Vancouver area, rent or buy in 2-5 years perspective

[ValeryN]

Hello all!

I'm new in Canada and just switched to a work permit from business visa.
My work permit will be valid for 1 year and I think it won't be a big issue to get it prolonged, since I already have full-time employment contract without termination date and have a lot of work experience in my area in total.
I haven't decided yet, but most probably will start immigration process by FSW or CEC program later, after I'll have enough Canadian work experience.

Looking for your advice here.

What to do better in case I plan to stay in Canada for 2-5 year - rent an apartment or to buy one.

Don't really need a house of huge apartment. 1-2 bed rooms will be fine, better if close to public transport.
To give you an idea about location preferences - Burnaby in generic is considered as very good and convenient location.

To buy - mortgage will be required, so, don't want to buy something more expensive than 200k and looking for ~150k options.
In case of buying - ready to invest 30k-50k as a first payment.

Expected salary range is - 80-110k a year (as is, taxes will be applied).

Thanks you for you responses and advices in advance!

PS. I pay rent for 1 bed room apartment now, it is ~850$ a month.

 

[scylla]

Have you spent any time on the MSL site (Canadian real estate listings) looking at properties for sale? Finding out what your money will buy may make this decision easier for you. The link to the MLS site here here:

http://www.mls.ca/splash.aspx

If you want to spend $200K or less, I think you're looking at a one bedroom.

 

[ValeryN]

Thank you for your reply.

I already spent some time looking for options to buy and actually wanted to get an advice regarding:

What to do better in general - rent or buy, under the described in my first post circumstances.

I also thought that experienced forum members may comment if "buy" option is realistic. Don't really need links to real estate sites. Just people's opinion.

 

[Baloo]

The problem is that your questions are specific to you, others will be likely to have different requirements.

e.g. Rental property requires less initial cost and can be vacated quite easily (by arrangement).

If someone has minimal savings or needs to be able to move at short notice (for a new job) then rental property makes sense.
But not everyone has these requirements, so the choice really depends on what you want/need.

FWIW there are always lots of differing opinions about the housing market, some say that there will be an "adjustment" in the near future,
some people talk of the market bubble bursting this year, others believe that house prices will always rise....

You need to decide if you want to pay rent (with known costs) and have no return after five years, or buy a property and take a risk on getting a return (or having a loss) in five years.