt chocolate factory is based. On a clear day, I can see the mountains from my kitchen. I pay 2300 CHF a month (£2,168) for a one-bed with a small patio and garden, and I feel lucky to live here as it’s also one of the areas outside Zurich that has slightly lower taxes. It’s a weird thing to wrap your head around but income taxes can vary drastically between Switzerland’s different municipalities. People will actually strategise where they move to based on what the tax rate is in that area. I spend under a third of my salary on rent and that includes gas and water. It definitely feels better than the proportion my friends in London are paying towards their rent compared to their salaries.
You’re way more protected here as a renter than you would be in the UK. They can’t just randomly raise the prices. A lot of the buildings are actually owned by pension funds so it’s not a private market where the landlords can just do whatever they want. It’s not unusual for people, once they’ve gotten a place, to be there for 20 years, still paying the same rent that they did at the start.
Moving to Switzerland has turned me into a sporty person. You really get sucked into the outdoorsy way of life. Before I left the UK, I was going out a lot to pubs and drinking with the occasional trip to the gym. Now I run, hike and cycle all the time, even in the rain – I barely use public transport. The city’s infrastructure is perfectly set up for it – there are cycle lanes everywhere you look. I go to pilates three times a week and the exercise classes here are truly some of the best ones I’ve ever been to. Anything that Switzerland does, they do it premium.
Flo (pictured right) can jump on a train to go skiing for the weekend in winter and swim in lakes and rivers during summer
It’s not even about the weather; it’s completely cultural. Rain or shine, the whole population of Zurich will still be outside. In the summer, everyone goes to the lake to swim and have picnics. People really do float to work on the river. Sometimes everyone brings a float; you tie them all together, bring a load of beers, snacks, and a speaker and just float down.
I’m still with the same company, and although I was working like crazy in the first years, it’s now much more balanced, and I have every hobby under the sun. In the UK, January is usually a very depressing month when no one’s going out. But here it’s ski season, so I go with friends every other weekend; we might hop on a train for two or three hours and spend a weekend in Zermatt or Davos.
It’s really hard to make friends with Swiss people, as they tend to stick to their school and childhood groups. So most of my friends are expats. It means everyone’s available and keen to do things as they don’t have friends or family in that country. Someone might suggest an impromptu weekend in Sicily, or jumping on the train to go to Lake Como – and everyone’s free and down for it. But on the downside, because so many people are reliant on their jobs for their visas, no one is guaranteed to be staying long term. That’s a weird uncertainty you live with.
Obviously, it’s important to take things like inflation into consideration, but I would say I’m earning over double what I was earning when I left London. Switzerland is known for having high salaries and low taxes. I pay 360 CHF (£339) a month for mandatory private health insurance and then on top of that, I pay the first 2500 CHF (£2356) towards my premium. I know it sounds like a lot, but if any problems arise, you go straight to a specialist. When I was struggling with acne, I went straight to a dermatologist, no waiting lists or anything, and I had top-of-the-range treatments.
Switzerland has surprised me massively because it has a reputation for being super boring but actually has the best going-out scene I’ve ever experienced, far above London. Hive is a famous club which has three different floors of different genres. They’ll throw parties in the mountains, on the lake, at various venues in the city but it’s done in a super organised and safe Swiss way.
Switzerland has a reputation for being one of the safest countries in the world for a reason. When you’re down at the lake in the summer, people will just leave their MacBooks, phones and jewellery lying on their picnic blankets. I went away once and I didn’t lock my bike for three weeks. When I came back, it was still there on the main road, leaning against a wall. In my neighbourhood, you’ll see three-year-olds walking to school by themselves with their little backpacks. You would never see that in the UK.
I know Switzerland has a name for itself for being very expensive, and there are people who live that extravagant lifestyle, but if you want to just live a fairly simple life and do outdoorsy things with your friends and occasionally go out for dinner, it’s perfect. There genuinely isn’t that much of a difference between eating out in Zurich and eating out in the centre of London. We have Aldi, and you can do things on a budget – which is what I do. With the high salaries here versus how much things cost, I actually feel like it is much more fair versus the salary you earn in London and the rent you’ll pay there, which is always going to be way over a third of what you’re earning. Sometimes, I’m shocked when I go back to London.
As a resident in Switzerland, all travel – trains, trams, ferries – is 50 per cent off with a railcard. So getting a tram into the city would be 3 CHF (£2.80) and if you went to the mountains, you’d maybe end up spending 30 (£28.50) or 40 CHF (£38). It’s scarily efficient and on time – I’m now so conditioned that if a train is 30 seconds late, I’ll be irritated and checking my watch.
Dating in Zurich is difficult – I’m single and quite a few of my friends are also single. All of my friends are absolutely gorgeous, accomplished women but not one of them has ever been approached by a guy on a night out. I think it’s a cultural thing. When you go out in London, everyone is standing outside pubs, and you just end up striking up a conversation with strangers easily.
Shamefully, I’ve only now, five years in, started learning German – I’m doing lessons twice a week. I’ve finally realised it’s time after deciding that I’m in it for the long haul. I love my life here and my plan is to stay and make the most of what this beautiful country has to offer, as long as it will have me.
