Hi All,

We're moving to Canada soon, and as usual we have no clue what is the best place to live (at least for the first year of settling in).

Here's the info and what we are looking for:

Type: Rent
Range: up to CAD$1,300 max
Bedrooms: 3
Baths: 2

We are thinking of an "Apartment" with an indoor pool, parking, gym?, security?, and heating (since we are new to the country so we have no clue!).

Area with:
- Good reputable Schools (a must!)
- Near Toronto (or in it)
- Near Malls
- Near Parks
- Near sport clubs (soccer, ice hocky, swimming, martial arts maybe?)
- Near public transportation (won't have a car at the beginning at least!)
- As safe as possible (low crime)

Note: we will be new in town, so we will want to be near the action (exibitions, fun fairs, concerts...etc.).

I know there is no perfect place to match ALL our needs, but we just need to know areas/districts to check for rent (there are thousands of option on line!!).

Thanks

I'm from Toronto and I think you will find that some people prefer east Toronto ie. Scarborough, East York, The Beaches, etc or a little further like Pickering, Oshawa.

Others, like myself, grew up and prefer the west side of Toronto ie, Etobicoke, High Park, Mimico (south Etobicoke) or a little further out like Mississauga, Oakville.

Others may go to north Toronto (or just outside) ie Brampton, Vaughn, Woodbridge etc.

So be prepared to hear alot of different areas. Most of these would be either on the TTC line or GO line, so downtown would be accessible.

Definitely stay away from anyplace on or near Jane St - high crime area.

The area you choose to live may also depend on where your job(s) are. There are malls pretty much everywhere.

I would also check out the following website and put in your requirements and see what comes up and then come back and ask about the area.

www.realtor.ca

Hi ElkHot,

Like you we are planning to land soon, probably around end of June....waiting for our passport requests, but thats just a minor issue!! We haven't got a clue where to start looking for a place to settle either, however our criteria seems pretty much as you have addressed, we have two young children so priority is schools,leisure,good area.

We have looked probably a bit futher afield to GTA, Barrie, London etc just going round in circles at the moment! My husband is looking to join the police, however is a little undecided as to OPP or regional police force so trying to weigh everything up.

Hopefully this thread will get some useful information.

Good luck Mel

$1300 isn't enough. Have a look at www.viewit.ca

See here for a good description of neighbourhoods: http://www.boldts.net/Toronto.shtml

I laughed out loud at the idea of Mimico as a place to live but note that the person from there sensibly fled the country.

I agree.

$1300 isn't enough. On top of that in the condo's/apartments you will also have a high monthly maintenance fee for the amenities (pool, gym, underground parking, security) that you seek.

If you axe the amenities then you have an outside chance of getting somewhere east of the DVP, North of the 401 or 4 or 5km west of Downtown.

That's not an issue if you rent a condo apartment, the owner pays the condo fee. The tenant just pays the rent, phone, TV and internet bills, sometimes not even the TV and internet ones.

Still, finding a rental condo with three bedrooms would be a challenge.

I didn't realise that. Although I noticed there was no maintenance fee in my building- which I pretty much attributed to the fact that all we have is a Super Intendant and that's about it.

I got very excited about buying a condo 3/4 months ago in Downtown but when I realised the decent buildings all had $600+ a month in maintenance that dream quickly died.

We rented a single bed furnished condo in south Etobicoke for 1350$ a month for initial stay (utilities incl), but without furniture it wouldnt be less than 1200.. So better you look in little far area from downtown for your range.

Took at look at the neighbourhoods site just out of curiosity (since we used to live in Toronto). Can't say as it had the info I'd be wanting if I moved to Toronto. Just as an example, the description of Don Mills Rd/Eglinton fails to mention the horrible state of the apartment buildings around there. Certainly NOT a place I would be willing to live in myself (let alone raise kids in). Unless things have drastically changed in the last 8 yrs, a lot of those buildlings were disgusting. One we went to see, the ceiling in the lobby was falling down and there was a massive fly infestation. We didn't get past the lobby to find out what else was infested!

Honestly, I think the only way to choose an area of the GTA (unless you personally know someone living there whose opinion you trust) is to get there and drive around. Look at apartments, look at schools, look at neighbourhoods. And read the newspapers....find out where the crime reports are coming from (Jane St. is bad for that, but so are other areas of the city).

But isn't that usual for rental apartment buildings? The high rise buildings I've been in (Don Mills, Yonge/Eg, Yonge/Shepherd, various bits of Scarborough, Port Credit, along Sherbourne, various other bits of the GTA) were all very much in the manner of high rise buildings on council estates in the UK. Lifts that smell of piss, cockroaches, mould, heating systems that run flat out in summer but stop in the winter, water that runs when it feels like it. Always the smell in the corridor of something that must be some form of food cooking but is unidentifiable beyond that. At the better buildings the drugs are sold at the back.

People who've been here for any length of time either live in houses (perhaps divided into flats), in condo apartments (owned or rented) or in Co-ops. High rise rental buildings are very much for new immigrants or the long term poor.

[People who've been here for any length of time either live in houses (perhaps divided into flats), in condo apartments (owned or rented) or in Co-ops. High rise rental buildings are very much for new immigrants or the long term poor.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for that quote that is exactly the kind of info we need. So if we want something a bit nicer avoid high rise. I am glad as I dont particularly want a high rise block. Maybe 11 years of working in social housing in the UK, is instinctive that high rises mean you will have a problem with something!!!

I think that holds for here too though, admittedly, most people I've known who lived in high rise rentals were on rent-geared-to-income or a similar government scheme. It's possible that there's a nice high rise rental building somewhere.

I think you have to start from the location of your job and how urban you want to be. There are urban areas that have a large proportion of rental properties (low rise buildings, divided houses, whole houses) and yet are very desirable (note that I'm not saying they have cheap rental properties); the Beach being the example I know best, Yonge/Eglinton being another. You can also find rental houses in the suburbs, purple80's Bolton example being one.

Forget co-ops, btw, the waiting lists make them an infeasible place to start.

What is the difference between a condo apartment (owned or rented) and a rental apartment? The reason I ask is that I do not know and I think it would be of benefit for those people looking from afar to also understand.

Also what is classified as high rise? Again I do not really know but when last in the city I was in a rented condo that was 21 stories high and I thought it was quite nice and would happily recommend it.

The latter is in a building where all the apartments are rented. The building will be owned by a company in the business of renting accomodation (it may be that the company is owned by an individual known to the tenants but the rent will be paid to the company).

Here are some examples of rental buidlings:

http://www.goldencockroach.org/rated.php

A condo apartment building is one where the apartments belong to individual owners who may live there or who may rent the apartment to someone else. It's not uncommon for someone to both live in a unit and own others in the same building and rent those out. The tenant enters into a rental agreement with the unit owner. There are a gazillion condo buildings downtown, just about everything south of the Gardiner not named for a hero of a leftist revolution.

Condo buildings are managed by a board of owners, typically also residents, their interest is in maintaining the value of the building (and living comfortably). Rental buildings are run for profit by an absentee landlord, the landlord's interest is simply in getting the most rent for the least maintenance.

I believe "high rise" originally meant "too tall for the firewagon ladder", 7 floors maybe? But I'm thinking of buildings of 20+ floors, often treated with a white coating that's now flaking off. St Jamestown offers many examples.
This sort of thing:

http://www.blogto.com/city/2009/11/s...n_a_new_light/

One thing to look at with a condo building (if you can find out) is how many of the units are owner-occupied. The ones that have a high % of rentals can often be less cared-for than owner occupied ones. We looked at buying a condo in Toronto and the roach killer under the kitchen sink was pretty much a deciding factor against it for us. That building, however, had quite a high rental rate.