Alan2005

Quite (I was being sarcastic in that post)

G77

Sorry, don't do sarcasm anymore now I'm in Canada..... Ooops, wrong thread.

JonboyE

Investment in real estate, just as in the stock market, is all about timing. A lot of people who relied on their RRSPs to fund their retirement lost an awful lot of money in 2008.

If you invest passively, in either mutual finds or real estate, the best you can hope for is to beat inflation by a bit, i.e preserve the value of your investments. If you are prepared to be an active investor you can make money in either, but it does involve effort, learning about your market, and a bit of luck.

Steve_P

Yep I guess I'm old and decrepit.

My opinon's not worth sh*t so I may as well move on.

bodgerx

I think even with our quite modest expectations, it would still seem that (according to what I hear on this forum) we would still be seeing a significant drop for an equivalent uk income.

When I say modest expectations, I'm taking about a house for no more than $250K (with 10% deposit), one car, and no long list of dependent ex-wifes, horses and university attending teenagers to sub - a la dbd33 .

bodgerx

Your opinion counts to me Steve. I trust Iank was lightly poking fun.

dboy

Depends what you mean be 'significant' i can only base my experiences on BC but overall i don't see any real differences in cost of living here vs the UK I i am from manchester) and I would n't go as far as to say that earning the same here would result in a lower standard of living (real estate cost in Vancouver being the exception that is). I'd say that 30,000 quid spends much like 60,000 dollars here. Somethings are more - others things are less - so it tends to even out. But i would agree that if someone was expecting that their money would have more purchasing power here they will be in for a serious let down.

hudd

dboy

I agree with you there is not much difference in living costs between the UK and Canada from my own experience. We spent more on generally living costs in Canada than we do back in the UK now.

If you looks at Stats Canada and National Stats UK your see similar figures i.e 13% UK for household transportation costs and 13.5% Canada. Housing costs 11% UK and 20% Canada, this is not unreasonable taking into account the size difference in housing, heating, electricity, insurances and maintenance costs( re: iank comments on climate and also quality of building material).

Going back to the original post asking about salaries in Ottawa.
$52k pa is what I paid for a plant operator- grade 12 education.
$73-79K for a PEng/CEng Engineer(10 years post grad experience).
These were 2005 salaries, so add another 10-15% for inflation.
I was based 120 miles north of Ottawa and not living in a city.

I had an engineer who moved to Ottawa in 2004 to work for the federal govt on £87K(Senior Engineering). He also got $10K allowance on top for living in Ottawa/skills shortage.

Regards

hudd

mardyarse

Welcome to Ottawa, welcome to Manotick!! You've found our little secret gem how dare you???!!! Fabulous isn't it? Shame about the bloody roadworks though. The City of Ottawa is fast running out of money so its rural grabbing parts so they can hike up the property taxes. So beware the property tax is fairly high in Manotick and is going to be going up once the sewers are put in (which you've probably gathered we don't want by now!!).

I would just air on the side of caution if I was you at this stage. I'd bank on your GF doing supply work (if she can get it). You'll be lucky to get a house for under $400,000 in Manotick. But if you find one, be very careful its priced that low because of the work that would be needed. You're going to have to have 2 cars, I can see it all adding up very quickly. Manotick isn't cheap, have you looked at Richmond or Stittsville, closer to Kanata where you'll be likely to land a job?

kancell

hey guys, thanks for all the info.

yeah its a real shame that manotick is under so much construction right now, it would have been nice to see it in its full glory! however it still looks like a nice place to live and somewhere we would be keen to live in. we are currently in a mansion in knights drive, which has possibly skewed are view a little though

we viewed houses all day yesterday in South Ottawa and Gatineau. You are right, there was not a house that really stood out for under $350k in South Ottawa. However, across the bridge in Gatineau, we must have viewed our dream house about 4 times, the properties are just amazing for $350k.

i think we would need to increase our budget to almost $400k to get the house and area we really want...... (south ottawa) but then we aren't making the cut in mortgage we had hoped and would need probably need two full time salaries.

what are the surrounding areas such as greely, north gower and kars like? also, is the area on the map as "long island" also still considered manotick, and therefore just as expensive, as it the area i love most! all the jobs i have interviews for are downtown, so really it needs to be commutable there even in the winter time.

i guess its all food for thought and we'll weigh up all the factors when making our decision. we really love ottawa though, it has everything we could ever need!

mardyarse

The house you are staying in Rideau Forest is probably worth at least $1 million so yes I think you are being spoilt!

Seriously, most people in Canada don't live like this so you really need to do a lot more investigating on what your $100K per annum lifestyle will buy you. I have never seen anything thats habitable for under $400,000 in Manotick.

But overall the quality of life you will enjoy over here compared to the UK when you are settled will be much better. Good luck with it all

woodmanbg

That was a bit off wasnt it - perhaps meant tongue in cheek but I dont think Steve deserved that! Hope you apologise we dont want to lose him he adds some good well thought info to this site.

Well signing off back to my holiday!

iaink

No offence intended...I figured the smiley's were sufficient to indicate I was just ribbing the old scouser.

Butch Cassidy

Really Iain? Funny how things can be misconstrued when posted on the 'idiotnet' isnt it? Odd how people can see malice where none was meant? Perhaps there's a lesson there for ALL OF US.

iaink

The context is important too. Steve and I have been around this forum a long time, its not like I would post something that might be interpreted as rude or abusive to a relatively new poster here where there is no pre-existing relationship, capiche?