There are two main types of apartments in Canada: Apartment Building and Condominium Apartment (Condo). There are also cooperative apartments (Coop) but they are less popular. The difference between a condo and cooperative is in the type of ownership. If you have a condo apartment you own a certain area from wall to wall. If you have a cooperative apartment you own together with other tenants the whole building and a share of this common property belongs to you.

Apartment Buildings are buildings erected specifically to be rented out. These buildings belong to a company or an individual. The landlord sets out the amount of rent which has become higher and higher every year after the government rent control was cancelled several years ago. If you have already moved into such an apartment, the amount of rent can be raised only by 3% per year. You can live in such an apartment for life but you cannot purchase it.

In order to rent an apartment in an apartment building it is enough to call the company which owns the building. The rent includes all communal services. If something is not included this should be clearly indicated in the rental agreement. You have to pay separately for a parking space in a garage or parking lot. You can find advertisements about available apartments for rent in The Toronto Star newspaper in Classified section, or in free magazine Renters News.

Condominium Apartments are more prestigious and comfortable and can be of two types — Standard Condominium Apartments or Luxury Condominium Apartments.

Most new condominiums have spacious tastefully decorated halls, security, various courts, billiard, gym, and banquet hall for celebrations, family gatherings, etc. The garage is controlled by the building security. Every condominium apartment belongs to an individual or a company and can be purchased or sold. These transactions are performed through a real estate agent.

Prices

Apartment purchase price and rent depends on its location and available transportation. The table below gives amounts of rent for different types of apartments.

Approximate monthly rent:

You can also rent a private house with three bedrooms from $1,500 per month depending on its location, size, condition and quality. Beside the monthly rent, you will have to pay for water, gas and electricity, and also cut the grass in the summer and clean the snow in front of the house in the winter.

How to rent an apartment

If you want to rent an apartment in an apartment building you should deal directly with the superintendent of the building. If it is a condominium or a private house, then find an agent. However, you can try to rent without an agent through private advertisements in The Toronto Star. A standard agreement is signed for one year and you are supposed to pay for the first and last months in advance.

If you are renting a condominium apartment you may be asked to pay for several months in advance. It is not because people do not trust immigrants but merely because of caution when renting out an apartment to a person who has no stable income in Canada. You should note that often an apartment owner pays mortgage payments to a bank. If the owner is late with the payments the bank has the right to confiscate the apartment and sell it at an auction at a price lower than market prices. We will describe it later in detail in the chapter about purchasing of properties.

A real estate agent is a licensed professional who is a member of a local association of real estate agents. He is obliged to act in accordance with the government laws and ethical norms.