byles14

Hi folks,

I am planning on moving to Toronto (I have considered Vancouver but I think job prospects for me are better in Toronto) at the end of January. I am 29 and work as an Asset Manager in Commercial Real Estate Investment in London and am trying to get a similar job in Toronto and am in the process of applying for jobs and contacting recruitment agents to meet with them when I arrive. I already have a visa (International Experience Canada Work Permit) which I can redeem when arriving in Canada in January.

I have read the wiki-guides on this website on what to do before moving out to Canada and what to do once arrived which has been a great help and I am in the process of sorting all of those issues out now. However, I do apologise if I have missed something in another forum.

I do have a few queries I was hoping people could help me with:
1. I currently live in Brixton (South London) and would like to move to a similar area i.e urban district with a mixture of young professionals and locals with good places to eat and drink as well as good transport links into the Finance District (I am assuming I will be successful in my job hunt and that this will be the office location).
2. As a Brit emigrating, are there any good residential and / or recruitment agencies to get in contact with?
3. If anybody has any contacts within Real Estate Investment in Toronto and is willing to put me in contact with them I would be greatly appreciative. I am an accredited surveyor with the RICS and therefore professionally governed
4. I am also a keen rugby (union) player and am aware I am moving to a country where rugby isn't a wide played sport, but there is for instance the Toronto Wolfpack, a professional rugby league team and I was wondering if anybody new of any rugby union clubs in / around the Toronto area?

I probably do have other questions but cannot think of any right now.

Any other advice or tips would be extremely welcome and I am greatly appreciative in advance for any answers to the above.

Byles14

dbd33

4. The Balmy Beach Club has some sort of rugby team.
1. Parkdale, way across town from the Balmy Beach Club, is Brixtonish.

scilly

Rugby is played more than you would think in Canada, but you will find the season is different from what you are used ................. there is a hiatus over winter in most areas, so games are played in the Fall, then there is a break for 2 or 3 months, and re-start in February or March. Toronto may not be the site of many teams!

Rugby Canada runs the World Cup teams, and also provincial. Looking at their site may give you some ideas.

Siouxie

Content Page – Page 10016022 – Rugby Ontario

If you pull up the map ^ each Rugby club has a link when you click on the tag (left hand column) - those are just the ones around Toronto - pan out for more.. zoom in for extra's

JamesM

I wouldn't say there is necessarily an area with the same choice of Jerk Chicken as Brixton but if you want to live in neighbourhoods where there is decent clusters of young professionals and reasonable nightlife I'd suggest the following:

Leslieville/Riverdale

Liberty Village

City Place (walkable to Finance District)

Yonge- Eglinton

Cabbage Town ( a little bit of edge- there is a Harveys there affectionately referred too as Hooker Harveys) (walkable to Finance District)

St.Lawrence Neighbourhood (Walkable to Finance District)

Roncesvalle is pretty decent too.

I list Leslieville/ Riverdale at the top as it is not far from the Balmy Beach Club where as DBD mentions there is a Rugby Team and active social club. The other hoods aren't necessarily far can be at the wrong time of day or with the City doing some repairs.

Just to clarify you are moving to Canada so you're never quite going to get the quite trendy hip feel you get in London. There tends to be a lag here in terms of new concepts.

dbd33

I use to eat lunch in that Harvey's and watch the meth crazed traffic light beggars clinging to peoples' windscreen wipers (we had a house on the block which we used as an office). The owners kept a long device, with a claw on the end of it, for shaking customers awake and for fishing them out of the toilet. At the time I thought this a fine example of Somali ingenuity (for that's where the staff originate) but, when I moved to the country, I discovered that it's intended purpose is actually racoon removal.

Houses in Cabbagetown cost millions of dollars, the streets are tree lined and beautiful. You will never walk three blocks without seeing someone who has recently pissed his or her self. There's a zoo there and a huge fabulous park in which people run dogs. There's also a botanical garden in a greenhouse with exotic plants inside and lots of rough sleepers outside. I like Cabbagetown. I would avoid St. Jamestown, Moss Park and Liberty Village.

During my Harvey's lunching era I lived by the St. Lawrence Market, then in Leslieville, then in the Beach. They're progressively more suburban, we ended up in the Beach so as to have a backyard with a trampoline, you likely don't want that and so wouldn't want to go that far out. I would say the same for Yonge and Eglinton but then I lived in Toronto for 20 years without having reason to go north of Bloor.

glendem4

We live in Yorkville which is convenient for all local entertainment, groceries and shopping. We use to live in Streatham hill and West Hampstead when we lived in London, so we have an idea of what you may like. Anywhere close to Queen Street West will give you something you are wanting and you can catch the tram straight into the financial district. South of Kensington market between Spadina and Bathurst is an area where you will find plenty of apartments for rent.

dbd33

This morning it was foggy. The car thermometer showed the outside temperature as 0/32. You will want to bring a coat.

JamesM

Like my neighbourhood it is pretty overbuilt. I wouldn't have recommended it before but with the King West Pilot being made permanent it is possible to catch a streetcar down to Bay in 15 minutes. They just need to fix the crowding of the streetcar and it could be quite pleasant.

byles14

All,

Thanks very much for your posts!

Really do appreciate it!!!