beckiwoo

Yes I see it's not that far from the airport. I suppose the further out you go the cheaper it is but less there is to do.

Tramps_mate

Are there many places around Vancouver you would say are definite steer clear ones?

dishwashing

East of Hastings, apparently, but not allll the way East of...

Someone more helpful will come along and clarify

ExKiwilass

no where. I'd live anywhere and have.

scrubbedexpat091

Not really, Downtown East Side is not exactly pretty, but its not really unsafe either. Vancouver really has no unsafe dangerous area's compared to other city's, just some areas are prettier then others, or considered more trendy or hip.

JonboyE

West Point Grey. If you could afford to live there you would have your manservant do your research for you.

Mikeypm

When you say around, do mean surrounding Van, then maybe give parts of slurry, opps I mean Surrey a wide berth.

TravelingTramp

My mate had some luck in Langley. But also reiterated that it was pretty competitive.

foreigngirl

Looks like we were really lucky. Got place almost as soon as we stepped off the plane. Even managed to haggle the price down. Coal Harbour. Lots of empty condos here. Nice area.

scrubbedexpat091

Isn't Coal Harbour pretty pricey rent wise? Higher rent area's tend to have less competition as less people can afford them, lower rent areas have more people wanting so harder to get in.

tweed_wearer

I'm looking in vancouver at the moment (perhaps prematurely) in the hope of a transfer with work. Looking around the $2,000 per month mark in downtown/coal harbour pref but anywhere near transit in lower mainland. I know that this is bargain basement for a 2 bedder or 1 + den (which in the uk would be called a 2 bedder - swines!) in the nicer areas.

What are things like in that bracket, in terms of flat hunting? Do things come and go really quickly?

tweed_wearer

Good to know that availability is good for rental market in coal harbour and that rents are negotiable. Empty units do not always translate into reduced rents. A lot of Russian and Chinese condo owners are too rich to care

foreigngirl

You can definitely get a 1bed + den with water+mountain view, high floor, pool and gym in Coal Harbour. Not furnished, no internet/ phone/hydro, of course.

Jack_Judge

Yup, they move that quickly. We had a similar budget / needs in May 2013. My wife worked at Van Aqua and I worked at UBC so Kitsilano was a good fit for us. We got a place near 7th and Cypress, handy for transit, a two bed townhouse with 2 underground parking spaces, our own backyard, separate living / kitchen area, sun decks etc for C$2,000 per month. I'm told we're paying a little over the odds.

To get it, my wife and I basically sat on Kiijiji for three weeks, manually refreshing our search results a few times a day. When we got a hit we'd claim a personal emergency and leg it out of work. On the third such hit we found our place. We were the second booked viewers and we called when the ad was 4 mins old. We only got the place coz the first viewers couldn't get the deposit together the same day, we had cash. It moves quick.

tweed_wearer

Thanks jack, really interesting (and a bit worrying). It sounds like you were scrabbling to win something rather than pay good money for it!

3 weeks is slightly worrying because I think my employer pays hotel for just two :/

Has anybody used the furnished equipped and serviced apartments? I know they're expensive but it would be good not to have to worry about selling or throwing things away in a year's time. Are the prices for those negotiable?