asiablue

We are moving over to Canada in a couple as PR, We currently do not own a property, hubby starts a job over their and I plan to get one as soon as the children are settled.

How long do you have to be in Canada before you can purchase a house, and what is the best way to kick start our credit rating?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

mandymoochops

There doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule to this as people have managed in the past to get mortgages without even having jobs however that was then!

Best way to get a credit rating would be to first get a credit card. Again there is some debate as to whether the prepaid credit cards actually go to improve your rating - but I got a Capital One card pretty much straight away.

Cell phone contracts are another relatively easy one to get and will go towards your credit score.

If you are going to finance or lease a vehicle (a sizeable deposit may be needed but AGAIN there are some who managed to wangle it without) that too helps.

Following the belt tightening of the mortgage lenders the minimum deposit you need is bigger than it was before - I don't think anyone is doing 100% financing anymore.

None of the above helps you with specifics - I would suggest going to see a mortgage broker (a realtor could reccomend one too you when you land) as they will obviously have more banks / institutions products and criteria to hand. And as these criteria are changing frequently it is hard to give specifics due to the amount of variable cases that we've seen even on here

asiablue

Thanks mandymoochops (hope I spelt it correctly)

Simon Legree

You can buy a house anytime as long as you can find the financing. Things have tightened up over the past couple of years and now downpayments are required, at least 10% seems to be the going rate.
Why not rent for a while until you are reasonably sure that life in Canada is for you. There are several instances on BE of posters who rushed into buying houses and then found that things weren't what the thought they would be and they regretted having bought as quickly as they did. Some also buy quickly and live happily ever after so to speak.
Good luck in whatever you do.

gary123

I agree you need to spent about 6-12 months renting to make sure you want to stay here, Different banks have different standards . I went with Scotia as they have a "new comers mortgage" but I think the RBC does as well. They asked for credit rating and took my UK one, but very firm on your PR and your work , at least 3 months employment and on a permeant contract.

Best thing we every did , but it took all our saving however we now own a house ..

Good luck


Gary

TheThornes

I think everyone else has made some good points. I can see why lots of people prefer to rent for a while to make sure they feel happy here before buying somewhere. We went straight ahead and bought a place and we have no regrets - love the house, area and everything. We saw a mortgage advisor who was recommended to us by our realtor. He was very good and sorted us out with a good mortgage. We completed on our purchase 7 weeks after landing.

I agree, credit cards are a good way of kicking off your Canadian credit rating. We were given credit cards through our bank but they capped the spending limit on them for the first year at $800 each. We obviously didn't use them for big purchases and always paid it off each month so the limit was never really a problem.

We had credit checks done in the UK which were OK for some things over here but, for others, they wouldn't accept these and we had to get Canadian credit checks done too.

Aviator

Store credit cards are a good way to start accruing a credit rating, try Sears & The Bay, easier to get than bank credit cards, also utility bills contribute to credit rating.

snoopster

Like the Thornes, we too bought straight away. We didn't have jobs but had a sizeable downpayment as we wanted to keep our mortgage payments low (for obvious reasons). We moved into our home within a month of landing.
We brought credit reports with us from the UK, and got credit cards by investing in GICs (Guaranteed Investment Certificates) and securing our card payments against them. Within 7 months of landing, our credit rating had reached a good level here just by using our credit cards regularly.

JonboyE

More info on mortgages here:

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Mortgages-Canada

SarahBC

Hi,

It will save you money if you can get together a downpayment of at least 20%, or you will have to pay for the compulsory CMHC mortgage insurance (I think it protects the lender from you defaulting on your mortgage).

Here's the website:

http://cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/

Sarah

Sophie10

Hi, I've been in canada for almost 18months. Living with my common-Law partner and recently sent off our Inland PR/Sponsorship applications.

We want to buy a house but are unsure whether or not to wait for my PR to go through. Our bank does a 'welcome to Canada' package. you get a mortgage without needing a down payment, and they could also get you a credit card. We've been banking there the whole time I've been here and they have a lot to offer people new to canada.

Check out their website www.scotiabank.com

R I C H

I'm not so sure about this - despite having a mortgage, vehicle leases etc etc, when my wife was asked if she'd like a Sears store card (after we'd been here for well over a year), her application was rejected on the basis of lack of credit history.

pgtips

Talk about encouraging debt slavery !!!!

Come to Canada, swamp yourself in debt, buy a house on credit, car on credit, life on credit !!!!! Why bother leave England ? I thought slavery was abolished but obviously it is alive and kicking in Canada. Oh and enjoy the two lousy weeks holiday you get across there.

JonboyE

Alan2005

Given that Canadians are now the most indebted individuals in the world he does kind of have a point.