Radley

Moving from Kingston (thank God) to the Gatineau area in July. Wondered if anyone could point me in the right direction i.e. Gatineau, Hull, Aylmer etc as a place to buy a house thats commutable by public transit into Ottawa.
Thanks

jandro

If memory servers me correctly Aylmer is probably the most difficult town to commute to Ottawa via public transport.

Souvenir

Yes. I'm in Gatineau. Gatineau proper (north, up by the Alonzo bridge). The whole area from Aylmer through Hull, original Gatineau, and in to Buckingham and Masson-Angers is now called Gatineau. It's one city.

My Missus commutes to downtown Ottawa. She drives. She could bus it in 30-40 minutes. Many, many people do. If you're looking at public transport, your best bets are Gatineau proper, Hull or Aylmer. Go east and you start having longer journeys (lack of bridges and direct buses).

If you can commute by car, I'd look further north, on the west bank of the Gatineau river (up towards Chelsea and Wakefield - pretty places and largely Anglophone, if that's an issue for you).

It all depends on what you want and how much you have to spend.

If you look at Aylmer, the nicer properties tend to be away from the river. Strangely, the best sites often have the nastiest houses on them, unless you go quite far west.

Most of Hull is horrible. Look to the west end.

Most of Gatineau is also horrible but things improve the further you get into the "grid blocks". North Gatineau is the nicest (Cote d'Azure, Limbour etc).

Be aware that you have to do things very quickly when you buy in Quebec, particularly at that time of year. I advise you to do your research now, get your financing arranged, sign up with an agent asap and be ready to sign paperwork within hours of a first viewing. You snooze; you lose. We've been there.

And don't forget about the Quebec welcome tax.

Radley

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Lived in Montreal before I moved to Kingston, so got a good idea how real estate works there. You make the Gatineau area sound pretty grim. Only reason we were considering it rather than going back to Montreal was because of work. I dont speak French (yet) so Ottawa/Gatineau seemed like a good compromise (hubby is bilingual). Now I'm not so sure. Sorry if I'm coming across a bit stupid here but what did you mean by "the grid blocks"?

Souvenir

I'm probably doing Gatineau a bit of a disservice. There are some grim bits, it's true, There are also some very nice areas. Up where we are is very nice indeed.

The grids.

A lot of Gatineau (proper Gatineau) is laid out on a grid system. There are big blocks carved up major roads such as Maloney, Greber etc. What is along those roads if often not nice to look at (we're talking housing). In a lot of cases, things improve significantly the deeper into a grid-block you get.

You can get by easily in Gatineau without being able to speak much French. You should be aware though that the Ottawa job market is increasingly looking for bilingual people.

Let me know if you need suggestions for a realtor and notary. The ones we used were fine. Both speak English.