Reeders

Many new immigrants are interested in what to expect as far as housing when they come to Canada, so I thought it might be of interest to talk about some things in that regard.

The first thing that comes to my mind is based on the surprise I got when living in the UK, in the early 2000s. I was surprised to discover how many people had a negative view of bungalows. It seems that to some, suggesting you were interested in buying a bungalow (which I bought), was akin to admitting you needed to use a cane for walking. Bungalows according to some were for old people who could no longer manage walking up stairs. I suspect that view was promoted by developers trying to sell you two story houses built within feet of each other on small lots.

But in Canada, while property prices obviously go up in higher density areas, the reality is that land is nearly limitless and property really quite cheap as you would expect it to be in that case. So lot sizes can be larger and so can houses.

A typical Canadian Ranch style house needs a larger lot since it has to have a larger footprint if all rooms are on one floor. Bungalows then are going to be found on larger lots generally speaking while 2 story houses will be on smaller lots. So the question then is how much land can you afford to buy. See where this is going? The bigger the lot size the better. Being surrounded by neighbours houses within feet of you to either side and behind you is not desirable. It is far more desirable to have a big lot with distance to your neighbours and not overlooked by them. That's desirable anywhere of course but in Canada it is far easier to afford than in the UK.

Bungalows where the house is big enough for all rooms to be on one floor are generally more desirable than a house that requires you to walk up and down stairs, regardless of your age. You buy a 2 story house in Canada because you can't afford to buy a one story house of the same size.

It costs more to build a one story house than a 2 story house for several reasons. For example, you need to pour a bigger foundation and top the house off with a bigger roof. They cost more. So for the same square footage with all else being equal, you can expect a single story house to cost more than a 2 story house.

So thinking like a Canadian, the ideal is a single house on a lot of a third of an acre or more that looks out onto empty land both to the front and rear and does not have an neighbour to either side any closer than several hundred feet.

Of course that is not possible for everyone if they need to live in a city etc. But my point is that a perception about bungalows you held in the UK may not be the perception you want to have when looking at houses in Canada.

Check out some articles on the most desirable features in a home according to N. Americans (both Canadian and US are much the same).
https://www.newhomesource.com/resour...me-buyers-want

https://www.probuilder.com/50-featur...yers-want-most

Homebuyers Want Open Floor Plan, Hardwood Floors, Storage | Money

Now you may think it doesn't matter what a Canadian wants in a home if you like the home you buy. But remember, you are likely to want to sell that home one day and since you will be in Canada, who are you most likely to sell it to?

Two other topics that can be considered are open floor plans which often don't matter as much to someone from the UK and swimming pools which some immigrants might considerable desirable and most Canadians see only as a pain in the butt. Pools can actually lower a property value in some places.

dbd33

In southern Ontario you are not likely to be selling your house to a cradle Canadian. I don't think such a demographic even enters the heads of house builders.

BristolUK

Omar Khadr?

With an appropriate mark-up of course.

Reeders

Who cares what enters the head of a new house builder dbd33, I'm talking about you or anyone else trying to sell a house you bought, not a builder trying to sell a new house to someone.

Foreign buyers make up under 5% of home buyers in Ontario dbd33. That means 95% of all buyers are Canadian residents, whether cradle Canadians as you call them or not. I'm not a cradle Canadian, nor are you but my house buying priorities are certainly in line with the Canadian norm.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real...ticle35541137/

If Omar Khadr is a Canadian BristolUK, what is your point?

Try and add relevant and useful comments onto a thread guys that are of value to a new immigrant reading them. A person's home is usually the single biggest investment they have. It's hardly a topic for lame jokes or irrelevant comments.

rivingtonpike

Your assumptions and assertions about what people want are becoming predictable to say the least. Why do you assume everyone wants a third of a acre or more? Not everyone wants that level of maintenance. Most of the houses built around here are large, 2 storey houses but on comparatively small lots. That's seems to be what buyers around here at least are after. The older houses have larger lots sure, but the majority of the new ones don't. I personally wouldn't want to live on a rancher. I like the separation 2 storeys gives.

Tangram

What's the point of this thread ?

geoff52

Partially discharged

Bungalows on lots of 1/3 of an acre or so with lots of room between houses leads to this kind of sprawl

https://goo.gl/maps/C5WKksaBt7K2 (actually these lots are probably more than 1/3 of an acre).

https://goo.gl/maps/kGVxiHVCXWy (these are probably closer to 1/3 of an acre)

Here is a lovely example of the Canadian architectural vernacular https://goo.gl/maps/6YNWXkULiTS2

Either way it leads to sprawl which is inefficient for public transit, and leads to high infrastructure costs (lots of asphalt to maintain, sidewalks if built are hardly used due to low pedestrian traffic), parks are demanded by residents but hardly used as most peoples yards have pools, play structures etc and the low density nature of the neighbourhood leads to a distinct land use separation (housing in one area, commercial in another, office/institutional in another) which ends up with the situation where you need to drive everywhere for even the most basic necessities.

I'm firmly in favour of having the city as a city and the countryside as rural/agarian in nature and not for people to move out to their large properties and then expect city level of service w/o the requisite property tax costs.

BristolUK

Humour?

Who better to sell your house to (with a mark-up) than someone with a bob or two?

R I C H

According to who? Have you got some survey result to back that up? Many people are perfectly happy with an average sized lot and don't want the up keep and maintenance of something larger.


Whether its more desirable or not is debatable and subjective. I've owned 4 houses on larger lots (between 2/3 of an acre and upwards of 32 acres) here and what you don't get is the same sense of community when neighbours are acres away. It's harder to strike up casual conversation and get to know each other due to property distance separation. For a new immigrant this could lead to a sense of isolation. Also, coping with larger properties and driveways in the winter as a new immigrant throws up challenges (and costs) they're unlikely to have faced before in the UK.



The vast majority of ranchers/bungalows I've ever come across have basements - where's the benefit as stairs are still required?


Seriously? That might be your experience and opinion, but it's never been a criteria for me or anyone I know here. I buy a house based on location, aesthetic, amenities and general affordability etc. I can't imagine my current house spread over a single storey, it'd be a pain in the ass to walk the length of it. Basement and 2 floors above makes better use of the land area and as rivingtonpike says, separates accommodation nicely.

Funny how a community of around 150 homes where I live, each of which sits on between half and 1 acre of land, has only a handful of bungalows (all of which have basements). Seems Canadian's actually like their stairs and multiple stories.

rivingtonpike

+1 to what Partially and RICH have said - put much better than my attempt. As RICH has comments on his area, we too have a few (not many) ranchers on our road and interestingly, the only property that has been on the market for any length of time is a rancher. I admit it's not the most attractive place, but has a big footprint and I think about 2 acres.

The point as well about supporting the infrastructure necessary to service large plots is one I hadn't really thought about. I guess because we are in the countryside, we don't have sidewalks or lighting anyway - just high viz jackets and very large flashlights. Oh and big cars!

scilly

Reeders obviously does not live in one of Canada's big cities ..................

I've been to the biggest cities in every province, and every one basically has the "old" part and then the circling out as population grew.

Almost without exception, the old part consists of 2 or even 3 storey homes (+ basement) located on narrow lots, or row housing.

A little further out, you get the rancher, with basement, but still on small lots

The outer suburbs are where one finds the larger lots. It is often possible to date those larger lots to the 1950s or 1960s, when suburban sprawl seems to have developed .......... I sometimes wonder if this was a result of the American TV shows of that era. Almost all of those showed the home on a large lot, a white picket fence, etc etc.


Of course, what is happening now is that the older houses are being demolished and replaced, bungalows demolished and replaced with duplexes or HUGE houses that spread all over the lot. Or, as in Vancouver, lots are combined together and row housing built.


One really cannot be as dogmatic as the op indicates!

Partially discharged

Here in Ottawa a lot of 'inner city' neighbourhoods are the subject of a lot of infill housing whereby a single home that is rather small is often knocked down and replaced by a semi or a triplex or a more modern single. If neighbourhoods don't rejuvenate they stagnate. By converting a single 'plot' to a duplex/triplex/4 plex intensification is occurring, the same watermain, storm sewer is being utilized, same sidewalk etc without having to expand the city on the edges whereby new developments are named after the species of tree or wildlife that is being eradicated.

dbd33

New home builders design what they can sell and that means catering to the local demographic. If it's not cradle Canadians then what a cradle might want is irrelevant. Brampton, for example, consists of houses pushed to the lot lines with the outdoor space paved, multiple kitchens and the garage as the frontage, because the people who live there tend to have large families and long term visitors and to dislike having to go and do things outside. Of course people who live in Brampton are Canadian residents but, by and large, they're as Canadian as I am. I suggest that, in southern Ontario, the tastes of cradle Canadians are not much of a factor in selling houses.

I'm sitting, btw, in a bungalow though the nature of the house was irrelevant to the purchase, we wanted the lot. Our previous house was a bungalow when we bought it and a two storey when we left. I had another bungalow that was McMansioned and is now three stories above grade with a walkout basement. Someone wants multiple levels and people are making money adding levels; I think fashion has gone against bungalows because they're not what people grew up with and, when they come to Canada and see them, they're a bit bemused by them.

scilly

This is happening in Vancouver .......... with the difference that services such as water mains, sewers and storm drains are so old in many areas that they are getting overloaded by all the new pipes coming to or from the densification.

The number of major repairs having to be done to services is increasing every summer ................ just like the rest of Canada, such work is always scheduled from May to October