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I Bought A House...in Canada


HovelinHove

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HOLA441

A few may remember me from years back. I was one of the miserable disenfranchised minority of renters in Britain, abandonded by successive governments desperate to keep the gravy train rolling for their chums in the financial sector. No longer. I have bought a property in Canada where I have lived and worked for nearly a year. I resisted the calls to buy a grotty two bed in hove for a ridiculous price for 8 long years. I'd love to say I squirreled away what I saved by renting, but that would be a lie, I pissed most of it up the wall on beer and holidays. There is no justice though...I got lucky last year...I walked from a company on a Friday in the uk with a tasty package and started a new job in Canada on the Monday...relocation thrown in.

Since then I pretty quickly Sussed that Canada is in a bubble, but if you choose the right area there are still bargains to be had. I snapped up a four bed house with a pool, an in law apartment, on a lovely oldish street where I can walk tothe pub and the beach (albeit on a lake) and be in downtown Toronto quicker than it would take me to get to London from hove all for the same price as a two bed in hove. All I have to do now is not piss my money up the wall down the pub, avoid having a heart attack shovelling snow, and things should be pretty cushdy. (mortgage free in 10 years).

The moral of the story is get the hell out of the uk, if you can, while you can.

For those thinking of canada, I highly recommend it. Come with your eyes open and it is a great place.

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HOLA442
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HOLA443

Toronto is as boring as buggery. The people are just so...frightened of telling the truth. Instead, everyone loves their job, and loves their boss, and loves their city, and next week you hear the same fellow took a dive off his high rise; and no one dares to mention the motorway cutting off the view of the lake. If you do get real, you get ostracised. They just don't know what a good time looks like, and would ban it if they ever found one breaking out.

Not to knock Canada, apart from the weather it's something special, but Toronto is awful. Cow Town just about sums it up (its original name).

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HOLA444

Congrats OP. I hope it continues to work out.

Spent a week in Canada a few years ago including a few days in Toronto. I instantly liked the feel of the country and the economy seemed good, some of the people were annoyingly slow paced though. I'd consider moving abroad but Mrs Singlemalt would never leave her family behind. I suspect that the government know that the latter is true for most people in the UK so they aren't overly concerned about taxpaying labor fleeing the country in droves.

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Guest tbatst2000

Toronto is as boring as buggery. The people are just so...frightened of telling the truth. Instead, everyone loves their job, and loves their boss, and loves their city, and next week you hear the same fellow took a dive off his high rise; and no one dares to mention the motorway cutting off the view of the lake. If you do get real, you get ostracised. They just don't know what a good time looks like, and would ban it if they ever found one breaking out.

Not to knock Canada, apart from the weather it's something special, but Toronto is awful. Cow Town just about sums it up (its original name).

That's not the Toronto I live in, but each to his own I guess.

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HOLA446
Guest tbatst2000

A few may remember me from years back. I was one of the miserable disenfranchised minority of renters in Britain, abandonded by successive governments desperate to keep the gravy train rolling for their chums in the financial sector. No longer. I have bought a property in Canada where I have lived and worked for nearly a year. I resisted the calls to buy a grotty two bed in hove for a ridiculous price for 8 long years. I'd love to say I squirreled away what I saved by renting, but that would be a lie, I pissed most of it up the wall on beer and holidays. There is no justice though...I got lucky last year...I walked from a company on a Friday in the uk with a tasty package and started a new job in Canada on the Monday...relocation thrown in.

Since then I pretty quickly Sussed that Canada is in a bubble, but if you choose the right area there are still bargains to be had. I snapped up a four bed house with a pool, an in law apartment, on a lovely oldish street where I can walk tothe pub and the beach (albeit on a lake) and be in downtown Toronto quicker than it would take me to get to London from hove all for the same price as a two bed in hove. All I have to do now is not piss my money up the wall down the pub, avoid having a heart attack shovelling snow, and things should be pretty cushdy. (mortgage free in 10 years).

The moral of the story is get the hell out of the uk, if you can, while you can.

For those thinking of canada, I highly recommend it. Come with your eyes open and it is a great place.

Similar story for me. I had a mortgage free small house in the UK a million miles away from work and swapped it for a larger, also mortgage free, house in a great area in downtown Toronto 15 minutes cycle ride from work.

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Guest tbatst2000

Cow Town just about sums it up (its original name).

Oh, and that should be Hog Town. I think Calgary is Cow Town.

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Guest tbatst2000

Wonder how easy it is to work in Canada and live in America. Some of the US towns near Vancouver are dirt cheap in comparison, and according to streetview there isnt so much as a fence seperating the two countries.

Don't kid yourself, there's a full border crossing at all points with 1 hour wait times at least. Also, the visa issues would be a nightmare if you weren't a citizen of both. Oh, and the tax would be a real pain too.

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HOLA4410

Toronto is as boring as buggery. The people are just so...frightened of telling the truth. Instead, everyone loves their job, and loves their boss, and loves their city, and next week you hear the same fellow took a dive off his high rise; and no one dares to mention the motorway cutting off the view of the lake. If you do get real, you get ostracised. They just don't know what a good time looks like, and would ban it if they ever found one breaking out.

Not to knock Canada, apart from the weather it's something special, but Toronto is awful. Cow Town just about sums it up (its original name).

Great and insightful post about the people.

I lived in Vancouver a while back - a great city, wonderful scenery etc - but "The people are just so...frightened of telling the truth"

Makes for a boring place in the long run.

When I was there it reminded me of the movie "Casablanca" - a place full of recent immigrants from everywhere looking longingly over the US border - to a place they longed to live in but were disallowed through crazy immigration laws.

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HOLA4412

good on you OP.

as for moving - too right, this country has nothing to offer, especially our kids (who I would hate to enter adulthood in), me and mrs jfk are seriously looking into emigration to new zealand in a few years.

f*ck this squalid shit hole

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HOLA4413

A few may remember me from years back. I was one of the miserable disenfranchised minority of renters in Britain, abandonded by successive governments desperate to keep the gravy train rolling for their chums in the financial sector. No longer. I have bought a property in Canada where I have lived and worked for nearly a year. I resisted the calls to buy a grotty two bed in hove for a ridiculous price for 8 long years. I'd love to say I squirreled away what I saved by renting, but that would be a lie, I pissed most of it up the wall on beer and holidays. There is no justice though...I got lucky last year...I walked from a company on a Friday in the uk with a tasty package and started a new job in Canada on the Monday...relocation thrown in.

Since then I pretty quickly Sussed that Canada is in a bubble, but if you choose the right area there are still bargains to be had. I snapped up a four bed house with a pool, an in law apartment, on a lovely oldish street where I can walk tothe pub and the beach (albeit on a lake) and be in downtown Toronto quicker than it would take me to get to London from hove all for the same price as a two bed in hove. All I have to do now is not piss my money up the wall down the pub, avoid having a heart attack shovelling snow, and things should be pretty cushdy. (mortgage free in 10 years).

The moral of the story is get the hell out of the uk, if you can, while you can.

For those thinking of canada, I highly recommend it. Come with your eyes open and it is a great place.

I remember a few years ago on the TV series 'no going back' about someone who had moved to Canada. Pissing money up the wall and shovelling snow were issues but nothing compared to bears wandering about in the garden :blink:

Edited by campervanman
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HOLA4414

I lived in Vancouver a while back - a great city, wonderful scenery etc - but "The people are just so...frightened of telling the truth"

Somebody who knows Canada help me out here, what's up with this comment about be afraid to tell the truth?

My spider-senses tell me it could just be that they lack the chattering class (Guardian/New York Times reading) folk, but I could be wrong. Just not sure what to make of the comment.

[edit] Oh and Hovelinhove, CONGRATULATIONS, if it were not for family I would have long since done the same.

Edited by KingBingo
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HOLA4415

One of my colleagues recently went back to Vancouver! You know what? I think they are having a housing bubble there too!

Still, it looks nice!

Congratulations on your move! It seem positive!

BTW, I used to live in Hove! :blink:

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HOLA4416
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HOLA4417

Somebody who knows Canada help me out here, what's up with this comment about be afraid to tell the truth?

My spider-senses tell me it could just be that they lack the chattering class (Guardian/New York Times reading) folk, but I could be wrong. Just not sure what to make of the comment.

[edit] Oh and Hovelinhove, CONGRATULATIONS, if it were not for family I would have long since done the same.

My uncle lived in Canada for just over 6 years - gave up cos he just couldn't take the 6+months of freezing cold

Canada is infested with Masons in every town - that's why they are so stiff and false putting on faux "AIRS"

They can't 'let themselves go' - cos they would betray themselves or others eg by having more than a beer or two

What a life eh?

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HOLA4418

I remember a few years ago on the TV series 'no going back' about someone who had moved to Canada. Pissing money up the wall and shovelling snow were issues but nothing compared to bears wandering about in the garden :blink:

Haven't seen any bears wandering around, but we did have a coyote on the front lawn a few weeks back.

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HOLA4419

Haven't seen any bears wandering around, but we did have a coyote on the front lawn a few weeks back.

You filthy beast! :lol::blink:

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HOLA4420

One of my colleagues recently went back to Vancouver! You know what? I think they are having a housing bubble there too!

Still, it looks nice!

Congratulations on your move! It seem positive!

BTW, I used to live in Hove! :blink:

Vancouver has a massive bubble. Toronto has a condo bubble. I didn't buy in either of those cities, and wouldn't as I am over big "multicultural" cities.

Tulip...I'm in pharmaceuticals. In the uk I had no future if I wanted a home, now I do.

I agree with quite a few of the negative comments. The canadians do seem very reserved...almost Swiss like, until you get to know them, then they are incredibly warm and will do anything for you. I also agree that they don't speak out much about stuff. The free masons comment may well have an element of truth, and I sense that society is quite controlled here, but it's no worse than the uk where you can protest all you like and it won't get you anywhere. I also think there's another reason why Canadians are a bit sleepy when it comes to activism...they have it good and know it. Life here is really good compared to so many other countries, including south of the border, so I think their attitude is a case of not wanting to rock the boat.

As for being envious of the us...really? I could go and work on the west coast of the states if I wanted, but would much rather be in Ontario.

As for he winters it's all down to attitude. You either endure them or make the most of them. I don't shovel snow...I have petrol powered snow blower and that is so much fun to use. If you embrace the winter, go snow shoeing and cross country skiing on the many amazing blue sky days, it is a wonderful season, albeit maybe a month too long...but then the summers and autumns are to die for...again I could have lived in Vancouver, but chose not to as I have seen enough dreary rainy days and the less of those I have the better.

As I said, if you come hear with you eyes open...aware the people don't spend their spare time down the pub getting lashed, and that the weather and other things are different, then it is the best move you can make...and it's not far to home. I went back last weekend for 3 days for my dads 70th, bit tiring, but doable...unlike new Zealand, where I will probably retire as my wife is a kiwi.

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HOLA4421
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HOLA4422

After renting for years in Wiltshire I too moved to Canada, just under three years ago. I live 65 miles from Toronto and work in a suburb of that city. My four bedroomed detached house with double garage cost me about 170K sterling (and still worth about that now). There are houses in my town (smaller but otherwise fine) for well under 100K sterling. True, Toronto is a bubble (though not as bad as Vancouver) but when we went to get a mortgage they were quite strict with the lending criteria.

Winters in this part are fairly brief and not too brutal (this winter was almost a complete non event). The roads are wide and traffic outside the Greater Toronto Area is sparse. Diesel for my VW Jetta costs $1.25 per litre (about 79p).

My only regret is that I didn't move here years ago!

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Guest tbatst2000

Helathcare is free at the point of delivery, like the NHS, but it's arranged somewhat differently. For Ontario:

http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/public/programs/ohip/

You have to pay full cost for prescription drugs unless you're poor or over 65 although many jobs come with insurance and you can buy it yourself for catastrophic costs (e.g. more than 2K per year) quite cheaply. Also, there are state schemes in most provinces that kick in at higher levels:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/LOP/ResearchPublications/prb0906-e.htm

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