If everything goes to plan and we move out to Toronto later this year we will initially be renting.

I have looked on the internet and found a few possible locations. One of them is not far from the junction of Yonge St and Sheppard Ave. Does anyone know what it's like around this area?

Also, will we have any problems renting a property as we will not be able provide any Canadian references and initially will not be working. We could provide an Equifax credit report, uk mortgage statements. Any advice?

Thanks

Mark & sue

Busy!!!!!

It's alright as far as I can remember, it's fairly suburban out there, but is right on the subway line to downtown.
You can also get the sheppard subway to Ikea at Leslie and the Fairview mall, so it's very convenient.
You should gather all the information you can as far as renting property is concerned. I gave them a copy of my resume, bank statements, job references etc. If you have tonnes of cash in the bank they may not mind that you'll initially be unemployed. Usually however they do expect at least one person to be working.

If you're not to sure about the area just pop into the local police station and they should be honest about that sort of thing.........

That's in the North York part of the city and it's a pretty busy and popular place. It's grown a lat over recent years and if you are in the corridor between Yonge/Eglinton and Yonge/Sheppard it's almost like being downtown there are so many stores and amenities. There are movie theatre's and shopping centres and stores all along Yonge street and concetrated around Yonge/Eglinton. You are near the subway line both on the Yonge/University/Spadina line going north south but also the east west Sheppard line which heads out west towards don mills. You are also pretty close to Yonge/Finch which has a main GO station for buses which will take you all over the GTA which is handy if you need to work outside the main city and the subway takes you where ever else you need to go mixing with buses and street cars etc.

The area up there is quite concrete and there are a tonne of condos and apartment buildings up Yonge around Davisville, Eglinton and up to Sheppard and along Sheppard etc. They range from low end to high end so there is a good mix. I'd say it would take you between 20-30 minutes by subway to get to Union station downtown depending how busy everything is.

Drew

Yonge and Sheppard is a very busy, upscale area with small apartments/condos for large prices. Lots of office towers and condo buildings, very expensive to park but it is on two subway lines so it is convenient for commuting.

It may be difficult to get anyone to rent to you with no references or local credit report, but you can probably work something out if you bring your UK references and show them you have lots of cash.

Sounds like lots of cash is the answer then!

Thanks for the information everyone, it has helped alot, sounds like this might be a possible location to start off in. When we are eventually in a position to buy a house we are looking at the Durham region, maybe around Whitby.

Mark

As others have said, that's in the North York area which is where we'll be moving to in a couple of weeks time. We're actually going to be renting an apartment that looks over the 401. We're on the 10th floor so noise shouldn't be a problem.

People we spoke to when we were over there on reccy expeditions said that North York was a good area in which to live. Lost of greenery, good access to shops and public transport, etc.

As for references, we managed to secure our rental apartment with no problems at all. My girlfriend's got a job so we sent a copy of the job offer letter. We filled out the Management Company's application form giving UK references and Bank Details. Our Bank did a reference letter stating that they were happy with how we have managed our account and that was it. We paid our deposit and we move in on 23rd April!

As with a lot of things I think it all depends on who you are dealing with.