Dreaming of moving to the beautiful Lugano, but unsure about how much might it cost to live in Switzerland?
If so, let’s figure out the main expenses you’d have to deal with!
Dreaming of moving to the beautiful Lugano, but unsure about how much might it cost to live in Switzerland?
If so, let’s figure out the main expenses you’d have to deal with!
Costs of living: the 5 main expenses in Lugano
1. Accommodation
As we’ve already seen, Lugano is a truly popular Swiss location, even though renting a property in Ticino tends to cost less than in many other Swiss cities.
So, an apartment of 90m² may cost you about CHF 1635 per month, but you have a wide range of other solutions at hand, as the microliving smart apartments that start from CHF 188 per week, with several services included!
2. Public transport
Lugano is a city on a human scale, where you can do without a car!
As in the rest of Switzerland, the public transport is reliable and efficient, and you may choose among:
-
The Arcobaleno Pass (TIA), to cost-efficiently get around the city with a single ticket that’s valid for different areas and means of transport, ranging – on a monthly bases – from a minimum of CHF 49 for a single district to a maximum of CHF 210 for six ones;
-
The GA Travelcard, if you want to travel around Switzerland or even abroad by train, boat, bus or tram. In this case, the monthly fee averages out at CHF 340 for the 2nd class and CHF 545 for the 1st one;
-
The taxi service, which generally costs between CHF 15 and 20.
3. Food and restaurants
When you’ll go to buy groceries in Lugano, you surely notice that the prices are higher than in many other European countries: this is normal, since the salaries are higher, too. Which means that you may find a pack of eggs at CHF 6 or a kilo of tomatoes at CHF 5!
Yet, eating out is not particularly expensive: indeed, it might range between CHF 9 and CHF 178, according to the type of restaurant.
4. Spare time and hobbies
As we’ve already seen, Lugano offers several attractions for all tastes: generally speaking, you can expect to pay about CHF 15 to watch a movie in the local theatre, and from CHF 27 to CHF 132 for a live performance.
On the other side, as regards the sports – leaving aside all the seasonal and free opportunities we’ve already seen in the previous article – you can easily enjoy all the gym benefits with fees that amount to CHF 700 on a quarterly basis.
5. Insurances and taxes
Last but not least, when starting your new life in Lugano you should pay attention to the private health insurance costs, as well as the private pension fund and the other various taxes.
Let’s make an example: if you get paid CHF 6,250 per month, around CHF 550 of them will be automatically deducted from your salary for the pension fund, the unemployment insurance, the non-professional accident insurance and the occupational pension scheme.
Yet, all the other taxes won’t be docked directly from your salary, so you’d have to pay also other CHF 850 – according to your nationality – plus another CHF 330 for the private health insurance’s franchise.
