living arrangements

[Guest Blackbird15]

Hey there,

I found out about my acceptance just yesterday, and typical of me, started stressing after about 15 minutes of glee... :rolleyes I was wondering if any of the moderators (or current med students) could discuss how they went about finding roommates and housing.

 

I don't really want to start looking for housing until I've heard from the ontario schools and know exactly what my options are. Also, I'm going to be out of the country for about two months and won't get around to looking for housing until late July. Is that too late to start looking? Are all the good housing places going to be gone by then? If you did not live in Montreal prior to med school, how did you go about looking for housing (i.e. seeing the house/meeting your roomates before deciding)? I'm just wondering if there's any way to do this from overseas...

 

Any insight you could give me would be appreciated.

 

thanks,

Blackbird

[Guest Krish]

hey blackbird. congrats!!!!

 

where else did you interview?

 

K

[Guest bearman14]

Hey Blackbird

 

First off, congratulations!!! Quite a nice feeling, eh?

 

Secondly, I am not from Montreal, nor have I ever found housing there, but here are some of the things I have learned in my recent searches:

 

McGill posts off-campus housing on their web-site. You need to sign in with your ID and Minerva PIN, and it gives you boatloads of options, including shared housing. The URL is:

 

www.mcgill.ca/offcampus/

 

Also, when I was there for my interview, I was told that most leases in Montreal are annual and terminate on June 30th. Therefore, I was informed that most apartments would be available for July 1st, though I am sure that there will still be plenty around for August (I believe that Montreal still has a relatively high vacancy rate compared to other major Canadian centres). I am sure there are people here with actual first-hand knowledge of apartment hunting in Montreal, but hopefully this can give you a bit of a start. Good luck.

 

Bearman

[Guest Blackbird15]

Thanks Krish and Bearman! Getting an acceptance feels pretty damn good...

 

Bearman, thanks for the info... June 30th, huh? hmm... have you started looking at all? I know from your previous post that you're waiting to hear from UBC.

 

take care,

Blackbird

[Guest bearman14]

Hey Blackbird,

 

Yeah, I've started looking, but it is tough to do without knowing for sure where I'll be next year! I've been checking out http://www.mls.ca as well, as housing prices in Montreal seem to be WAY cheaper than Calgary! If I'm going to be there for four years, it might be a better way to go (though I may need to get some of Mayflower's advice on buying houses/condos). One more month til UBC's letters go out, then I'll have some peace!

 

Take it easy

Bearman

[Guest Biochem10]

Word of advice about looking for housing in Montreal. The McGill students are charging finder's fees for their apartments (it's ridiculous), people have been paying up to $1000 to secure themselves an apartment for fall!! So, if you're looking for something in Montreal avoid looking in the McGill Ghetto because that's where most of the student housing is. Go directly to the landlord so that you don't end up paying more than you need to. I'm living in Montreal and unfortunetly I just told my landlord I was leaving May 1st (for Toronto), BUT now I got into McGill, it's too bad because I really like where I am now (on pine av near the McIntyre!) Anyway, there's a couple of websites you can check out:

 

www.mcgill.ca/classified/housing/ This is where all those money grubbing McGill students are posting

 

www.moremontreal.com/apartments/search.html A rather unknown site, you'll be more likely to get a better deal here.

[Guest Blackbird15]

Hi there,

Thanks for all the good tips! Biochem, what exactly do you mean by a 'finder's fee'?

 

take care,

Blackbird

[Guest Biochem10]

Finder's fees are extra money that the renter asks for in exchange for giving the lease over to you. It's absolutely illegal, but plenty of people are getting away with charging upwards of $200 just to talk to their landlord for you...that's why you have to go straight to the landlord and bypass all these students offering sublets.

[Guest dfenst]

I went to one of those websites that were proposed a few messages back - I think it was the McGill classifieds - and there were plenty of places that had no finder's fees. Of course, they probably wouldn't advertise if they were considering you're saying it's illegal , and also, most of the places are summer sublets. I've already spoken to a few friends back in Montreal and it seems like there are vacancies even though apparantly the vacancy rate in the city is only 0.6%. If you know people in the city who are in the midst of finding places themselves, or have found a place, find out about spots in their buildings. Also, check out the Montreal Gazette classifieds at www.montrealgazette.com. You can also get there via www.canada.com .

 

From looking at most of the postings on various sites over the last few days trying my best to procrastinate for my upcoming exams, I'm getting the impression that it's a tad early to be looking for accomodations. Once apartments have been sublet for the summer, end of summer availabilities will probably be more plentiful.

 

By the way, if any newcoming students wanted to do some email swapping, I'd be up for that. I'm interested to know more about my soon to be classmates.

 

Ciao, Dan

[Guest candybits]

hey blackbird,

 

you might want to look into a whole bunch of buildings on the west side of the main campus, closer towards the mcintyre, rather than the ghetto.

 

i find the "mcgill ghetto" are to be over-priced, expensive, crowded, and noisy!! so many undergrad students live there, and often spaces are very cramped.

 

on the west side of the campus (peel, stanley, drummond), the ppl living in the area are general older, some students (esp med, dent) and a lot of young professionals.

 

generally, it's a bit more expensive, but a lot cheaper and more *pleasant* to live, if you split the cost with a roomy or something.

 

cote-des-neige is not a bad area either too. you might want to look into it too. it might take you about 20min with a single bus ride, but there are a ton of restaurants, shops nearby and the rent is generally much cheaper than the mcgill vicinities.

[Guest Blackbird15]

Thanks for the info everyone! Candybits (or anyone else), do you know if there's a website or bulletin board for meds/grad students looking for roommates?

 

take care,

Blackbird

 

P.S. my email address is blackbird195@yahoo.ca. Feel free to drop me a line.

[Guest medicator007]

Blackbird,

 

You best bet to find a med student looking for a roomate at McGill would be to go on our class website http://www.nghe.ca and a post you situation there.

 

Cheers,

Medicator

[Guest candybits]

hey blackbird15,

 

also try this link: www.pgss.mcgill.ca/mess_ctr.html

 

it's the message for post-grad students at mcgill, and they sometimes have lots of ads regarding apts, roommates, etc.

 

hope this helps, and good luck!

[Guest smilin2007]

Hi everyone,

I found a few places that I might want to rent, but need some honest feedback about them.

LaCite

La-Citadelle on St Marc and Maisonneuve

Chateau-lincoln.

 

If anyone is living there or has lived there, I would really like to know what you think of the building.

 

Also, I would appreciate it if someone could post the names or addresses of the nicer condos/high rise apartments to make it easier when looking at housing ads. I am looking for a 1 1/2 clean, new condo, close to McGill.

 

Thanks

[Guest md2b2006]

Hey smilin 2007!

 

I have a few friends who live at la cite. It's an amazing location for both school and social life. There is an underground connection between the building and a shopping center with all sorts of shops, grocery store, gym, movie theatre, and no need to cook (the smell of freshly baking subway fills your nostrils when you enter the lobby of the building). It is only a few minutes to walk to either building where we have our classes, and a stone throw from the clubs. I also believe that there is a pool on the roof... how can you go wrong? The only complaint I have heard is that it is rather pricey, but if it is in your range, go for it.

 

I believe that one of the moderators for this site lives there (rayjaykay), so you can send him an email and ask.

 

best of luck and congrats again!

[Guest tappety tap]

It's a little off from the hospitals but I have been living in a 20 floor building on Sherbrooke one block east of St Laurent....email me at melissarap11@hotmail.com if you want more details...it's an awesome building and affordable.

[Guest rayjaykay]

smilin,

 

congrats on accept. I live in LaCite and I love it, everything that md2b2006 said was true including a pool and a tennis court on a second floor roof, these are part of Club LaCite (the gym) which costs ~ 40/ month on top of rent. there are three buildings 29 floors each, with 24hr doorman (if lost your keys), restaurants everywhere, .... to me, LaCite feels like a hotel and sometimes during weekends in the winter I didn't go outside. usually day-to-day I always stay within a mile-radius of my apartment. there also is a hotel which is kind of part of the complex, the Renaissance, which is being converted to McGill residence for sept. of this year, which is open to grad students. anyway if you want to know more, prices, anything really, email me at rayjaykay@hotmail.com or check out http://www.lacite.ca, cheers, Tony.

[Guest jbish]

I'm also in La Cite for the year. When I went looking in May there didn't seem to be much open for August...but it sounded like more was available for September...although that is two weeks after we start!

[Guest wassabi101]

hey guys,

 

I've been living in the Cote Des Neiges area for 4 years and I love it. Yes, it is a 20 min bus ride to class, but I liked being out of the downtown area, having all the ethnic cuisine and activities nearby and paying much much less for so much more space.

 

I have a one bedroom 3 1/2 that's fairly large but most importantly square I found a lot of the apartments in the ghetto area to be long with a kitchen stemming from this hall and a room from the other side of the hall...

 

My place originally cost 450$/mo when I moved in, now it's 485$/mo. I really love it and will be really sad when I have to vacate in a month (I'm moving to Ottawa so it'll be free for Sept. 1st).

 

If anyone has any questions about living in the Cote Des Neiges area, feel free to email me at kareninvietnam@yahoo.ca.

 

-wassabi