I’ve seen numerous posts regarding apartment renting in the GTA but not much about home renting. Can anyone talk about their experience renting a single family home or townhome? I’ve looked at home rental listings on Zillow, Zumper etc and noticed that 3 bd 3ba homes rent for around 2900 to 3500 CAD. I’m fine with these prices but I’d like to know about the additional costs. Is it similar to the US? Renter pays for insurance, water, electricity, gas, trash, internet etc and are these costs comparable to the US? Any additional costs that I should consider?
Insurance should be renter’s insurance…
Usually Electricity, gas and internet are extra… You can have your own internet…
Electricity and gas will be as per bills…
Sometime some owners include all utilities in the rent (obviously increased rent to cover it)…
That’s pretty much it is… if owner is asking you to pay in cash then u also ask for discount…
You can get it even in $2500 in some parts of Mississauga and Brampton in GTA… or cheaper if you go farther… This is for 3 bed house usually…
$2900-3500 sounds like could be Oakville or North York or Richmond Hill or Some good areas of etobicoke… or perhaps you checkd 4bed houses…
Thanks srhere. 2500 sounds even better! I’ll look around a little bit more.
Do you have any recommendations on what I should look for when deciding between potential homes and what sort of questions I should be asking the landlord?
Just out of curiosity, are you renting a single family home? Of so, how’s your experience been?
I don’t know if others have been to able to find houses to rent through online portals. But from what I know the best way is to find a real estate agent and work with them to search for rentals. The agent costs you nothing as they get their commission from the landlord. They will guide you on most of these topics.
@texan We rented a townhouse in Milton via a local realtor. Like someone said, you don’t pay a dime to your realtor as that falls under landlords contract. We rented in Jan for about $2500 and now the rates for the same home/area are close to $3000. I feel the rates will shoot up since COPR holders can travel now and with vaccination surge, most of the things are opening up. Use realtor.ca and housesigma. Zillow/redfin (used in US) are hardly useful here. Apart from the things that you’ve mentioned, there’s a pretty weird charge here - water heater rental. Reliance and bunch of other companies have convinced people here to rent their water heater by paying a small monthly fee so most of the homes (even owner occupied) use their services. Something that we’re not used to in the US. Good luck with the move.
Thanks jayhop. I heard Milton is an up and coming neighborhood. How are you liking it there? Do you see yourself living there for a while?
We’re looking for homes in the Missisuaga, Brampton, Oakville or Milton area. I guess we don’t really have a preference and our main priority is a newer/good-looking house. A lot of the houses that we’re finding for rent are really old and the flooring/paint is just plain ugly. Another huge priority is an attached garage. But I’ve only been looking at Zillow all this time, let me give the websites you mentioned a shot.
Milton is shithole if you ask me. The houses are too small and you’ll see cars and cars on the streets, not at all diversified among few other issues. The parking situation almost makes us feel like we’re back in Delhi. We actually bought a home on east side (Durham). We were looking for bigger lots, backyard, less traffic, diversified neighborhood and suburban life.
Don’t buy a home without living here. Brampton, Mississauga, Milton are heavily populated with few specific ethnicity people. Oakville, burlington are good but really expensive.
There are newer homes in all cities, you just need to keep searching. There are pre-cons as well if you can wait for possession.
I’ve never been to the GTA and have no clue where I want to live. But I’ve heard the same things about Brampton, Mississuaga etc. Our plan is to pick a comfortable home for the first year and explore the GTA area to figure out where we’d like to buy a house.
In case somebody is moving to Canada or already here and looking for a full house, then DM me. I will be happy to help as we are listing our house (detached with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, big backyard, renovated kitchen and bathrooms, great location of Brampton, go station is nearby, Park is opposite the house which is great if you have kid). My spouse was listing it locally but then i thought its good if somebody needs it here to help each other as we are part of similar community.
It is available for rent lease from 1-Aug but can adjust little early or late to help if required.