CANADIAN NEWCOMER 21

How-to: Rent Your First Home

Garry Donaghy

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7 min readApr 13, 2021

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Ready to Settle Down?

In the previous entry I covered the basics of finding temporary accommodation.

But what about when you are ready to move into somewhere that you can call home?

I hope you have been successful in settling down in Canada by following the advice in the previous entries in this series but if you are still struggling, reach out to me via LinkedIn and let me know what help you need.

Previous entries in this series are available at the following links:

(I arrived in Canada about 4 months before COVID did, so I can not speak about the ways it may impact on your landing, arrivals or quarantine experience)

After landing in Canada, most newcomers go through 3 main stages:

after landing
new/temporary first home
settling down/buying a home

I’d like to share some tips or suggestions on how to navigate these first stages as you settle down in Canada.

Today we will cover the 2nd phase; finding your first home.

Your first rental

Once you are settled down, perhaps with a job sorted out, you will want to establish your first home. For most newcomers, that means renting (also known as leasing in Canada).

Due to Covid, nowadays visits to potential homes are offered virtually, but (as of this writing) real estate is classed as an essential business, so it is also possible to see places in-person with a realtor (a real estate agent).

1. Realtor

You will need a realtor to help you find your new place. Contact me for my personal recommendation, but if you want to find one by yourself, start here at Realtor.ca.

2. Choose Your Neighbourhood

Canadian real estate runs on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) system. Listings (rental or for sale) have a code number that anyone can access.

All the information is standardised, and although there are many abbreviations or special words you need to learn, once you know how an MLS page works then it is easier for tenants or buyers to compare properties.

Realtor.ca also has information on the neighbourhood around the property you are looking at, scoring different categories out of 10, so you can get a feel for what life there will be like:

A similar but alternative site measures areas on walkability, assigning a walkscore, and featuring local amenities and how close (or far) they are:

Another resource to check is Realosophy. Their homepage tracks how popular real estate deals are in any given area, so you can check prices, how hot an area is, and read their articles to learn more about the real estate market in Canada.

3. Choose Your Home

If you work with a realtor they can provide you access to the Collab dashboard, where you can see all the active MLS listings in one place. This dashboard is the most real-time view of listings in the market.

Realtors use this instead of Zillow or similar websites, because Collab is updated continuously. Sometimes Zillow listings can be 6 months out of date, or more!

You can filter by number of bedrooms, bathrooms, parking spaces…
You can filter by rent range (from lowest to highest).
You can search for rentals (leases) or homes for sale
You can save searches and have daily alerts sent when new homes are listed

Example of the Collab dashboard for downtown Toronto

4. Ready to Make an Offer, But Wait!

What do you need to put in an offer on a property?

Well, the answer is a lot of paperwork!

Fortunately the landlord and tenant relationship is quite well-regulated in Ontario (my direct experience), and conveniently, most of the documents can be created and signed digitally!

PAPERWORK ALERT: Required documents for prospective renting tenants are:

Credit score
Letter of employment
Character reference or guarantor (name, contact details, relationship)
Others (see here for details or additional advice)

These things can be hard to prepare so don’t expect to do all of this within 2 weeks of landing! Prepare all these items as soon as you are able to do so; it will make your home search go much smoother!

I recommend googling, talking to experienced friends or colleagues (and researching further for your personal situation) to learn more on these documents.

A credit score could be it’s own article, but start with this page for advice on how to build your score
In place of a letter of employment, some landlords may accept a letter from your bank showing proof of funds
A person who will be your reference should be someone who lives in Canada; a friend, a former landlord, a boss or colleague

5. Put in an Offer

Once you have found your ideal place, and your paperwork is ready, you work with your realtor to put in an offer.

Due to the rental market being affected by COVID right now, it is encouraged to negotiate on the rent being requested by the landlord. You might save some money, so be sure to at least try and negotiate.

Asking for a fresh coat of paint is one idea (KJ Styles on Unsplash)

You can also try to negotiate on the move-in date, or on small maintenance that you would like the landlord to take care of before you move in.

Some listings will include all the existing light fixtures (ELFs), or furniture, or fixtures. Read the details of the offer carefully and make sure you know what is or isn’t included when you will move in.

Once successful, you will most likely digitally sign a 1yr contract.

The 1st and 12th month’s rent will commonly be used as a deposit, via a certified cheque/check or bank draft (what’s the difference?).

You will need to go in-person to your bank and ask the teller to prepare it for you. Then you would either drop it at your realtor’s office, or deposit it directly to your new landlord’s bank. This typically has to be done within 24hrs of signing the contract or the deal may be void.

Once that is done, you will make an agreement on when to pick up the keys, and then you just have to make a plan on how to move your stuff into your new home!

Toronto has many apartments (condos) like these (Juan Rojas on Unsplash)

Summing Up

To all the newcomers looking for that first home in Canada, welcome! Congratulations on reaching this stage of your journey!

Finding a new family home doesn’t need to be stressful, so please follow my tips above and you should be able to deal smoothly with whole process.

Whatever city you are moving to, good luck!

Previous Articles in the Series:

Future Topics, Coming Soon!

Your request here!

If you have requests for any more topics, or want to add information of your own, please don’t hesitate to reach out! Good luck with your journey as a newcomer and job-seeker here in Canada!

Who Am I?

Hello, I am Garry. Nice to meet you. Here is my LinkedIn profile. After 15yrs living in Japan, I moved to Canada in late 2019. Since I got here, I have learned a lot from friends, great mentors and advisors, pre- and post-arrival services, and good old-fashioned internet research! I would like to share that advice with you and help you on your journey here in Canada.

Also earlier in 2020 I talked about some of these things in a LinkedIn article, and in a webinar with NewCanadians I discussed with some smart people about the newcomer’s job search and the impacts of COVID-19. I was also featured in a podcast of Immigrants of Toronto in early 2021. Please check them out!