Most common types of homes in Ontario, Canada

Apartment (suite, flat)
Usually includes 1 bedroom or more, a kitchen, a bathroom and a living room. A bachelor or studio apartment has 1 room for sleeping and eating.
May be in a building or a house.
There are highrises (6-60 stories high with an elevator) or lowrises (fewer than 6 stories high, often with no elevator and called a "walk-up").
Generally, apartments are owned by a landlord and managed by a superintendent who lives in the building.
Condominium (condo)
A type of home ownership where you buy a unit in an apartment building or townhouse complex, but do not own the land. Owners sometimes rent condos to tenants.
Condominium owners join together in a corporation and elect a board of directors to manage the building and the land. Each owner pays his or her own mortgage, taxes, utilities and a monthly fee towards property maintenance.
Duplex and Triplex (semi, tri)
A house that is divided into 2 or 3 separate apartments, one on top of another. The owner of the house may live in one of the apartments.
May be a detached house, semi-detached house, or a townhouse.
Room (shared accommodation)
A room in an apartment, house or other type of accommodation that is rented to 1 person. The tenant usually shares the kitchen, bathroom and living room with other tenants.
Furniture is often included. Meals may be included.
Some types of housing may be more available in certain cities.
Detached (single family home)
Typically a home without any other structure attached to it (other than a garage, carport etc). These can be single storey or multi-storey, anywhere from hundreds of square feet (or tens of square meters) to tens of thousands. Typically you own the land it sits on and is therefore freehold.

Les Sohar is a salesperson with Re/Max in Canada who is an International Real Estate specialist.

It's A Small World After All

Apartment seekers in notoriously pricey Vancouver shouldn’t get too excited about the inexpensive new “designer lofts” now on the market. They may be cheap—the average rent is just $850 a month—stylish, and located in a refurbished heritage building, but they’ve also been labelled “micro-lofts” by developers: a euphemism for exceedingly small. Ranging from 226 to 291 sq. feet, the new lofts, located in the once-condemned Burns Block building, are said to resemble many metropolitan apartments in Europe and Asia—with floor space roughly the size of two parking spaces, or a generous prison cell. And their location isn’t a selling point either. The “micro-lofts” may be downtown, but they’re on Hastings Street, in what is arguably the city’s most crime-ridden neighbourhood. The Portland Hotel—a non-profit residence for drug addicts, sex workers, and the terminally ill—is right next door.

Some say the area is slowly gentrifying, with the addition of similar (albeit larger) developments in the works. And considering Vancouver’s housing market remains the most expensive in the country (not to mention the fact that most inner-city condos today are under 600 sq. feet), apartment seekers may have no choice but to lower their standards.

Each of the 30 furnished “micro-lofts” will have high ceilings, a built-in fold-up wall bed, a flat-screen TV and a very small three-piece bathroom, with a showerhead installed directly above the toilet. Local activists opposed the development, aruging the space should have been used to house the poor, instead of, presumably, those who will just come home to their tiny apartment every night and feel poor.

Real Estate Tips and Dangers to look out for When Investing

Here are the most ignored issues in Real Estate Investing

 Choosing A Location To Invest In
 Market Research
 Putting A Price On A House
 Valuation Using A Cap Rate
 Dirty Tricks To Watch Out For
 Property Inspection
 Rental Properties - What To Look For
 Creative Financing - Multiple Methods
 Fixer-Uppers: What To Fix
 Should You Offer Seller Financing?
 Myths About Real Estate Investing
 Real Estate Investment Clubs
 Partners?
 Private for sales or Sell Your own Companies, the many Pitfalls

Where should I live in Ontario?

This is a very important decision. Where you live will affect your entire experience of moving to Canada.

You need to make an informed decision about where to live in Ontario. It is a good idea to know what a particular community can offer you and what you can offer it.
You might choose a community for many different reasons. Here are just a few things to consider:

Size and cultural makeup of local population

Urban or rural Job opportunities

Social and recreational activities

Services for newcomers

Public transportation/mobility

Weather

Community Profiles


Some websites have useful information about communities in Ontario. Many of these sites are created and maintained by municipal/city governments. Here are some useful sites;


Cities and Towns - Certain cities have developed websites for newcomers who are already living there or who are thinking of moving there.

Municipal websites - Information about communities to see if you want to live there.

Economic community profiles - Information from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. It focuses on the labour market, including population, labour force, wage rates, and more.

Statistical community profiles - Statistics Canada has a statistical profile of all communities in Canada from the 2006 Census data. It has information such as population size, the average number of people living in a home, and languages spoken.

Services Near Me - Go to "Search by Region" and select a region or city to find some basic information, such as geography, population, percentage of immigrants, and useful links.

 For More Information


Canada's Best Places to Live - MoneySense magazine analyzes data for 100+ communities to discover the very best places to live in Canada. This is updated once a year.


Choosing a Safe Place to Live - Tips to help you choose a safe neighbourhood and building to live in.

Child-Friendly Neighbourhoods - Information about how to choose a healthy neighbourhood for children.

Settling in Canada - Profiles of some of Canada's major cities and regions.

Les Sohar 1-877-855-2201
www.sohar.ca
www.soharworldhomes.com

lesandchris@sohar.ca

Kingsway condo draws $121,000 over-asking

Two years ago, a two-bedroom suite in the Kingsway Regent sold for about $539,000, so this 1,685-square-foot version was listed for $579,900. Strong interest came from 40 groups and four competing offers were submitted, including one that was $121,000 over the asking price.

Amid million-dollar houses, this 12-year-old low-rise contains 26 luxury suites like this third floor model finished with nine-foot ceilings, crown mouldings, parquet hardwood floors and a gas fireplace flanked by Juliet balconies in the living area.

To enjoy formal or casual meals, there is an open dining area and a granite-topped peninsula with a breakfast bar off in the kitchen, which also features pot lights, tumbled marble backsplashes and stainless steel appliances.

For added convenience, there is a master suite with a walk-in closet and entry to one of two full bathrooms, as well as ensuite laundry and storage rooms, a ground-floor locker and two parking spots.

Each month, a fee of $535 goes toward the upkeep of a party room and guest suite in the building, which is also close to local attractions such as golf courses, parks and Humbertown Plaza.

 “It’s a boutique building with only four storeys, so units come up very rarely,” says agent Les Sohar. “Any other units that are available are significantly smaller – this was almost 1,700 square feet – so it’s very appealing to someone to downsize from a house into a condo without sacrificing too much space.”

The interior style also left a big impression on buyers. “I didn’t have to do any staging,” says Ms. Beléy. “It was beautifully decorated and professionally painted, so it was a cozy little place.”

Greeks, Italians burying cash as crisis fears grow

ATHENS/MILAN – Greeks and Italians are taking their money and running, moving it abroad or even burying it underground for fear the eurozone crisis will topple banks and wipe out what remains of their savings. Bankers in Greece say worries about the resilience of local banks, coupled with a rise in burglaries, has helped trigger a surge in demand for safe deposit boxes for those who have yet to set up accounts outside in the country. Some are even building their own. “There has been a big increase in rentals of safe deposit boxes, about fivefold compared with last year,” said one banker at a large, foreign-owned bank. “About 10% of the withdrawals we see are headed there. “The most extreme case was a client who told me he was building a safe under his pool.” Retail bank deposits in Greece have plunged to five-year lows as fears mount the stricken nation will fail to meet international lenders’ bailout terms and restructure loans by March, raising the spectre of a ditched euro, a return to the drachma and a sharp devaluation. With ordinary Greek grandmothers now joining the wealthy in seeking sanctuary from economic chaos, banks have embarked on an interest rate war, with some smaller institutions sweetening terms to up to seven percent to woo customers. Bankers said although clients were less panicky than during last September and October, demand remained brisk for foreign currencies such as the Swiss franc, U.S. and Australian dollars and even Norwegian crowns — or gold. BUILDING IN BERLIN The crisis engulfing Greece has already forced Ireland and Portugal to seek bailouts. It now also threatens the efforts of Italy, the currency bloc’s third largest economy, to raise 450-billion euros (US$584-billion) to finance its debt burden this year. Ordinary Italians are also losing trust in local banks. Some have sought a safe haven over the border in Switzerland, while others are putting their faith in the relative stability of eurozone leader Germany. Those priced out of property hot spots such as London are investing in Berlin instead, attracted by the German capital’s relatively low prices, low ownership rates and relatively stable growth prospects. Pensioners, doctors, film directors, architects, young couples and teachers, some of whom can afford to spend no more than 100,000 euros, are seeking apartments in Berlin, prompting local estate agents to brush up on Italian-language skills. “Sales skyrocketed in the last two months due to fears of a possible default of Italy, expectations of more property taxes and the possibility the country will fall into recession,” said Federico Racca, a manager at specialist estate agency Berlino Immobiliare. In the first week of December, Berlino Immobiliare’s network sold fifty properties, as much as it normally does in a single month. In November it sold 78. “They are arriving en masse. What we (are seeing) … has no comparisons with the last eight years,” said Annalisa Fornara, an estate agent at m2Square, a small property agency in Berlin. “There is an entire portion of the market that is moving for the Italians.” Some Italian bankers stress that the rising cost of living, falling incomes and Christmas spending are as much to blame for draining bank accounts as any flight of capital. Italy’s private sector deposits have fallen less dramatically than those of Greece, down 4% in the past year. A manager at a top asset management group in Bologna conceded that “dramatic” media coverage had worried people, adding that large clients had placed cash in safes and that deposit boxes in the area now had “no spare capacity.” “They’re worried about a default and a run on the banks Argentina-style,” he said. “I personally am managing to keep my clients though I must admit while I spent 10 minutes with them before, I am now spending a couple of hours to explain things.”