The cheapest Zurich address that still gets you to the Hauptbahnhof in six minutes. Industrial in parts, increasingly residential, and the place where students who refuse to pay centre prices actually end up.
Landlords in Altstetten ask for the same file as anywhere in the canton: a debt-collection extract, proof of income, and a guarantor who lives in Switzerland. Two of those are impossible before you arrive, which is why flatshares and private landlords are the realistic route from abroad.
Your deposit is capped at three months of net rent — up to CHF 3'600 at the top of the range here — and it is blocked in your own name, not the landlord's. How the deposit works
We co-sign leases so the file gets accepted, and we search the market when our own rooms are full.