[HovelinHove]

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.

[The Masked Tulip]

Well done for doing what so many of us talk about!

What line of work are you in?

[24gray24]

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).

[singlemalt]

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.

[TheBlueCat]

24gray24, on 08 April 2012 - 12:06 AM, said:

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.

[TheBlueCat]

HovelinHove, on 07 April 2012 - 11:47 PM, said:

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.

[TheBlueCat]

24gray24, on 08 April 2012 - 12:06 AM, said:

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

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

[Executive Sadman]

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.

[TheBlueCat]

Executive Sadman, on 08 April 2012 - 01:46 AM, said:

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.

[Moneyalchemist]

24gray24, on 08 April 2012 - 12:06 AM, said:

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.

[tahoma]

Best of luck HiH, hope you love it there.

[jfk]

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

[campervanman]

HovelinHove, on 07 April 2012 - 11:47 PM, said:

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

This post has been edited by campervanman: 08 April 2012 - 09:13 AM

[KingBingo]

Moneyalchemist, on 08 April 2012 - 07:25 AM, said:

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.

This post has been edited by KingBingo: 08 April 2012 - 09:20 AM

[MrPin]

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!