Nova Scotia or bust
May 10th 2004, 10:56 am
#16
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Joined: Mar 2003
Location: Nova Scotia
Posts: 1,071
Gee the tides in on that one....what did you do, nip down there this evening and snap the pic???Looks lovely I can hear the surf.
May 10th 2004, 11:00 am
#17
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That is actually a waterfront trail here in Ontario, took it whilst taking a walk with the better half. Here is a little restaurant nearby
May 10th 2004, 11:10 am
#18
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Joined: Feb 2004
Location: Eastern Shore, Nova Scotia, Canada
Posts: 5
Originally posted by Corky
What would you compare the N.S. drivers to?
What would you compare the N.S. drivers to?
crazy people!!! and that's just us Brits! lol
I drive up and down that road every day so I know what I'm talking about !!! Whereabouts are you in NS?
May 10th 2004, 11:11 am
#19
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Location: In the Boonies outside of Halifax, NS, Canada
Posts: 606
Originally posted by Corky
Gee the tides in on that one....what did you do, nip down there this evening and snap the pic???Looks lovely I can hear the surf.
Gee the tides in on that one....what did you do, nip down there this evening and snap the pic???Looks lovely I can hear the surf.
actually i cheated, i took it a couple of weeks ago but it looked very similar today but without as many of those white spot in the sky
May 10th 2004, 12:02 pm
#20
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Joined: Mar 2003
Location: Nova Scotia
Posts: 1,071
Anne I am in Greenfield on the South shore, just moved from Dartmouth. So where are you....
May 10th 2004, 12:04 pm
#21
Just Joined
Joined: Feb 2004
Location: Eastern Shore, Nova Scotia, Canada
Posts: 5
Originally posted by Corky
Anne I am in Greenfield on the South shore, just moved from Dartmouth. So where are you....
Anne I am in Greenfield on the South shore, just moved from Dartmouth. So where are you....
May 10th 2004, 12:05 pm
#22
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Joined: Mar 2003
Location: Nova Scotia
Posts: 1,071
Mick.... our ocean beats your water front trail....don't ya think! That is Lawrencetown Beach... a great surfers paradise if you are hardy!
May 10th 2004, 12:18 pm
#23
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Joined: Feb 2004
Location: In the Boonies outside of Halifax, NS, Canada
Posts: 606
Originally posted by annecoolcat
East Lawrencetown, just round the corner from ukjo!
East Lawrencetown, just round the corner from ukjo!
May 10th 2004, 8:10 pm
#24
Forum Regular
Joined: Feb 2004
Location: Fall River, NS
Posts: 90
Re: Nova Scotia or bust
Originally posted by mikejw
Hi everyone
just joined your group and have caught up with all the archives this weekend(raining in Kent).Great and differing views were well worth reading.
Our story
I(mike),wife(Orla),James 8 and Dominic 2 will be heading out to Nova Scotia this autumn,hopefully to buy a house in Fall river.
We have sold our house here in Maidstone and are renting ,having set up bank accounts etc in Canada and changed our equity into CDN$ at the current good rate.
I have been in the London fire brigade for 20 years but am looking for a complete change of career in Canada.
Reasons for leaving
pervading yob culture that is seeping into every walk of life.
Constant circle of debt that is virtually unavoidable in the S.E.
Traffic/Parking at such a chronic levels that keeping in touch with friends/family who are more than 10 miles away is getting harder and harder(might as well be in Canada)
A whereiness in people here not to be open/be friendly,just shut the door and stay with their own clique.
Reasons for coming to Nova Scotia
Halifax....Great city
Very friendly and open people.
5 hours from Gatwick.
Third size of England but with only 1 mil people
Fantastic unspoilt coastline and interior.
House prices.
Any info or views on Nova Scotia/Halifax/Fall river would be most welcome.I hope to contribute to your group on a regular basis.
Hi everyone
just joined your group and have caught up with all the archives this weekend(raining in Kent).Great and differing views were well worth reading.
Our story
I(mike),wife(Orla),James 8 and Dominic 2 will be heading out to Nova Scotia this autumn,hopefully to buy a house in Fall river.
We have sold our house here in Maidstone and are renting ,having set up bank accounts etc in Canada and changed our equity into CDN$ at the current good rate.
I have been in the London fire brigade for 20 years but am looking for a complete change of career in Canada.
Reasons for leaving
pervading yob culture that is seeping into every walk of life.
Constant circle of debt that is virtually unavoidable in the S.E.
Traffic/Parking at such a chronic levels that keeping in touch with friends/family who are more than 10 miles away is getting harder and harder(might as well be in Canada)
A whereiness in people here not to be open/be friendly,just shut the door and stay with their own clique.
Reasons for coming to Nova Scotia
Halifax....Great city
Very friendly and open people.
5 hours from Gatwick.
Third size of England but with only 1 mil people
Fantastic unspoilt coastline and interior.
House prices.
Any info or views on Nova Scotia/Halifax/Fall river would be most welcome.I hope to contribute to your group on a regular basis.
I was wondering how you opened a Canadian bank account whilst still over here in the UK? I want to do the same thing, so any advice appreciated!
thanks
May 11th 2004, 11:53 pm
#25
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2004
Location: Fall river,Nova Scotia
Posts: 284
Canadian bank accounts
Hi thediv (Div?)
We opened a premier account with HSBC in the U.K. a few months ago and deposited the equity from from our house sale. HSBC then opened a Canadian current account and savings account,they also supplied Canadian credit cards,cheque books and cheque cards.As we will have a U.K. income they could also supply a pre arranged mortgage.
To qualify for a premier account HSBC require either a good income or large depoit(equity in our case) or a mortgage above a certain amount (money talks i'm afraid).
Once a premier account is opened here, they cannot do enough for you,you are assigned a 'relationship' manager who deals with everything at a personnal level.
Opening an account prior to emigration also gives you a credit history with the bank,from what i understand one of the difficulties when first going to Canada.
In our case we took the decision to sell and the rent before our visas were issued,a gamble i grant you, but we wanted to get the current exchange rate 2.5 rather than 2.1,although deposits in CDN$ do not earn much interest compared with the U.K.
Some people have gone into HSBC and only received blank looks when they have asked about premier accounts.To contact HSBC Premier direct tel no is 0800 328 4545
We used HIFX to transfer money over as their rate was much better.You can use the bank's internet site which is easy to use although you will get an exchage rate 0.02 less than Exchange dealers.
Hope this helps.
We opened a premier account with HSBC in the U.K. a few months ago and deposited the equity from from our house sale. HSBC then opened a Canadian current account and savings account,they also supplied Canadian credit cards,cheque books and cheque cards.As we will have a U.K. income they could also supply a pre arranged mortgage.
To qualify for a premier account HSBC require either a good income or large depoit(equity in our case) or a mortgage above a certain amount (money talks i'm afraid).
Once a premier account is opened here, they cannot do enough for you,you are assigned a 'relationship' manager who deals with everything at a personnal level.
Opening an account prior to emigration also gives you a credit history with the bank,from what i understand one of the difficulties when first going to Canada.
In our case we took the decision to sell and the rent before our visas were issued,a gamble i grant you, but we wanted to get the current exchange rate 2.5 rather than 2.1,although deposits in CDN$ do not earn much interest compared with the U.K.
Some people have gone into HSBC and only received blank looks when they have asked about premier accounts.To contact HSBC Premier direct tel no is 0800 328 4545
We used HIFX to transfer money over as their rate was much better.You can use the bank's internet site which is easy to use although you will get an exchage rate 0.02 less than Exchange dealers.
Hope this helps.
Last edited by mikejw; May 12th 2004 at 1:50 am.
May 12th 2004, 8:05 pm
#26
Forum Regular
Joined: Feb 2004
Location: Fall River, NS
Posts: 90
Thanks a lot for your guidance mikejw. Im aware that the exchange rate is very good at the moment, but am not quite ready to sell my house! Do you think it will go down in the near future?
I see you are also planning to move to the Halifax area. I to am considering this as an option (was considering southern Ontario as well). Like you, I am also considering a change of career (currently a computer programmer - tired of looking at a screen all day every day though!). My main worry is being able to get landed with employment ASAP after landing, to avoid dwindling away our cash, which we are hoping to use to buy a house outright (hopefully in the 70 - 100k margin). From what I can tell, it seems fairly feasible to pick up low-paid non-professional work, so that would do in the meantime.
Best of luck with your move.
I see you are also planning to move to the Halifax area. I to am considering this as an option (was considering southern Ontario as well). Like you, I am also considering a change of career (currently a computer programmer - tired of looking at a screen all day every day though!). My main worry is being able to get landed with employment ASAP after landing, to avoid dwindling away our cash, which we are hoping to use to buy a house outright (hopefully in the 70 - 100k margin). From what I can tell, it seems fairly feasible to pick up low-paid non-professional work, so that would do in the meantime.
Best of luck with your move.
May 13th 2004, 12:18 am
#27
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Thread Starter
Joined: May 2004
Location: Fall river,Nova Scotia
Posts: 284
Hi
we initially were planning to go to south Ontario (London,cambridge etc) but having gone out there and seen for ourselves, it just wasn't for us.
Like so many people have said on here,you HAVE to go out and see before you commit yourselves.
As luck would have it we stopped over in Nova Scotia and it was what we were looking for.
Regarding the exchange rate,at the moment it is still above 2.43 which is very good .
Reading between the lines (nobody knows absolutely) the only way is down as the U.S. market and interest rates pick up.
Rate will probobly hold,barring any disasters,for a month or two.
Our interest rates are on the up but so to will be U.S. and Canadian rates.trouble is if exchange rate does go down,it could stay there for a long time.
you could always forward buy with a company like HIFX.I think you lose 0.005 points per month so if you had the money in say 6 months time, getting a rate of 2.43 now would turn into a rate of 2.40.It's a gamble at the end of the day.
Remember that the rate you see on say, the BBC exchange site will be for transactions above 1-2 mill ,the rate you get is 0.01-0.02 less than this.
70-100k should pick up a really nice house in Nova Scota.
mike
we initially were planning to go to south Ontario (London,cambridge etc) but having gone out there and seen for ourselves, it just wasn't for us.
Like so many people have said on here,you HAVE to go out and see before you commit yourselves.
As luck would have it we stopped over in Nova Scotia and it was what we were looking for.
Regarding the exchange rate,at the moment it is still above 2.43 which is very good .
Reading between the lines (nobody knows absolutely) the only way is down as the U.S. market and interest rates pick up.
Rate will probobly hold,barring any disasters,for a month or two.
Our interest rates are on the up but so to will be U.S. and Canadian rates.trouble is if exchange rate does go down,it could stay there for a long time.
you could always forward buy with a company like HIFX.I think you lose 0.005 points per month so if you had the money in say 6 months time, getting a rate of 2.43 now would turn into a rate of 2.40.It's a gamble at the end of the day.
Remember that the rate you see on say, the BBC exchange site will be for transactions above 1-2 mill ,the rate you get is 0.01-0.02 less than this.
70-100k should pick up a really nice house in Nova Scota.
mike
May 13th 2004, 12:57 am
#28
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Joined: Mar 2003
Location: Nova Scotia
Posts: 1,071
Hi There guys, just had to step in here. I think your range of house prices may be a bit off. If you are planning on buying a house between 70-100k it may not be much of a house. That figure is a bit low. But then again it really depends on what area you are planning to settle in, and what kind of house you want.
May 13th 2004, 1:06 am
#29
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Joined: Feb 2004
Location: In the Boonies outside of Halifax, NS, Canada
Posts: 606
Originally posted by Corky
Hi There guys, just had to step in here. I think your range of house prices may be a bit off. If you are planning on buying a house between 70-100k it may not be much of a house. That figure is a bit low. But then again it really depends on what area you are planning to settle in, and what kind of house you want.
Hi There guys, just had to step in here. I think your range of house prices may be a bit off. If you are planning on buying a house between 70-100k it may not be much of a house. That figure is a bit low. But then again it really depends on what area you are planning to settle in, and what kind of house you want.
May 13th 2004, 3:15 am
#30
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2004
Location: Fall river,Nova Scotia
Posts: 284
hi
sorry, i presumed thediv meant £70-100k not CDN$s.Whole lot of difference there.
By the way does anyone know how long the buying process is in Nova Scotia i.e. from offer to completion?
sorry, i presumed thediv meant £70-100k not CDN$s.Whole lot of difference there.
By the way does anyone know how long the buying process is in Nova Scotia i.e. from offer to completion?
