vjroB$ said:
Hi All,
As we know that many of us have got the ITAs while thousands of the applicant are about to get their COPR. In order to start a new life in Canada, I was looking out for some help in order to estimate the cost of living in Canada.
Can anybody throw light on the monthly expenses for a family of 2 in Canada?? Or any estimations of how much would be the equivalent expenses in Canada for a monthly expense of Rs. 100,000 in India
Thanks
When we first came to Toronto in late 2012, we had arranged an AirBnb rental in advance for 2 weeks to use while looking for a permanent place. We took a cheap place in Scarborough as our temporary shelter, and boy were we sorry -- it was in the back of a basement, roaches, dirty kitchen! So we found another in North York pretty quickly, though it was more expensive. Still a basement, and far from the subway, but a very nice temporary place. Looking for a permanent apartment was discouraging. The city is huge and sprawling, and unless you have decided to live downtown, it's hard to know where to look. We were shown some MONSTROUS places for $1500 a month. Falling plaster, broken appliances, filthy bathrooms. One had beer bottles stuffed in every closet, in another the oven door fell off when we touched it! Our biggest problem though was one every immigrant faces - in the nicer apartment buildings, they want your work contacts and your Canadian credit report. Of course we didn't have that. We were afraid we were going to have to rent a basement in a private home for a year or so - and we didn't want a basement apartment. Finally, we asked in a pleasantly shabby building in a beautiful neighborhood in the western part of the city. The apartment was 2 bedrooms, huge, clean, and light-filled, though not especially well constructed. All good appliances, no bugs or anything! Convenient to the subway, though it's a long ride downtown. Rent was $1200 and hasn't gone up much since - it's regulated by the city. In our building, bachelors are $900, and 1-bedrooms are $1100. The super liked us and told us she would "sell" us to the landlord even though we were new arrivals, unemployed and without credit records - and she did. We moved into our permanent place a little less than a month after arrival. In addition to kijiji, try Viewit.ca for rentals. Be careful of fakes on both sites, though.
We pay about $75 every 2 months for "hydro", which is what they call electricity - paying separately for electricity is pretty common in Toronto, but it's cheap compared to Europe, anyway. We bought our own window air conditioners after DYING in the heat for a couple of summers. Heat, water, waste removal are included in the rent. We pay another $250 a month for cable TV, unlimited high-speed internet, two smartphone plans with 1 GB data and unlimited Canadian calling, and one basic phone that isn't used very much. Cell phone plans other than the most basic kind seem expensive here compared to Europe and the US - there isn't much competition. We might be able to get internet access more cheaply, but we need it to be reliable as we depend on it for communication, entertainment, and work.
I had to laugh at the post saying since there are fire alarms in every apartment, you should be sure your hob has exhaust. Ours doesn't, and the damn thing goes off every other day! It's good advice.
