Edo

OK I've recently moved to Calgary and living in temporary accommodation in downtown Calgary which is also where I work. I need to find myself somewhere to live and I have started viewing places but the rents in downtown are quite high as you’d expect. I am currently tossing between whether to live in downtown and be close to work or out of downtown and commute via train and (possibly?) save on rent. Would anybody like to give any advice on different areas of Calgary to someone who is single and new to Canada. I have a few Calgarian friends who have been very helpful and have given me lots of good tips but I would like to have some opinions from fresh or a semi-fresh immigrants’ perspective.

Almost Canadian

Surely, this is a question only you can answer.

If you wish to live outside of downtown and travel into downtown via the C-Train, this will limit the communities you can look at. What do you like to do? What amenities are important to you?

haggis88

personally, no!

the transit system is good enough to get from most of the neighbourhoods into downtown for me so i'm happy enough where i am in the NW!

cheeky_monkey

Depends if you want an extra 30-45mins in bed each morning and be home from work in time to watch 'Canada's got talent'

pkc

If I was single, I would stay in the downtown or close - we rented in Sunnyside when we first arrived and it was a great intro to life in Calgary. C-train can get crowded and the buses are long so dont' underestimate how much longer and more frustrating the commute may become from further out. It really depends on you of course, but you're going to be close to the amenities and nightlife if you're more central and that would win out in my books as long as it's affordable.

Edo

Thats definitely an idea worth considering.

Does anyone know whats the scene on flat sharing in downtown. Is that something that people do here, like sub-letting a room in their apartments or 'condos' as Canadians like to call them?

Steve_

Somewhere near a C-train station, simple as that. I wouldn't want to live downtown personally. Most of Calgary is much of a muchness, the only really different bit is the area around Glenmore Reservoir and the Elbow River which is more upmarket. Also the immediate NE from downtown is a bit shitty, well the bit beyond Kensington anyway, i.e. you can't see the river anymore.

The rest of it is pretty much you get what you pay for. Urban sprawl.

I'd rent someone's basement and take the train in your situation.

paulman214

I moved here on the 1st of march and stayed in my step brothers basement for 2 months. This was in the NW, and I work in the NE.. I would leave the house at 5.55am and be at work for around 7.15. Same amount of time for the return leg.I moved into my apartment in Sunnyside on the 1st of this month, and I now have about 1hr each way commute to work, but I'm alright with that - it gives me time to wake up and deal with the halfwits at work.

Sunnyside is a really nice area if you can find a place, and rent isn't TOO bad here, I'm 860 per month. I seen people advertising basement suites for 1100!

ann m

This.

Rick b

Plenty of people put up flat shares on kijiji. The place where I am in (Connaught/Beltline) had a room in a two bed go for $750 per month last month. It was one of the waitresses at the local pub.

It's a great area to be in to walk downtown and walk to 17th Ave.

Jingsamichty

If I was single in Calgary the only places I'd want to live would be downtown, or Kensington, or possibly Marda Loop.

Life in the family suburbs as a singleton sounds hellish, and I can't think why you'd put yourself through that if you didn't need to.