Recently I’ve been looking for a new place to live in Toronto as my lease is up at the end of April. I’m currently living with five other people, yes you read that correctly, FIVE OTHER PEOPLE. We live in a townhouse by York University and commuting anywhere is a hassle.
You’d think with all of the buildings, houses, basement apartments, alleys and dumpsters that finding a place to live in Toronto would be simple. Although there are a ton of places to live, not all of them are fitting. I mean a dumpster does sound nice, rent-free and cozy, but think about the rats—and the garbage!
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- How much are you willing (or have) to spend on rent + utilities?
- Do you need a roommate or are you going to live on your own?
- Do you have a pet? (having one will limit your choices)
- How far do you want to commute to work/school?
- Do you own a car?
- Are you planning on keeping that car?
- Do you want to live in a building/basement/dumpster, or will you take what you can get?
- Do you have a preferred area you’d like to live in?
- Will your rental unit need any repairs or or need a professional repaint job done, or would you be content with the environment?
- Do you want to be by a subway line?
Once you have an answer to all of these questions it’s time to start looking. There’s no point in looking if your lease is up in five months. None of the same places will likely be available and your possible roommates may have already moved in together without you. It’s good to do this if you want to get an idea what rent will be in certain areas, but don’t fall in love with any of the places.
In my case I’m looking for a 2-bedroom place, anywhere near a subway line that’s not too far north. I need a somewhat short distance to downtown so I can film more YouTube videos!
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This proved a lot more difficult than I originally thought it would be. First of all kijiji.ca does not offer all of its listings on a map, which is very frustrating when you find an awesome place only to find out it’s in Mississauga.
One thing you can do is visit sites like www.caprent.com which lists a ton of buildings in Toronto, as well as other cities. I also suggest contacting buildings directly or using View It, Pad Mapper (which combines the listings from several sites) and last but not least, Kijiji.ca. You can even try your luck and Google Apartments for rent in Toronto.
Do you have any suggestions to ease the pain of finding a place to live in Toronto? Let us know in the comments, who knows we might end up living together!
