Такой вопрос. Какой район наиболее подходит для нью-камеров. У нас маленький ребенок (2 года). Хотелось бы быть близко к центру и к магазинам. Или на ваш взгляд лучше держаться от центра подальше?

Спасибо.

Thanks a lot!

great that you are helping to people like us and thank you for this.

We are moving to Canada at the end of August. After reading your blog decided:

— to leave last week of the month

— to try Oakville right away, not stopping in Toronto...

I wonder if you, Angel, can help us and be our real estate agent? PLease?

we are the family of 3 — my wife, daughter (7 yo) and myself. we already hold a residence cards and have a bank account in Canada. the funds will be sufficient to rent for a year.

We would be very happy if you agree to help us.

Pls write to my e-mail if you do.

Zufar

Buying real estate property in Canada could be long and frustrating process.

Many things can be an obstacle such as not having enough down payment, increasing your credit score, closing cost funds, arranging mortgage …

Some how all of this, as a financial side of the process, is manageable.

More money can come from relatives or selling a property back home. There are various techniques that can boast your credit score and for less than 3 months can be significantly increased.

For getting the best possible mortgage package I always recommend working with experienced mortgage broker.

What I found the most difficult task is finding the “dream house/apartment”.

Investing tons of money in property here makes every potential buyer nervous.

The reasons for this frustration are lack of information and confidence.

Usual time to find a property suitable for your needs and feel confident about it is about 3-4 months in average.

Imagine that you want to start practicing sport that you never try before but you watched some games on Tv. It will take some months in practice before you feel confident and start enjoying it.

It is pretty much the same with buying a house or apartment. You have to plan a few months before your actual dead line for getting a property. Start going out and seeing houses/apartments will give you an idea what is out there and will modify your taste and anticipations as well. Every time you will learn new things.

I saw it many times – we started looking for a townhouse up to $350 000 and on the end we got fully detached house for $430 000 for example. Or we start with 2 bedrooms apartment and ended up with 3 bedroom condo townhouse.

It takes time and a lot of patience because buying a house/apartment is a process.

On the end being persistent and knowledgeable about real estate market always pays off.

So, if you are planning to do this step make a plan and start executing it few months before you actually going to buy something.

Good luck

All speculations and rumours from the beginning of this year that were predicting slow real estate market and lower house prices did not become reality so far.

Furthermore not only the market is stable but the prices are on the rise as well.

I would say that the signs are more towards Sellers market based on the facts of low inventory (not enough houses for sale) and multiple offers for all more attractive properties.

The builders are getting not enough building permits to developed new subdivisions.

There is some restructuring process going on in urban markets – more and more condominiums are lunching.

Looks like this will be stable tendency for the next 10 years.

How long it will continue like this? Only Bank of Canada and Canadian government know.

In mine point of view the real estate market will slow down a bit because is getting harder and harder for first time buyers to enter it.

Also Bank of Canada is predicting to raise interest rates after September/October.

We will see

Best regards,

Angel

I am afraid that this could be difficult task. Most of the owners will ask for more money. They are afraid that you are not permanent resident here and can leave at any time and they can not get there money. You have to be ready to prepay the whole 6 months.

I had a property for short term lease but I have rented it already until July.

I will see if I can find something else.

Regards,

Angel

Мы семья двое взрослых и двое детей приезжаем по туристической визе на полгода через две недели.

Подскажите .как мы можем снять жилье на полгода (до 1300 долларов в месяц)

Спасибо,Мэри

Here you can open mail box with real street address (looks like real building and apartment number). You can open it from Russia. I used this service for 6 month. Works good.

I `ve been hearing and reading a lot of speculations regarding real estate market since I arrived in Canada. Every second year after strong market activities there were comments that the market will crash. So far the market goes up and down as little as 5 to 10% but nothing major happened.

How I can see the situation is like this:

— the government controls the banks, builders permeations, interest rates, employments …ect.

— It is matter of calculations how they want to make more money – by increasing interest rates or collecting taxes associated with housing market?

— The rule of thumb is – real estate is long term investment. It is not normal prices to go so much up every year and if they went so quick up 2009 then late in 2010 we had foul in market activities by 35% in some areas. The government reacted by stopping building new houses and tightening up mortgage qualifying rules. Prices were steady because of not enough houses for sale and low interest rate.

— If interest rate goes up to 6 -8 % and the prices goes down by 10-15% in average then again it is a matter of calculations – to have more expansive house but cheap mortgage or cheaper house and high interest rate mortgage?

— The difference in the second case will be more difficulties to qualify for mortgage. Only AAA borrowers will be able to access loans. This is the verdict from what happened in last major house market crash in yearly nineties. It took few years and prices were again on the rise.

— In situation when market crashes and home ownership % goes down, the rental market will be booming and the rents will go up because of broken balance of supply and demand…

— 2010 was the year when Bank of Canada was planning to increase interest rates dramatically but they went up a bit. One of the reasons was the new combine tax HST that pushed the inflation above expected.

In short, honestly I think that nobody knows what is going to happen. My advice is to go with your own filings and do whatever suits your family. Just do not go over the budget of what you can afford.

I hope this helps

Angel

What is in your opinion forecast for real estate prices in Ontario?

As well the morgage rates for this year?

It is whorth to buy now or may be wait little bit till market will re-calm after changes in morgage rules?

Thanks a lot

Gila

I and my family are going to move to Toronto in April/May 2011. Could you help us to find a suitable apartment to our arriving? We can discuss details by e-mail. My one is boris.korotkov@gmail.com.

Many thanks in advance.

Regards,

Boris

The best option for you will be to find room inside college campus. Usually they have available rooms.

At the beginning will work for you and your son. You can stay with him.

By the time you are staying there you can find single room for your son outside the campus. He can talk to other students and they will give him information where and how he can find one. Most of the time it will be cheaper but he has to shear the apartment with others.

Please contact the school and ask what they offer.

Good luck,

Angel

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Здравствуйте, Таня.

Наилучшим вариантом для Вас будет искать комнату в кампусе колледжа. Обычно у них есть свободные комнаты. Для начала это будет хорошо для Вас и Вашего сына. Вы можете оставаться с ним.

Со временем Вы можете найти комнату для Вашего сына вне кампуса. Он может поговорить с другими студентами и они дадут информацию где и как он сможет найти комнату. В большинстве случаев это дешевле, но ему придется делить квартиру с другими.

Пожалуйста, обратитесь в колледж и спросите, что они предлагают.

Удачи.

Анжел.

I really hope you will find your dream place to live during this 2011 year!

Fro most of the comments I am getting from you looks like choosing the “right place” to settle is of high importance.

What is the best area for us that you can recommend?

It is very difficult to answer this question because people have different background, priorities, way of thinking and anticipation.

I will try to be as objective as I can here.

If I have to do my list of priorities defining “the right place” it will look like this:

— The area and the house to provide me with good return of my invested money;

— Safer place for me and my family;

— Culturally diverse area (no one ethnic group dominates);

— Relatively new house that gives me no trouble but comfort and privacy;

— Easy access to major highways, plazas, parks, community services…;

— Good schools for my kids — in walking distance;

— Friendly and helpful people (good, established neighbourhood);

— Good opportunities for work;

— Close to my or my wife’s work.

My “right place”, for now, is Oakville and so far my family is happy here

I have been living in Canada for 7 years and remember every one of our steps.

At the beginning, we thought that if we live in downtown Toronto or close by, we will have more opportunities for job, education …better life.

So, we rented apartment 5 subway stops from Downtown and started to look for jobs and schools.

First 2 months we felt like tourist but soon we realized that this was not the “right place” for us.

I had to wait 3 months to start ESL (English as a second language) classes. Soon, I found job and never started them.

The school for my son was ok but I did not know any better at that time.

Neither mine nor my wife’s jobs were in the area.

I had to drive 3 hours every day to and back from work. For my wife was the same….

So, we lived there for one year and, after I did better research, we moved to Oakville.

Our experience is that we could not find any significant advantages to live close to downtown Toronto. My job was located in North York and my wife’s on the border between Toronto and Etobicoke.

For some people, I am sure is different.

Most of my friends that still live there can not afford or do not want to buy a house or apartment. They ether have difficulties with there jobs and time spent for commuting to their work or their life style and taste has changed.

The most common mistake for the new comers is that somehow they start their settlement in Canada in a wrong place. I guess, I can call them “places for new immigrants”. Some people are lucky to have some friends or relatives here so for them is much easier.

Any way, we choose Oakville. It is a small town (180 000 population) inside Greater Toronto Area (5.5 mil. population).

It is on the middle between Hamilton (700 000) -West, Mississauga (800 000) and Toronto (2.5 mil) — East and Brampton (600 000) — North East.

This gave us opportunity to be more flexible with finding jobs and more options for better schools and education.

There is no comparison in terms of safety — Oakville was nominated for the one of the Most Liveable Towns in Canada (together with Burlington – 150 000).

Most of the lawyers, doctors, engineers working in down town Toronto live in Oakville.

It is very family oriented, safe and friendly place with high level of life standard.

Because of all these in terms of cost of living, there is almost no difference compare to Toronto.

You can rent or buy apartment/house in Toronto or Oakville for pretty much the same price – the difference will be more choices in Toronto but lower quality.

You will get more for your money in Oakville – better house quality, service, more friendly people and opportunities.

And again, I am not saying that all other places and areas are bad. It is just matter of finding your “right place” and if I can help you to save some time and money, I will be happy

I hope this is helpful and does not cost more confusion

Please feel free to ask me any questions you have in mind!

Best regards,

Angel

Angel сейчас на отдыхе. Он сможет ответить Вам после 1 января.

Извините за ожидание.

У нас вопрос про покупку жилья — мы надеемся с весне начать поиски а пока присматриваемся к разным районам.

Реэлтор которого нам посоветовали советует только Торнхилл или Ричмонд Хилл, но у нас сложилось впечатление что он простто не знает хорошо другие районы.

Торнхилл очень дорого и нам не потянуть.

Вопрос про Оквилл м Бурлингтон — как там обстоят дела с общественным транспортом?

Реально ли доежать каждый день на общественном транспорте до Даун Тауна и сколько времени это займёт?

И ещё — в этих городках тоже есть районы ЭплохиеЭ где лучше не жить, И если да — то какие главные улицы их ограничивают?

Огромное Спасибо!

Гиля

Just a quick notice of something that can be essential in next couple years of your life.

If you have some free time trough the Holidays please read!

Residential Tenancy Act

Since January 31, 2007 all rental/leasing activities and transactions are regulated under Residential Tenancy Act. It has replaced the old Tenant Protection Act.

If there arise any kind of dispute between Landlord and Tenant all issues can be brought to Ontario Landlord & Tenant Board.

Some of the changes are related to:

— Deposit money. Landlord has no rights any more to ask for security deposit, key deposit, cleaning deposit or more than one monthly rent deposit, which applies towards last month rent.

— Annual Rent Increase is now tied up to Consumer Price Index as well as the Interest that the Landlord has to pay on Last Month Deposit Rent.( CPI will be around 1.75% for 2011).http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subjects-sujets/cpi-ipc/cpi-ipc-eng.htm

— The End of The Lease Term is not the end of the Tenancy. If neither sides give notice for it, the Tenancy will continue on Month-to-Month bases under same terms and conditions as per contract.

— The landlord can not determine how many people will occupy the rental unit.

— And so on…

Tenants now have more rights than ever before and learning how to use them may make your life as a tenant easier.

You can find more information at www.ltb.gov.on.ca and

www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html...utes_06r17_e.htm

Good luck,

Angel

We probably should be considered as big family (4 kids) and I doubt if we will find suitable apartment in apt.buildings. I prefer to check detached houses alternative. Given our arrival date is something in the middle of June when do you suggest to contact you in order to start looking for a house (rent) ?

Many thanks in advance.

Thank you very much for your explanation.