Expat Forum For People Moving Overseas And Living Abroad banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Where to live - Toronto area

3K views 20 replies 9 participants last post by  OldPro 
#1 ·
Hi All,

It's looking likely that I'll be transferring with my company from Australia to Canada later this year. The office I'll be working in is in Mississauga.

We've done some research and aren't sure of the best area to look for a house in the GTA. Mississauga itself? Oakville? Brampton? Etobicoke? etc.

It will be my wife and 2 small children (4 & 1yo) moving so we'd like family-friendly but also somewhere with a bit of life and excitement! I'm guessing our budget could be classified as upper medium.

Thanks in advance for your tips! I'm sure all the areas have pros and cons but all feedback appreciated.
 
#2 ·
You should know that the City of Mississauga covers a huge swath of land. So question to you is, how long is your desired maximum commute.
If you provide a location for your work we can best determine a home location for you in line with your desired commute.
Will you buy or rent?
 
#10 · (Edited)
Mississauga, Brampton, Milton, Oakville, Burlington, etc. are all good choices and Toronto is less than half an hour down the highway from all of them.
Huh? Do you actually know the GTA? Burlington isn't 30 mins from Toronto even with no traffic. I doubt any of the rest are either during regular commuting times. I used to live in Brampton and it took me 20-25 mins to get to my job in Mississauga and I know that traffic is a lot worse now than it was then. I would never have made it to Toronto in 30 mins.
 
#6 ·
Look at all neighbourhoods along Dundas in Oakville. Good neighbourhoods and within your commute. You will find newer townhouses within your budget, or older detached houses.
Forget about Milton, Brampton, Etobicoke and Burlington, as they are not within 30 minutes commute during rush hour. Border of Burlington and Oakville can be ok too, and some parts of Mississauga, but no idea about the quality of the neighbourhoods there.

(hope you are talking about 30 minutes by car?)

Is your wife planning to work, or be a stay-at-home mom?
 
#7 ·
Etibicoke is _never_ 30 minutes by car from downtown except perhaps between 2am-4:30am.

Agree with the suggestion of Oakville... easy access into the city. My sister in law's parents live that way and come into town to see her and my brother and the kids in a regular basis.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MarylandNed
#18 ·
I suggest you try the website realtor.ca to find townhouse, condo or house rentals. Using the map facility within this site is a good way to evaluate distance from your workplace. Also, use google maps and street view to get a sense of the location and nearby facilities. Oakville and Mississauga are likely your best bets.

I am not sure of the rental system in Australia but here you will likely have to pay utilities (water, heat, electricity) beyond the rental costs if you are renting a house or townhouse. In a condo these are usually included in the rental costs, but parking may be extra.

The GTA is a great place to live.

Good luck to you and your family.
 
#19 ·
All I know is that taking the Gardiner Expressway from Wellington Street West (at John Street) area out to Pearson Airport at 1 p.m. on a sunny weekday afternoon in May is a BIG mistake.

Traffic is like a frigging parking lot.

Hell, even headed west out towards Hamilton on the Gardiner in the afternoon of a Saturday in early January in snow flurries, the roads are busier than one would reasonably expect them to be.

Craziness, I tell you!
 
#21 ·
Are you guys here to argue commute times or to help the OP? Where is the 'dislike' button?

Ausnuck, what you need to know is that the GTA is a nightmare for commuting to work from anywhere to anywhere and that your 30 minute criteria may not land you in a neighbourhood that you are happy with.

I would suggst you pick the neighbourhood and live with the commute whatever it might be. The average commute for Toronto and the entire province can be seen here: Toronto area commutes add to time crunch, study shows | Toronto Star
As you will see, the average is 47 minutes and by inference, the average in the GTA is around an hour.

Most of the GTA area is wall to wall built up with suburban cookie cutter houses, townhouses, apartments, all within a few feet of each other. Most of the area is not 'neighbourhoods' in my description of what a neighbourhood is at all. Most areas are indistinguishable from each other.

Since your job will be near Winston Churchill and the QEW and I am guessing your employer will be paying for a hotel until you find a place to stay, I would suggest you consider the Hilton Garden Inn which is more or less right at that intersection.

From there I would suggest you take a drive south down WC to the Lakeshore and then go west to Burlington and then east to Port Credit. Look at Burlington, Oakville, Bronte, Port Credit streets between the Lakeshore and the QEW. Those 4 places do have an actual town centre to them unlike some of the other places that have been named here. Places like Brampton have a town centre that basically consists of a shopping mall. You couldn't pay me to live in most suburban GTA 'towns'. The closer to Lake Ontario you are, the older the neighbourhoods are. As you move north and west, the more cookie cutter things become with few exceptions. Take a drive right up Trafalgar Road to the north and look at Georgetown which has a nice little town centre for example. Halton HIlls is another nice little town.

To me it is really more about what kind of neighbourhood you want to live in. If you are happy in a cookie cutter house on a cookie cutter street in a cookie cutter suburb, driving your kids in a cookie cutter car to a cookie cutter school, no problem finding a place to live. If you want a bit more than that though you are going to have to look harder and probably commute longer.

If people were willing to admit it, the reality is that where 90% of people live in the GTA sucks. And less someone accuses me of being some kind of anti-GTA nut, I grew up in Etobicoke. But on the Lakeshore in what was an actual small town back then, New Toronto.

I would suggest you Google for the places being suggested to you and see what you find. For example read here: Explore: Port Credit’s a genteel place to live | Toronto Star
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top