muffback

Hi

I am really thinking about leaving North Vancouver after 4.5 years. Either moving back to the UK or somewhere else? My wife and I like living here for all the usual reasons: skiing, great summers, near US etc. However, recently we had to move out of our rental property (again) as the owner sold it. We have been looking at rental properties. The prices are just crazy and the quality is really poor. We also have a toddler and need some space. We are just unwilling to buy a property as the prices are insane. We used to live in Edinburgh before we moved here and felt well off there, but here we actually feel poor. We are beginning to really question why we are still here? Quite a few of our friends have went back to the UK or moved to other parts of Canada. We are rapidly coming to the conclusion that we don't want to spend our lives struggling in this city. It is just not worth it.

Anyone else in Vancouver getting tired of the high cost of living here?

Cheers
Muffback

dbd33

My daughter in Vancouver and her husband are continually considering their options. Move to Ottawa or Toronto and get a 20% salary increase and cheaper housing or put the effort into moving to San Francisco so as to stay on the left coast. SF has even higher housing prices but the chance to make serious money. Toronto, of course, isn't that much cheaper and has bad weather, Ottawa has much cheaper housing and awful weather. I expect they'll stay put until evicted, as you have been, or they have yet another child and have to move from their apartment.

Howefamily

What do you do for a living? Nova Scotia is a great contender for value for money in property, it has oceans and skiing and if you have a career you can do well here.

beckiwoo

I hear your frustrations.

I've lived in Vancouver for 2.5 years and it is getting more and more expensive especially for renting.

Would you be looking at just moving out of the city to The Fraser Valley area or to an entire new province/city?

muffback

i think we are going to move out of Vancouver full stop. I really don't want to move to the Lower Mainland to Langley or Maple Ridge or the likes. A few of our friends have did this and hate it. I think a lot of Lower Mainland is urban sprawl with lots of row houses and not much else. Throw in a terrible commute on top of that. I may as well live back in Surrey, UK. I might sound picky but I am 44 I have two degrees and 17 years experience at my job as an IT project manager. I earn good money but that means little here. I live in 960 sq maisonette. Sorry for moaning but I find here completely frustrating. I think we need to just see here as a life experience and move on.

dominiqueincanada

I have been in Vancouver for 5 years. I absolutely love it here, but I accept that although I own a 1 bed apartment that completely suits my lifestyle, if I were to want more space, or a house, that just isn't going to happen for me here. We're planning to leave Vancouver in a few years for the Okanagan because we realise that long-term, Vancouver isn't going to fulfill all our needs.

I think you're doing the right thing in accessing your current lifestyle and the lifestyle you want, and baring being unrealistic, you're sensible thinking about the long-term.

scilly

I can understand your frustration .................. but think very seriously before amking the move back to the UK

Over our many years here, and in the UK before that, we met too many people who moved back to England from the US, Australia, Canada, etc only to find that the UK was no longer the UK they had left, and that they found themselves in exactly the same situation, or worse, than they had been in the "other" country.


BTW .... what is a 960 sq maisonette??

do you mean a duplex?

In that case ........... bear in mind that we have lived in a 1000 sq foot one storey plus basement house since 1972, and it has been perfectly adequate. The only advantage we probably have over you is a front and a back garden.

geoff52

UK is not a third world country it has huge amount to offer and in my opinion people dont realize how lucky they are to live in such a country.
I can understand if some one from India is willing to taking a gamble to move to another country.
I moved from UK to GTA, I had University of Toronto willing to sponsor me for PR. The PR visa was issued within six weeks for the whole family.
I had relatives and friends in the GTA who helped us settle in Canada, we bought a house within six weeks of landing in Canada. Rented out the house in London in case we did not like Canada and wanted to return to the UK.

In my opinion immigration from the UK only makes sense if you have the finances and a permanent job already lined up that pays well and you come on a PR visa.

I would have never moved to Vancouver although I have relatives who live there.

The property has always been expensive in Vancouver since the Chinese from Hong Kong started buying and leaving there kids in Vancouver.

JonboyE

Make your mind up.

What with Eastern Europeans in the Midlands and the Chinese in Vancouver it is hard to know where a white man can rest his head these days.

TheAwesomeMatt

I'm moving back to the Island, have you considered living in the CRD? Downtown Victoria might be a little expensive but I'm sure you could get something really nice in Saanich or Langford or even Sidney.

I've got a 2br place sorted that's $1000/mo right in the middle of Fernwood/Rockland/oakbay areas, which I don't think is too bad.

Lychee

Everyone is moving out of Vancouver, regardless of whether they're from the UK or not. It is a Vancouver issue. It is not a "Canada" issue. Have you considered Vancouver Island?

scilly

FYI .............. property has ALWAYS been more expensive in Vancouver, even before your racist comment started to happen.

Immigration in 1968 was waaaaaaaaaaay easier than it is now. But that didn't mean that life was that much easier than it is now!

It wasn't easy for us to buy a house back in 1972, far from it. The mortgage payments and grocery bills took almost the whole of OH's salary, my salary (4 days/week) paid childcare and "jam" such as paying for camping holidays.

We didn't go skiing, to the movies, we only had one car .............. etc etc etc

We saved, our holidays were 2 -3 weeks camping in Provincial and National Parks or Forest sites using a second hand tent bought cheap in 1967, and paying minimum or no site fees.


In my opinion, what one thinks of the UK depends to a large extent on where you are form ............ people living in the north, mining areas, etc may not have the same view as someone living in wealthier areas with more employment opportunities.


You sound thoroughly disillusioned, yet you are still apparently here. One might ask why?

Vulcanoid

Edo

This would depend on his line of work.

Howefamily

This.....is brilliant!!!!