Les Pâquis

Les Pâquis is Geneva with the volume turned up. Wedged between the station and the lake, it pairs five-star waterfront hotels with a warren of streets where you can eat your way around the world, drink until late and swim at the Bains des Pâquis at dawn. It is the city's most diverse, most energetic and least buttoned-up district, beloved by young internationals and tolerated warily by everyone who prefers Geneva's quieter side. For investors, Pâquis is the central lakeside district you can actually afford to enter, with prices and rents below the prime quarters and yields edging into the 3% range. Rental demand is deep and fast-moving thanks to the international workforce on its doorstep. The caveat is granularity: desirability swings sharply from the glamorous quayside to the grittier red-light streets, so block-level selection is everything. And as everywhere in Switzerland, Lex Koller keeps the residential buyer pool to Swiss residents and permit-holders.

Les Pâquis in Geneva, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland