salmotrutta

We currently live in the USA but are UK / Canadian dual nationals. We both like the outdoors; I'm a keen fly fisherman and would ideally like to live on, or near the water. My wife also like downtown Halifax.
Fall River looks nice although most of the properties seem to be rather large for just the two of us.

any suggestions would be welcome!

MillieF

salmotrutta

Thanks!

sidjoloo

We are from the UK and moved to Canada to help look after my mum, she lives in Dartmouth. Last year we bought ourselves a house on the Eastern Shore. We're exactly an hour away from my mums house in the truck so close enough to be on hand when needed, but our house is a dream.
We are perched on a hill with beautiful views of the sea and our own forest of 9 acres behind us. The people in our community here are welcoming, friendly and helpful and we couldn't live anywhere else now. Waking up every morning and looking out over the Atlantic and the wild islands is exceptional.
There are lakes and rivers and unspoiled wilderness everywhere around here. It's a gem.
The Viewpoint website lists all the properties for sale in Nova Scotia and the prices around here are excellent value. Check out between Ship Harbour and Sheet Harbour if you like being out of town or between Porters Lake and Musquodoboit Harbour if you like being on the transit route back to Halifax.

https://www.viewpoint.ca/map/

Tumbling_Dice

One thing Nova Scotia has is lots of water... lakes everywhere and surrounded by ocean.

Hard to pin point what will do it for you. Halifax, and increasingly Dartmouth, are starting to feel like they are moving forward. There is an energy about both that did not exist when I first starting coming here 20 odd years ago. However, places like the Wolfville area (mainly because of the university) have a lively buzz about them too, and I think the Pictou / New Glasgow area seems to be acquiring a bit of a buzz too. All are near lakes for the fishing, all will allow you to live near some body of water, although Halifax will understandably be more expensive.

If I were retiring in NS, I would consider the Pictou area because it is a lovely wee town, near a decent bigger town, and also round the corner from sandy beaches and properly warm water in the summer.

Hope that helps a bit - happy to answer any other questions you may have.

Siouxie

Ref TD's post above - these might be of use

https://www.townofpictou.ca/
https://www.novascotia.com/about-nov...d-shore/pictou

salmotrutta

Thanks everyone for your posts - lots to think about.

Grimnorth

Sorry missed this post.

We live in rural NS, on the Cobequid bay but it is tidal so avoid it if you like fishing. Our only fish are striped bass which are caught at night. We have a property down to the water and have the locals calling all the time if they can go fishing, or pick marsh greens (it's a grass they put vinegar or butter on do not ask). I agree re Eastern shore or depending how much you want to spend on a house the South Shore.

Annapolis Valley is very nice or even further out towards Liverpool and Yarmouth. I am not a fisherman but this may help with best fishing spots. https://www.backroadmapbooks.com/blo...s-nova-scotia/

I worked in London and Brighton for my last 12 or so years in the UK and could not go for city living again. Although even Halifax/Dartmouth/Bedford our biggest "city" is still not huge. I can recommend rural living but there are a few things to bear in mind:

Your age and health. As previously mentioned getting doctors in rural areas is getting harder. Although there are walk in clinics and hospitals they can be some distance away, ours is Truro (about 50km) which can be a long time if you are ill.

How much you want to spend, property prices are cheap here but do vary. A house in Chester on the South Shore would be double the price here. Also how handy are you? getting decent trades in the boonies is interesting, we had a local come out to quote on a roof, with his two sons. All were drunk and one fell off the roof. Property taxes in Fall river are 4x the ones here.

Rural life is an excellent fit for us but you have to be aware its like living in the middle of a gold fish bowel. Locals love to know what is going on and to be involved in your life. They are really friendly and we love it here but it can get too much sometimes. You need to have some money for a break every now and then. Here they go to Florida for the winter months, but to be honest the weather is not bad here, even in winter. There are micro climates all over the place so check that out when you are looking.

Your financial situation. I know you are retiring but will you need a part time job to pay the bills? Rural living is good, if you do not need to work. There are very few jobs rurally, most commute to the city. My wife works in Dartmouth Crossing (82 Km) and so we have the expense of a second car and her travel.

Hope this helps, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

salmotrutta

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! We might try and rent initially to get a feel for the place; and I'm not sure that being entirely in the boonies is for us. We both have interests in supporting bio-pharma startups by being mentors, so that would imply being closer to Halifax / Dartmouth.

We lived in Lewes in Sussex for a while and and have to agree that SE England is a "nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there" - just too expensive and crowded. However we lived just outside of Basel in Switzerland and that was ideal; small city with easy access to the countryside.

I hear what you are saying about small community living; we considered PEI but as half the island is related to my wife we thought that it could be a bit overwhelming....

dbd33

I'm not in NS but do live in quite a rural location. Something to consider is that while houses prices are low in the country there are a lot of start up costs one does not have in a city. Some sort of snow clearance device is needed; we have a tractor and blower ($20k or so). Power is unreliable so some sort of generator is needed, a propane powered automatic one is getting on for $10k but even the wiring for a basic one is $2k. Rural properties tend to be larger so a ride on lawnmower is a sensible option, another couple of thousand bucks. And then, when you've amassed these things and a chainsaw and a log splitter and all the rest of it you can't move back to the city because you'll have nowhere to put it all.

Grimnorth

These guys may be of assistance to you, they are the industry association for NS in Bio Pharma.: https://bionova.ca/

You could also consider some of the investment agencies, they work with startups and in many cases have offices across the Province.

https://www.canada.ca/en/atlantic-ca...rtunities.html
https://innovacorp.ca/
https://www.cbdc.ca/en

Ironically Bio Pharma falls in one of the Provincial immigration priority industries for PEI. Again nice place to visit in the summer but the winter . My wifes cousin just moved to Summerside, this will be their first winter so I am awaiting the phone call.

There are plenty of small communities commutable to Halifax etc. In fact with local traffic it takes my wife less time to get to work than some of her colleagues who live a lot closer.

.