Friday, July 04, 2008

Housing II - HOUSING OPTIONS



here I'm ganna talk about the HOUSING OPTIONS, based on this structure:

  1. Housing I – FINDING A PLACE TO LIVE
  2. Housing II – HOUSING OPTIONS
  3. Housing III – RESOURCES
  4. Housing IV – DOCUMENTS AND APPLICATIONS
  5. Housing V – LEASE

You can save money if you share an apartment or house with other people.

Rent costs are different in different parts of the city. Usually, rent costs are higher near the centre of a major city. Learn as much as you can about the rental market before you arrive.

Questions to ask before you rent:

  • Is it close to a bus route or subway station?
  • Is it close to other services? (schools, stores, laundry, parks, playgrounds, community centres, medical clinics, places of worship)
  • Is the apartment building or house quiet?
  • What are the other tenants like?
  • If you have a car, is there a place to park? Do you pay extra for parking?
  • Is the neighborhood safe?
  • If you have children, is it close to a school?
  • Do you pay extra for heat and electricity?
So my advice to you now is go for apartment rent at the beginning while you settle and find a job, then you can think of buying a house or Condo (Condo is a short name of condominium, which is a fancy apartment with five appliances). The rental for apartment varies between $800 to $1300 depending on the area and room numbers.

As for me, I live in a big building 20 minutes to the Islington Subway Station (which is the junction between Mississauga and Toronto City), I pay $1055 for two bedrooms (1 big and other is small that they call it here DEN, so it's 1 bedroom plus DEN), it has indoor free swimming pool, free Gym, and all utilities included (that means I don't pay Electricity, Hot Water, Water, winter heating. but I pay for my phone bills like mobile, home phone, and Cable TV). The only bad thing about it is Elevators they are JUST OLD and SLOW.

The building is located at 3400 Riverspray Cres. L4Y3M5, company name is The Westwood Management, I can provide you with some pictures of the building and the apartment if you are interested ... just leave a comment.

[Update] Here are the building pictures: www.rentersnews.ca/pixeltours/tour.html

To be continued in RESOURCES post.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Nabil,

I am interested in migrating to Canada, and have been doing a lot of research online and found your blog. It is fantatistic source of first hand information and I wanted to say thank you for the good thing you are doing. We are in different careers (I am in finance) but my wife is in IT (Software testing, Implementation and Training) but i still find your website very useful for the every day practical living advice it offers especially on the practical cost of living.

Once again keep up the good work and I will keep reading and recommending your blog.

Anonymous said...

Hi Nabeel,

Can u send me some snaps of ur apartment. My email ID is sachbapat@yahoo.co.in

I wud be landing in canada sometime in Pril-May2009. I intend to go to Calgary, as there r currently many job oppurtunities there.

Please provide me with any relevant nfo that is available with u regarding Alberta province. This a an earnest request.

Thanx...n Regards,

Sachin bapat

ConorM said...

Absolutely, this blog is EXACTLY what I was looking for.

I have been in contact with a remax aganet, been getting daily feeds of apartments etc. I would be interested to see the quality of your own building- finishes etc.

The value sounds about right. How old is the building?

Regards,
Irish Architect

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/irish-architect-immigrating-work-permit-check-list-t11500.0.html

Unknown said...

Thanks Coner.

The building is really old more than 40 years old. But it's good maintained and very good finished. The only bad thing about it is the elevators ... there are 4 and sometimes they are not all working.

There is free indoor swimming pool, gym, utilities included.

Here is the photos: http://www.rentersnews.ca/pixeltours/tour.html?p=67&s=2&ss_obj=0&

If you decided to go for it and you like it you can mention my name "Nabil Orfali"

Hope that helps :)
Nabil

Anonymous said...

Hello Nabil. Your blog is amazingly informative. THANKS!

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