Housing

The main challenge when you, as newcomers, arrive in any city in Canada is to find the place where you are going to live. Usually, newcomers need to find an apartment or house to rent and there are different ways to look for their new accommodation.

In some cases, social media marketplaces offer this type of service, but it has been detected that some of these offers can be malicious and are used to scam new temporary residents who are arriving and starting to know how to get along in their new city.

In the case of students, institutions have international student support offices that can guide you in finding your new place of residence, which in some cases is the student residence service on campus.

If you are not a student or the decision is to look for something off campus and to avoid unnecessary risks, we advise you to rely on the legally established companies that manage real estate. The search can be done through the different platforms that exist in the Canadian market, where the offer can be from the  property owner or a real estate agency, but at the end, our advice is to make sure that you are dealing with a company or person that has experience and good references.

TIP: Keep in mind that these types of transactions in Canada have some points in common:

• A deposit is requested, which usually consists of one monthly rental value (it is considered as the final month of rent when it is decided to terminate the contract).
• A tenant insurance policy is required before the property is handed over to you.
• Generally, contracts start on the first day of the month, so it is very rare to be able to find a place where you can move on a different date.
• Notices of termination of contracts are made 60 days in advance to avoid fines.

Here we will guide you over the main companies in this field at Sault Ste. Marie.