Move to Montreal - need to buy an house, prices??

Question

Hello everyone and thanks to everyone for reading. I will soon have to move to Montreal, because I want to come and live/work there. At the moment I live in London, and I have been saving money for a while. When I get there I would like to buy a house or a flat, depending on the price and the area. What are the prices over there? Coming from London I would be more than satisfied with a decent sized flat, how much should I eventually spend for it? Any other useful tip or information about moving to Montreal and accomodation is VERY welcome. Thanks everyone!

Answer 1

Hi!:)

Prices in Montreal vary greatly, so it's hard to say. It always depends on what part of Montreal you intend to live, work, etc.

Here's a site where you can browse different condos (here it isn't called Flats;) ), and houses.

http://www.mls.ca/map.aspx?AreaID=369

For example, you can get a 2 bedroom 1 bath condo in the Mont Royal region for 139 000$ .

But some areas are better than others...

Answer 2

It really depends on where you are moving to. You could spend anywhere from $120,000 on up to $500K+, depending on the area you want to move to. If you are looking at a home downtown, expect to pay on the higher end. It really just depends on the area you are looking into. The West Island (suburbs) will get you more for your money, but be prepared for a long commute. I suggest looking at a real estate site such as Royal Lepage or ReMax and checking out the prices there. There are many nice areas in Montreal, downtown, NDG, Westmount, Town of Mount Royal, Outremount, but expect to pay for what your getting. There are nice areas outside the city, where you'll get more for your money. I suggest taking a look at a realtors website and maybe even an edit to let us know the areas you were looking into!

Good luck! :)

Answer 3

Also look at Brossard, it's on the south shore just across the bridge from Montreal. Commuting by bus to downtown Montreal is about 20-25 mins you can also get the metro at Longeuil.

The reason I'm recommending Brossard is that downtown Montreal and the west island are a nightmare and expect tons of roadworks when coming in from the west island in the next few years. Also there are trees and grass in Brossard...something lacking downtown. Oh of course, you get more for your money too, as it is a suburb also.

Royal Lepage have a lot of agents in Brossard.

-edit-

One more thing...there are no supermarkets (in the uk sense, nothing like tesco, asda or morrisons) downtown...so you have to travel a fair bit. There are tons of depanneurs (corner stores) but they are a bit pants. Same goes for shops selling household items/haberdashery...you'd have to travel to Reno Depot (like B&Q) and they are usually in the suburbs.

Answer 4

Well, you can definitely buy a home or flat for a lot cheaper than in Ontario.  A flat should not be too expensive.  Go online and look up realtors in specific cities that you are interested in and go from there.  You might want to love centrally downtown in Montreal and that would probably be better, so that you have access to the english-speaking jobs, because most of them are in downtown Montreal.  Also, you can live in the suburbs and you know that will be cheaper for you too, so look into Laval or Longueiul, or other neighbouring cities.  

Good luck with your move and make sure to start taking French classes now, you will need to know the language!