CanadaJimmy

That's a decent salary for the outer suburbs of Vancouver, but you would likely only be able to afford to rent a townhouse (terrace) rather than detached, unless you have significant savings. My personal suggestion would be to take a look at South Surrey, Cloverdale and North Langley as possible areas that are decent and safe for bringing up kids. You're only looking at around an hour to commute to Downtown Vancouver from these areas by car, slightly more by public transit.

Check out the Vancouver Craigslist for available rental units, but be smart and don't send any money to people without meeting them in person (there are scams on there) and if it looks to good to be true, it probably is. Rental stock is set to increase soon as the BC government is looking at removing all rental restrictions after 2019 from apartment buildings and townhouse complexes (known here as "Strata housing"), so if you're still in the planning stages this is something to keep in mind.

Groceries aren't as bad as people are suggesting, No Frills and Real Canadian Superstore is actually fairly reasonably priced, comparable to UK grocery prices. Some stores are more expensive though, with Safeway and Thrifty Foods being the worst, and Save-On-Foods being somewhere in the middle (my experience). Walmart is also cheap but doesn't have much product selection and feels very basic. CostCo is also popular here as a way to buy groceries in bulk and save some money, but has a yearly membership fee, and is a very warehouse-y store with only select popular items.

I hope this helps you figure out your move!

Moses2013

That's the point and quality of life is hard to define and not the same for all. If you come from a so called 1st world country, simple things like growing veg and fresh air are becoming more important than mobile phones and range rovers. If you are from Manila maybe being able to drive a car and a fancy apartment might be the preference and Vancouver will be like a small town compared to Manila. A Bulgarian person might be happy working in the UK for £9 the hour, because they know they only have to work 10 years and can save enough money to buy a house back in Bulgaria. It's pointless to tell a person who hates living in an apartment that their salary in Tokyo is well above average, if they can never achieve their dream of a small house with garden (just an example).

dbd33

Yes, emigration is a financial matter. People rarely move for anything other than more stuff; it's a simple trade of one's family and culture for consumer durables. When there was cheap housing in Canada It made sense to move from London to Toronto. If it's the same price for a house there's no reason to do it. In the case of Vancouver there are other disincentives to moving there, primarily the weather, so it has to be a lot cheaper before moving makes sense. The snag with starting in the UK is that the standard of living is quite high. Brexit will, of course, help with that.