Lifestyle and Leisure
Reasons to move: Property
With UK house prices remaining high compared to many countries, despite the credit crunch, its not surprising that an increasing number of Brits are tempted to exchange their bungalow in Bournemouth for a mansion in Montreal.
If you need convincing, then just look at the statistics. In June 2008, the average house price in Canada was CDN$314,028. That compared to an average of £218,112 in the UK – or CDN$447,118 at a mid-August exchange rate. If you get your calculator out then you'll see that's a difference of CDN$133,090, almost enough to buy you an average house in the province of New Brunswick! To put it another way, the average house price in the UK is approximately 42 per cent higher than it is in Canada.
Of course, that's without taking in regional variations. An average place in Greater London will set you back £358,500 (CDN$735,611), or a whopping £754,485 (CDN$1,548,251) if you choose to buy detached. CDN$611,613, on the other hand will get you a property in Vancouver, Canada's priciest destination, while Toronto, perhaps the Canadian city most comparable to London, has an average property price of only CDN$395,918 – that's almost half the price of a place in Britain's capital!
If you're willing to be flexible about where in Canada you relocate to, then it's possible to pay even less for a new home. Prince Edward Island is the cheapest place to buy, with an average property price of CDN$150,503.
This is closely followed by New Brunswick (average property price CDN$157,505) and Newfoundland and Labrador (CDN$171,183). Nova Scotia also has an extremely reasonable average property price of CDN$194,627, while an average place in Manitoba will cost you around CDN$200,000. At the other end of the style are the provinces of BC (CDN$463,458), Alberta (CDN$363,638) and Ontario ($314,993), all of which are nevertheless popular among British migrants.
There's another reason to buy property in Canada rather than in the UK, and that is investment value. According to the Halifax House Price Index, property prices in the UK were down 8.8 per cent in July from the same time last year. Lack of affordable property, decreasing mortgage availability and recession fears are all taking their toll on the UK housing market, and experts are not predicting a recovery any time soon.
Canadian real estate, on the other hand, continues to boom. A recent report by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) predicted that prices will rise 5.3 per cent in 2008 and a further 4.2 per cent next year. "Home sales will remain strong, despite coming in lower than last year's breakneck pace," said CREA Chief Economist Gregory Klump. "After-tax income growth, strong employment and short-term interest rate cuts will support housing demand, despite further home price increases and increasing economic uncertainty that are wearing on consumer sentiment about making purchases such as a car or home."
So where in Canada should you buy in order to make the most of price increases? "Saskatchewan home sales will benefit from an influx of people moving to the province, and the resale housing market in Newfoundland & Labrador should also prove to be exceptional over the next couple of years," said Klump. "A strong natural resource sector there will lift both housing demand and prices."
Canadian property – affordable and bankable. What more could a migrant wish for?
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