Toronto As I see
Accommodation System
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The places to live are referred as apartments, houses, town houses, bungalows, penthouses condominiums. When you rent a dwelling unit in a multi-storey building, it is called apartment. When you buy a dwelling unit in a multi-storey building, it is called condominium. Bungalows and house are separate units which are surrounded by green lawn, a garage and driveway. Townhouses or townhomes do not have much of such facilities. Penthouses are apartments on top floor.
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As a strategy, some people stay in rented place first. These rented places can be a rooming house or an apartment. Rooming houses are generally used by bachelors. As their funds or savings grow, they buy a house. They satisfy their taste of having swimming pool, garden etc. When they grow old and it becomes difficult for them to do work on the house, they sell it and move into a rented apartment. The advertisements for renting a house can be found in newspapers or magazines. You might find a few advertisement on the bus stop at the nearby major intersection.
If you have seen movies like, "Grumpy Old Men", "Honey, I shrunk the kids", "Dennis the menace", "The American Beauty" and "Forrest Gump"; you will get an idea of how a house looks like and to what extent people go to decorate the house and how neighbours interact with you. It will also give you an idea of using basement.
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The general structure of a building in Toronto is made up of wood. The guy walking upstairs may sqeak in your ceiling. The walls are wooden partition with insulation. This is not the same if we look at structures of Mumbai or Dubai. In Mumbai and other Indian cities, you find brick walls, not easy to put nail into. The wooden insulation helps in keeping the heat inside the room. It also withstands expansion and contractions due to the changes in weather conditions. A side effect is, you can overhear shouting of people in next room.
Since Canada is having cold weather, when you move into a new home, you need to check the heating system and insulation of the home. It helps to pay attention. As a "New Canadian", you might not enjoy luxury of checking before entering. It is common to see immigrant struggling to get an accomodation. Get a list of friends' telephone numbers before you migrate. It will help.
You might wonder how much rent is needed to pay for an apartment in Toronto. The answer keeps on changing as per the area you select. However, a general guideline will be as follows :
| Accomodation | Monthly Rent |
Accomodation | Monthly Rent |
| Bachelor | $800 per month |
One Bedroom | $900 per month |
| Two Bedroom | $1000 per month |
Three Bedroom | $1290 per month |
| Two Bedroom House | $1200 per month |
Three Bedroom House | $1500 per month |
| Four Bedroom House | $1800 per month |
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Remember, the above numbers are not absolute. The rates can drop as you select an area. But planning migration with the numbers above will help you to be on a safer side. Throw in amenities like sauna, swimming pool and gymnasium in it, and the rents shoot up by $50 to $200 per month. Some owners rent out apartments with water, heat, hydro and cable included, some leaves on tenants to pay for these monthly expenses. Parking charges range from $30 to $45 per month, subject to increase with rent every year. Certain buildings are a bit away from TTC stops. This means, you need your own vehicle for transportation needs, when you move into these buildings.
Being a multicultural city, you might find your neighbours of different origins, like Italian, Russian, Chinese, Indian, Arab, Hungarian, British, Sri Lankan etc. Sometimes, while you are visiting someone in an apartment, you might smell different types of food in the hallway. This is apartment life, buddy !!
Renting an apartment
Before you decide to rent an apartment, you would certainly like to look at the neighbourhood first. Do you get the amenities you need near to your apartment ? Are you happy at looking at the scene outside your apartment and so on. Once you finalise on apartment, you need to pay two rents at the outset. The first month rent and last month rent are the two rents paid when you rent an apartment. The last month rent (LMR) acts as a deposit with the landlord. The landlord is required to pay an interest at 6% per year on this deposit. You can file a complaint with Ontario Housing Rental Tribunal, if you are not given this interest. The rent increases are approved by the housing board. But you can count a rent increase of 3 to 4 per cent every year for your budget calculations.
You need to know how many appliances you get when you rent an apartment. You might be given at least two appliances viz, refrigerator and a cooking range. You are also given five pieces in washroom viz, bath tub, commode, sink, mirror and a closet. When you rent an apartment, it is advisable to check if each appliances you get is in working condition and the plugs for telephone lines are in working condition. It saves you from following up with Super at getting things done.
Buying a house
When you buy your house, you need to look at the location and your finances in the first place. To finance your home requirement, there are various mortgages available. These mortgages are not easy to get if you have not finished one year of working in Canada. You need to plan for down payment as well. This means, you can postpone your plans of buying your own property till you reach the savings of more than $25,000 and have steady income to support your regular life.
Once you finalise on a house with your builder as which house you plan to buy, the financial arrangement process starts at one end. At other end you need to specify to the builder as to what colours you would like to see in your house. You can choose to specify what type of carpet would you like in your house in each room and what type of flooring and ceiling you would like to have in your house. The choices could mean expenses or no expenses. You are also given a house manual, so that you know what equipments are kept in your house and at which locations and what you are supposed to do with it.
More details about buying a house
You may check these websites for condos or houses and related publications
Warning !!
It is illegal to leave a child, under 12 years old, alone at home.
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