Drthorne

Greetings all

Currently in discusions with current employer regarding relocation to Vancouver from the UK. Should the move go ahead it would involve myself, wife and two kids (2 and 4 ) moving out. My employer has a flexible working from home policy so would only need to commute to Vancouver 2/3 times a week. Looking for recomendations for places to live outside of central vancover( up to an hour away)

Salary is still being explored but expecting to be in the £45000 region. My wife works as a probation officer and would look to find equivalent employment. Key factors for us is safe environment with good schooling. All thoughts welcome.

dbd33

My immediate thought is that that is not a lot of money to support four people in, or around, a expensive town. I don't know where you are or how you live now; would you consider moving to the outskirts of London on £45000 with the possibility of a second income to follow?

Drthorne

Thanks for your prompt reply. Its possible the intial salary will increase due to negotation plus a relocation package will be on the table. I would agree that 45000 would be a marginal amount for central London but an hour outside is more than achievable. Combined income would probably be around the 90k mark. I figured are in pounds.

dbd33

Oh yes, if you have two incomes you should be fine but arranging the second one might not be straightforward and might take time.

Edo

Use an income tax calculator like this one: https://simpletax.ca/calculator to know your take home. Then look for rentals in your desired areas and use that as a starting point in order to get an idea of income vs. expenses. But like dbd said £45000 in the UK is not the same as £45000 in Canada (especially Vancouver).

Unless you wanna use your employer to bring you over and take care of the paperwork; you do your bond with them and then look for a better job depending on your skills once you have PR. Those couple of years of sacrifice may land you in a much better position later on but you and your family has to be patient.

Drthorne

Agreed. I am hopefull that the relocation package will give us a little time and flexibility. The location is set for me so Vancouver is the base but like I said comuting is not an issue.

Drthorne

It's the area loction that I am struggling with.

scilly

Do remember that "commuting" in the Vancouver area is not like commuting in the UK

We do not have the train services that you have, so moving to a town outside the immediate Metro Vancouver will involve driving .... which means that you will need 2 cars.

One hour commuting each way on the train can be very different from one hour driving on a freeway which is not always a "freeway".

Moving further out than Surrey or Richmond at the moment means car

Along the northern edge, there is a West Coast Express train which runs 5 trains in the morning rush hour and 5 trains in late afternoon.

I suggest you obtain a good map ..... google .......... look closely at transit options, and see what I am talking about.

Edo

Yeah but its the area location hes struggling with

withabix

Maple Ridge or Mission.

West Coast Express to Vancouver for that '2 or 3 times per week' commute or the Evergreen Line from Coquitlam from next year.

The Fraser Regional Prison and Women's Prison are in Maple Ridge, so there's probably something in your wife's line of work too....

Comparatively 'affordable' housing (although the 35% increase in last 12 months has put a big dent in that).

Mission is cheaper than Maple Ridge, but isn't everyone's cup of tea. It is actually quite well served, considering where it is (it even has 'big box' retail, which Maple Ridge doesn't). It even has a free bridge to cross the Fraser.

BristolUK

She might need to be a Canadian Citizen to a be a Probation Officer.

Shard

Seriously? So how much are MR/Mission houses going for these days?

withabix

$280-$300/square foot is typical in MR for a house under about 12 years old.

A brand new house probably about $330.

Mission is probably around $225-$250

christmasoompa

What do you do? It's just that £45k is quite low for somebody that's an exec or senior management of a company, so I assume you must be applying under the 'specialised' category for your intra-company transfer TWP? You'll need to make sure you have lots of proof that nobody in Canada can do what you do, they've really clamped down on them recently, so do be prepared and make sure the companies lawyers have good proof you meet the criteria.

FWIW, I agree that that salary is low for a family of 4 in Vancouver, if your wife can find work quickly then it might be ok but assuming she can't work as a probation officer (as not a citizen), then what other experience does she have for her to get another job? You might need to be prepared for her to be job hunting for a while and living on one salary, but hopefully she'd find something.

Best of luck.

Engineer_abroad

Areas to look at:

1) Burnaby,
2) New Westminster;
3) Port Moody:
4) Port Coquitlum (not sure I spelt that right);
5) Maple Ridge;
6) Mission

Where is your companies offices located, can make a big difference if you need to go into the downtown core. Traffic in Vancouver and the surrounding area can be pretty bad.