Recently landed - our experiences in Toronto

[bkuper]

Hi all,

we recently did our landing in Toronto.
Everything was quite smooth at the airport, although it took a while for the Customs agent to go through the "Goods accompanying" and "Goods to Follow" lists. We had to have two lists as we have returned to Australia to sell our home and finish off some other commitments. We will make our final move in April.

Anyway, Toronto is great. The city is vibrant and interesting. We were fortunate to stay with some family in the suburbs as well as in a downtown hotel, so we had the best of both worlds.

One of the things we made sure that we did was to carefully compare the cost of living in Toronto compared to where we are in Australia. We drew up lists of things we wanted to look at, such as cars, groceries and white goods and made a point of visiting appropriate stores. In some ways, Toronto was cheaper, but not in others. We also spent a lot of time speaking with the family and friends we have there. Most of them have lived there between 7-30 years.

For example, our property taxes in Melbourne are approx $1200 per year, whereas in Toronto they will be approx $4000-$5000 per year.
Houses are cheaper in Toronto, but still very expensive. If you want to stay within 10-30km of the city, the prices seem to be from $400,000 to $550,000 and upwards for a decent 3 bed 2 bath family home. The big bonus is that Canadian houses all have basements, whereas there is no such thing in Australia.

Groceries seemed to be approx 20-30% cheaper.

We were not really able to get a feel for salaries during our 10 days there. Unfortunately most job listings do not list the salary so it's quite hard to gauge.

We were able to open up a bank account with no hassles and were given debit cards right away.

I can't think of anything else right now as I'm quite jetlagged, but feel free to ask me.

[fernendez]

Congrats! What was you experience at the Airport and what was the nature of the people that you met their?

[kchakus]

Hi Bkuper,
   Thanks for sharing your experiences about landing and comparing the prices of housing and groceries between Toronto and Melbourne.
    Have a few queries:
    1. You had mentioned the cost of a decent house to be around 400,000 to 550,000$. I guess the currency
        is Canadian Dollars. What could be the size of the plot, will it be furnished? If so, what can one expect?
    2. What about the cost of cars and cost of gasoline? Insurance for the car?
    3. What about the IT job market? What professionals are in hot demand at the moment?

    I don't want to bombard you with lots of questions straightaway and will let it a few at a time.

    Looking forward to your response

[fariza]

Congrats bkuper for making successful landing and coming back... You perhaps one of the senior member of leader among the Sydney CHC applicant to be able to made this out. A real life comparison of lifestyle and other aspect between Canada and Australia would be something really expected from you in details when you find time. Pl also find time to advise us who are waiting to made their way to Canada from Australia.....

If possible pl also highlight the short stay accommodation options

[Mezo2009]

Thanks bkuper for your input. Wish you happy life in Toronto.

May be I would love to know how you cope with thecold weather in Canada compared to the australian warmth? Is it of much concern?

Cheers

Mezo

[SISH7255]

Wish you all the best for your move from Australia to Canada

[adamvaid]

Congrats bkuper.Plz share ur exp. When u get time.as comparing to aus .which one is best. Aus or canada. In terms of income,cost of living,lifestyle. Etc....Thanks

[Whocares]

This is your life and your decision my friend...But many people are leaving Canada to Australia for better opportunities. 3 of my friends left Canada to Australia (of course after getting the passport).

I am just wondering why most people are leaving Australia for Canada?

My friends are physicians, so maybe this is the reason?

[bkuper]

Thanks all,

fernendez, the people at the airport were friendly and helpful. Most of the formalities were done within 10 minutes, except for the customs part which I mentioned before.

kchakus, the housing plots are very small. Most of the suburban ones we saw had the houses packed together quite closely. To be honest, it's a bit like a sardine can, with everyone just a few meters apart. Houses do have back yards, but again, they are not big at all - the ones we saw would not be big enough for kids to really run around in. I suppose they are kept small because people don't really want to do maintenance. During winter, everything is snowed under, so the back yard is really ignored for a good part of the year.
Cars are really subjective - it really depends on waht you can afford and what you want. You can get a basic VW Jetta for under $20,000, or you can get a Ford Edge 4WD for over $40,000.
I don't know anything about the IT market as neither my hubby nor I are in that field.

fariza (sorry to see you are still waiting). We stayed in a hotel for 9 nights which we found through hotels.com. I can't comment on short stay places at the moment because we did not explore that option for us at the time.

Mezo2009, the cold was manageable. The average daytime temp was approx -6C and overnight was approx -9C. However, since our departure it has become much colder, with the temps now approx -11C to -19C. For clothing we definitely needed scarves, good gloves, good head covering and good thermals. Now that we are back in Australia, Melbourne has had temps of 40C for the last few days, so it really has been one extreme to another!

adamvaid, I'll be able to give a good comparison when we have lived there for a year or so.

Whocares, I appreciate your concerns. However, people will always move around the world for any number of reasons. We are not the only ones moving from Australia to Canada and to be honest, your friends may find it quite tough here too. People have all sorts of different priorities for themselves and their families which can't always be met by the place they are living in. For example, in our situation, we have more friends and family living in Toronto than in Australia. We are at a different stage in our lives and want to be closer to family as we get older. Not only that, but we like the idea of the North American lifestyle and travel opportunities which we'll be able to take advantage of. It's not all about the work and the money.

[fariza]

Thanks BK.. Look forward to read out your further posts, counter/cross responses n share  

[rocky272727]

Welcome to Canada

[clubcanada]

 @ bkuper :
welcome to canada!

comparing single prices one-on-one between countries does not make sense. There're way too many factors to be considered. The best way to do a financial comparison is after settlement and routine starts (after finding a job): look at what's left from our income after each month or even after one year. This is what you should compare...

[Mezo2009]

Awesome. Thanks for such feedback.

You do well mate.

Cheers

Thanks all,

fernendez, the people at the airport were friendly and helpful. Most of the formalities were done within 10 minutes, except for the customs part which I mentioned before.

kchakus, the housing plots are very small. Most of the suburban ones we saw had the houses packed together quite closely. To be honest, it's a bit like a sardine can, with everyone just a few meters apart. Houses do have back yards, but again, they are not big at all - the ones we saw would not be big enough for kids to really run around in. I suppose they are kept small because people don't really want to do maintenance. During winter, everything is snowed under, so the back yard is really ignored for a good part of the year.
Cars are really subjective - it really depends on waht you can afford and what you want. You can get a basic VW Jetta for under $20,000, or you can get a Ford Edge 4WD for over $40,000.
I don't know anything about the IT market as neither my hubby nor I are in that field.

fariza (sorry to see you are still waiting). We stayed in a hotel for 9 nights which we found through hotels.com. I can't comment on short stay places at the moment because we did not explore that option for us at the time.

Mezo2009, the cold was manageable. The average daytime temp was approx -6C and overnight was approx -9C. However, since our departure it has become much colder, with the temps now approx -11C to -19C. For clothing we definitely needed scarves, good gloves, good head covering and good thermals. Now that we are back in Australia, Melbourne has had temps of 40C for the last few days, so it really has been one extreme to another!

adamvaid, I'll be able to give a good comparison when we have lived there for a year or so.

Whocares, I appreciate your concerns. However, people will always move around the world for any number of reasons. We are not the only ones moving from Australia to Canada and to be honest, your friends may find it quite tough here too. People have all sorts of different priorities for themselves and their families which can't always be met by the place they are living in. For example, in our situation, we have more friends and family living in Toronto than in Australia. We are at a different stage in our lives and want to be closer to family as we get older. Not only that, but we like the idea of the North American lifestyle and travel opportunities which we'll be able to take advantage of. It's not all about the work and the money.

[Deeaar]

Hi all,

we recently did our landing in Toronto.

Congrats and thanx for ur valuable info , spclly on housing .
Keep in tch .

Best wishes for ur future plans .

[victor.shareen]

Hey bkuper

congrats....we are planning on making toronto our landing spot too....Since we have a 1yr old baby the move is kind of scary too...any words of advice any idea about the jobs in demand and localities preferable?