Hi there

We're thinking of buying a property in Nova Scotia as a) we love Canada b) want to take advantage of the low prices and c) after we're both qualified as nurses we may want to move out there with our kids.

We're not sure about areas however and are undecided about whether to go for South Shore around Chester or up near Kentville. We'd like to be about an hour away from Halifax ideally in an area where there will be things for kids to do.

Anyone got any comments? We'd appreciate any help in trying to decide where would be best area. We couldn't afford Halifax - it would be a holiday home for 2/3 years then we'd move out.

Thanks
Alex

Sounds like you have similar criteria as us.

We are hoping to move out next summer. I am sitting my nursing exams in Halifax on 10th October.

We have only visited in summer before and liked the South Shore. It was the area we first thought about settling in. Since then I have heard people talk about the amount of seasonal residents and the villages being ghost towns out of season. I need to find out more about this as my children need "all year round" friends and so we have also decided to look at the areas inland from Halifax through to Windsor.

We want to be within 1 hour of Halifax and have a rural feel to where we live, but to have accessible local facilities.

I am going to meet a couple of realtors and view some property when I am over there (flying on 4th October), so if you ask me after 12th I will let you know any info I have found.

[QUOTE=BertieNurse;5345570]Hi there

We're thinking of buying a property in Nova Scotia as a) we love Canada b) want to take advantage of the low prices and c) after we're both qualified as nurses we may want to move out there with our kids.

We're not sure about areas however and are undecided about whether to go for South Shore around Chester or up near Kentville. We'd like to be about an hour away from Halifax ideally in an area where there will be things for kids to do.

Anyone got any comments? We'd appreciate any help in trying to decide where would be best area. We couldn't afford Halifax - it would be a holiday home for 2/3 years then we'd move out.

Thanks


This is a nice small town with lots to offer....very friendly people also....
http://www.bridgewater.ca/

Have a look!

Chester is a nice place but quite expensive, lots of retired Admirals there and some of the homes are unreal. Then there other homes that really aren't much to look at. You may want to look a little beyond Chester. Kentville is in the Annpolis Valley and is also a very nice town to live in. As well as Wolfville and new Minas. Kentville has a great hospital called Valley REgional Hosptial. Sure they must have a web site. Also the Town of Windsor is a nice place to live and has the small town feel.

Have a look at the South Shore REgional Hospitla site.
http://www.ssdha.nshealth.ca/

You can't afford halifax but you can afford Chester? Are you sure? - i would have said that Chester was a lot more expensive than Halifax.

The areas you mentioned are nice. Chester is about a 45 min drive to halfax (longer in rush hour and mid winter) so it is just commutable (which is one of the reasons why it is also expensive). Kentville area is over 1 hour (again longer in mid-winter and rush hour) so many people would say its not really commutable to Halifax.

It always strikes me as a little odd that people visit Nova Scotia with a view to moving here and the first thing they do is buy a house - I mean before they have even moved! Yes, for many the real estate market in Nova Scotia is like being a kid let loose in a sweet shop for many brits but, really, buying a house is the easy part. Identifying an area where you can feel really settled and finding work can be harder (not to mention the immigration process!). If you are seriously considering it as a permanent move I would start by looking into employment opportunities and immigration routes - those things will be the hard bits. There will still be plenty of nice houses for sale when you do arrive (assuming you can get PR visas and find work). The other thing is that in some areas, houses can take several years to sell here. So if you rush in, buy a nice looking house and then discover you didn't really know the area that well and it isn't right for you then you could be trapped there for a very long time.

Unless of course it is literally just a "holiday home" which is a completely different thing. Your criteria will be TOTALLY different from somewhere you would want to live and settle permanently as a family. To begin with in a cute holiday home you probably need less than 1000 square feet of living space but as a family home you will need much more. In a holiday home you don't need to be near to Halifax - you would probably prefer to be near the beach or mountains and perhaps in a less expensive area - whereas for a permanent home you will need to be near to employment opportunities (i.e. Halifax). If you are only there seasonally you probably won't want a huge well-tended garden (as you would have to get someone to maintain it when you're not there) whereas you probably would want one for your family home. Same goes with good schools - not top priority for holiday home but essential for permanent move etc etc.

Of course you might be worried that property prices here will shoot up over the next couple of years comparred to the UK and you will be "priced out of the market" and perhaps thats why you are thinking about buying a hous now. I think thats probably not that likely - prices in NS might grow a bit faster but remember as well that the exchange rate is BAD! at the moment so if you waited a couple of years you might get 10 - 20% more dollars for your pounds anyway.

My advice would be to get the job/immigration thing sorted out first, really get to know NS and decide where's right for you and worry about buying a house when these things are all sorted.

In fact, I was talking to OH about this over the weekend. I think its something to do with the way we Brits are conditioned with regard to the property market. Lets face it when you are in the UK you spend months househunting and getting totally depressed because you are hoping for that mysterious underpriced gem to pop up because it means you can have a house that is what you want that you can actually afford. But it never does - they are always just that bit too expensive and you have to compromise in the end. If anything ever does come up thats actually nice and good value its a fight to the death - other buyers are all over it. You have to snap it up really quickly - waiting just a few days means the dream is gone forever.

Then you come over to Nova Scotia and the houses are, comparred to what you're used to, unbelievable. Both in terms of price, size, amount of land etc. People are so preconditioned to having to snap something up quick before it goes that we assume the same is true of the real estate market here. But that isn't the reality - all the houses are cheap and great compared to the UK so they aren't going to fly off the shelf that quickly as they are competing with each other. Canadian buyers are actually really fussy (no hardwood flooring throughout? - no thank you!)In fact, we looked at plenty that we were tempted to "snap up" that had actually been on the market for several years! So, in other words, Canadian buyers had been turning their nose up at them for years so, being realistic, we weren't about to loose the house overnight to someone else. My advice to anyone house-hunting here is to try and remember they are house-hunting here and not in the UK.

if you are set on the Halifax Area then thats fair enough, but there are Hospitals all over the province.....e.g Aberdeen Hospital in New Glasgow...
the area of Pictou County has every thing a growing family needs..if you check out the whiteboard on my bebo page you will find out about my weeklong reccie round NS last week... <www.bebo.com/4dingos>

worth thinking about, surely...

mike

yeah I agree we will be renting for a while maybe even a year before we rush into a house, we want to know which area is for us, as we are coming for a big city we wouldn't want to end up in something to rural at first until we know the area well.

Hi, we have been back in the UK a couple of weeks now after travelling around NS. We found Hubbards a nice spot on the south shore but i am told that it is expensive. We also liked New Minas, every shop and food outlet you'll ever need and only a short trip to Berwick and Kentvile but at first we found these areas to seem very Red Neck as most of the time we did not take the highway but took the longer back roads with the 'Children of the corn' and 'Jeepers Creepers' corn fields and farms. But after meeting people and spending a little time around the valley we found it a lovely laid back place with fantastic people. We also stayed around Pictou and New Glasgow which again had lovely people and great beaches, although i did get stopped for speeding and let off with a very polite warning and a warn chat about the local area. Our last week was near New Ross and New Germany. But if i was to pick an area to revisit as a place to live i would have to say Bridgewater as already mentioned by another. This area had a nice town with good links and all the amenities you would need in a town.

I am reading this with interest, some great ideas and info.

I was just wondering though, having moved to NZ and currently living an hour from work - that isnt my ideal at all now. Infact it has been hiddeous. We assumed that because we could easily be behind the wheel of our car for an hour in traffic in the UK, travelling that distance again wouldnt be a problem - but it has been. The difference for us was that we were just sitting in traffic and here we are full pelt travelling to work and using +++ more fuel. And because one of us did shift work, it evened out, he would be an hour in traffic, I would be 35 minutes. But here, it feels like going to the other side of the country most days and costs a small fortune to say the least. Here, we are filling up our tanks every 3 days to just make that journey to work and back. Not to mention, we are missing out on 2 hours of family time each day because of this, which is absolutely not the point of making the move from the Uk for us. We want to have a far shorter commute when we get to NS. Not to mention, we havent been in a Canadian winter and I dont really fancy my husband or I being stuck somewhere between an hour away in a storm.

But no we couldnt afford to live in Halifax and we wouldnt want to, we are hoping for an acre or more somewhere. The houses are so seductively lovely and cheap the further out you go, but is the cost of living there going to be a reasonable compromise if the cost of travel and travel time is a constant drain? I dont know.

Poppy2 - you are right about the commute thing. I used to do well over an hour each way in the UK but I definitely dont' want that here. The other things is that you find most peoples expectations of what is a sensible commute is very different. Many people I work with say that if it takes them more than 20mins to get to work they want to kill themselves. And when nobody else does it (i.e. your work colleagues are all at home having fun outside with their kids by 5.30) then you don't really want to be still behind the wheel at 6.15 either.

Ah well different strokes for different folks I guess. I've lived in London where it took me 2 hours to get home 10 miles and I've also commuted 80 miles each way into London so nothing could be worse than that. I take all your points though and it would be more sensible to find a more reasonable journey. Fortunately there's a large hospital in Kentville so maybe that's the way forward.

Another question for you people more au fait with Nova Scotians - are they as friendly as they seem when talking on phone or through email? - nothing seems too much trouble. We stayed in Ontario in the Summer and I found all the people there very laid back - not aggressive and uptight like most Brits. That was what impressed me the most. I guess it's the space..we all seem like rats in a box here.

People in NS are very friendly - very different to the UK - that, in my opinion, is the main reason for moving here.