Moving from Toronto to Montreal: Life as an English speaker | 1 year update, cost of living, rent
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- čas přidán 3. 07. 2024
- #moving #montreal #englishspeaker #montrealrealestate #expenses
hi everyone!
happy new year!! first vid in 2024, exciting! :)
today im going to be sharing my experience of moving from toronto to montreal! it's almost been 1 year of us living here and i am happy to share the pros & cons i have observed so far. we gonna talk all the hot topics: rent in montreal and its prices, taxes, living expenses and french language. :)
please feel free to leave the comments below if you have any questions - i will be more than happy to help!
please see time codes for you convenience:
0:00 - intro
0:28 - friendly disclaimer
0:46 - a quick get to know me
1:07 - current occupation/work
1:36 - reasons to leave toronto
3:08 - why montreal?
3:36 - montreal rental market
4:07 - rent prices in montreal
5:59 - overall cost of living
7:16 - transit in montreal
8:05 - groceries and local markets
8:52 - do I need French to live in montreal?
10:13 - language barrier awkwardness
11:40 - do I learn French?
13:11 - future moving plans
14:06 - downsides of montreal
15:59 - the verdict
my socials:
insta: @ana.khodus
email: ana.khodus@gmail.com
As someone who is planning on moving to Montreal in the next year or so, I'm so glad I found you when I did. Thank you for the videos
happy to help!🙏🏻
Thank you for being mindful and respectful of our language ❤
Protect it. The laws in Québec are necessary to protect it, even though the Québécois and Acadian cultures have evolved on their own, separately from that of modern France.
🙏🏻😊
Thank you for your insights! I was born and raised in Toronto (still here) and have been thinking about moving to Montreal. You brought up some great points for me to think about! I think I’ll plan a trip to mtl this summer and see how I like it 😊
Very informative, lovely video too. You answered all my questions. Thank you so much ❤!
It was very insightful, thank you Ana. Best of luck to you and your husband during this journey
Nice video! Thanks for sharing your experience! Montreal is on my travel list!
oh really? hope you'd like it here!
Trust me.. Yours is one of the best videos I saw on this topic. Covered almost everything in a very elaborate way. Loved your content. Super informative and helpful. Totally admire the way you speak. Thanks and all the very best.
Going to make the same move next month. Great to have across your channel 👍 keep up the good work ❤
awww thanks a lot! hope you move went well 🤍
@@anakhodus Yes ! Love the city so far ❤️
I also moved from Toronto to Montreal and love it here!
Great showing from Toronto to Montreal. Good video, thanks for your sharing🌺💖👌💖
thank you 🙏🏻
Very interesting. Thank you
Thank you for the info Ana! It's not easy to find videos updated with this info from Montreal and in English x.x
oh i’m glad it was useful!❤️
Thanks for this video! I'm on a similar journey. I've been living in toronto for 15years. Ready to jump ship. Montreal is on the top of the list.
You got this!
Nice video! I am sure the rent for your former Toronto apartment has gone up even further now. My partner and I are planning to move to Montreal by end of this year. I had lived in Montreal from 2006 to 2013 before moving to Toronto, now its time to go back! Toronto is getting too expensive.
agreed. it’s ridiculous how the most basic human needs as shelter are so overpriced in Toronto 🙁
For STM single ticket/pass, you can take subway multiple times within 2h period, the only catch is that you have to have a bus segment in between. What you can do is hop on a bus for a stop or two as they are usually quite close and then go back to subway - I see many people do this downtown.
oh wow! it’s a great way around it, i didn’t know. thank you for commenting!😊
Hey, visiting after a few weeks. I love your content. I wish I could have moved to Montreal/Canada when I was younger - things just weren't going right for me back then. Its a great city and country and I know things are expensive now but it will level in a year or so.
yep probably canada is now in one of the most difficult stages! hoping it will get back to normal and your plans come true.😊
thank you, i'm glad to have found your videos at just the right time. at 3:42 you mention your process of finding apartments in MTL, do you remember which websites were good/trustworthy?
Through personal experience, the biggest difference between living in Toronto vs Montreal: in the latter the question of language is always not far from your mind, have to think about it daily while in the former people never think about it. It does not imply good or bad, just different.
Lack of green spaces is due to the new condo development which centers around Griffintown. If you want greenspaces, Little Italy, NDG, Verdun, Plateau, Parc Lafontaine, etc. are all full of parks and cafes, but the housing are old stock/brownstones, not the high rise condo like what you have in Toronto and Griffintown.
100% agreed! the downtown core is quite densely populated and tons of new buildings are taking over. we will look into those areas you mentioned moving forward. thanks 😊
No one should come to live in Montreal first for costs reasons. You should choose it first for the type of quality of life you'll find and then the opportunity to live at least partly in French . That's why so many Americans choose Montréal! Taxes are part of a wider array of services offered, and also how Québec supports financially its own culture. Otherwise for sure it will never work the way good life is envisioned in Ontario.
I'm surprised that you are lacking green spaces! I've always found Montréal to be more green than Toronto, but I guess it depends where you live. If you are close to downtown, it is probably less green than in the surrounding neighbourhoods.
yeah you’re right! we are in downtown core and unfortunately we didn’t experience living in any other area in MTL, but having parks around will be def a factor for us when choosing our next apartment. :)
I currently live in Toronto from Quebec and I’m trying to convince my partner to eventually move back home with me - probably Montreal so that he’s not TOO disoriented - but he’s really scared of the language barrier… even though I’m fluent in both languages 🥲 Not sure how to convince him that it’s not THAT bad
You forgot the winter. In general, the montreal winter is cooler than Toronto .
true!
Look into Ottawa in the future.
Can you please talk about your moving costs? Also about what other things you did after moving like changing address on some documents like id cards? Driver’s license etc
hey! we rented the Uhaul truck in toronto with a drop off in montreal, that was around $1400 without gas🙁 (but long distance rental gives you 3 days for that money). we hired movers to help us offload the truck in mtl - it was around $175 for 2 hrs. in terms of expenses that’s pretty much it.
when we moved we changed our address in bank accounts, CRA, at our employment, applied for quebec health card (OHIP can be accepted in certain clinics but it’s rare) and driver’s license (DL you need to get a new one which was issues in Quebec). 🙏🏻
Could you please make separate video on what official formalities you did for moving? Thank you in advance!
Maybe consider Plateau Mont Royal if you plan to stay!
It’s interesting because I’m a Quebec lifer and currently in Montreal but I will be leaving eventually. This isn’t a province to build roots in or get old in if you’re not fully bilingual
yeah, if this is a permanent place of living then you have to be bilingual 🙏🏻
Hi, really good video thanks! For someone with a family who is wanting to move to Montreal and we are learning French but it’s a work in progress and will get better once we’re there - can I ask which area you’re living in? Or which areas you would suggest as most kid and dog friendly? Thanks
hey! thank you!🙏🏻 we live in Westmount area close to Atwater market. unfortunately i’m not 100% aware of other areas, in a sense which would be better. but i can definitely say that i like westmount, as well as the area closer to the canal. they have plenty playgrounds and parks😊
We just recently moved back to Toronto and have never looked back....
interesting! moved back to toronto from montreal?
Hey Ana!! What real estate agent/agency did you use for finding a rental!?
Hey! I just contacted a real estate agent that was mentioned on the listing on the website. we used realtor.ca to look for places. 😊
Thanks for the insightful video.I am one thinking of moving to Montreal from Toronto. Thanks Would you be able to throw some light on the vehicle transfers,Driver’s Licence transfer and Healthcard application as well.Thanks in advance!
i think if you have a drivers license of other canadian province then you’d only need to “transfer” it to quebec now and receive a new card, without any tests. for the healthcare - you can apply for it as soon as you move and later on you will receive a letter stating if you got approved or not. however to see a doctor montreal doesn’t have walk in clinics like in toronto - you always need an appointment made online or by phone.
I thought I wanted to move from Montreal to Toronto. Didn't take me long to decide to stay in Montreal 😂 also, since the employer doesn't adjust salary based on relocation, Montreal salary doesnt get you far in Toronto!!!
oh for sure!! even toronto pay doesn’t help much at the moment living in the city, can’t imagine what to do with montreal one 😭
So, in other words, you moved to Montreal without having any friends here or speaking French. You were able to rent a bigger apartment for the same as you were paying in Toronto, but it actually costs you more because you are paying higher taxes. You also had to pay to move, or at least had to buy all new furniture, and chose a neighbourhood with no green spaces and that's not good for your dog. And you had friends in Toronto, but you don't have friends here, and you're not trying to make friends because you're introverted but also because you don't speak French. As a result, you feel like Montreal is sleepier than Toronto, even though the opposite is probably closer to reality. That's very interesting! Thanks for posting, your apartment is very beautiful.
yep, and we believe that our quality of living got better comparing to what we could afford in toronto. :)
we’ve allocated budget for moving and other associated costs, so no surprises there.
i still believe that Montreal is slower pace city than Toronto, aside from our lifestyle. have a good sunday!
7:49 thats how TTC used to be before you came to Toronto. It sucks!
Am moving new year is it hard moving as a immigrant but moving in the right way
Toronto has no identity.
Montreal has a little bit of one called "2 Solitudes".
I am pretty sure
Small dogs in bags are allowed
Small dogs can have nasty bites
especially when stressed in a crowd
Of course the STM is not passing those rules because of YOUR dog
It does because of all dogs
I do not mean this in a pontificating manner
Sorry
that is why i said i understand the intentions behind this rule. :)
@@anakhodus
They nust have a maximum weight
For small dog
Like in the airplane you can carry your dog in a carry bag
It’s too bad that your cute little well-behaved dog has to have a muzzle in the subway. In France, people can take their well-behaved dogs everywhere. I can’t stand it though, when people have aggressive dogs. People should have to prove they have the skills and emotional control to take proper care of a big dog.
oh absolutely, when it comes to bigger dogs, their owners have to make sure they behave! and frankly, it applies to all the breeds, when being out in public. :)
If
You don’t speak french, you are limited there. Outside of Montreal no one will speak to you. Not many if at all.
Most people under 40 have some knowledge of English, and most will accomodate and use it for you. The snobs who absolutely refuse to use English are rare, and they are quite limited in this world as pretty much all the good jobs require English these days, even outside Montreal.
its insane to move somewere anywere and not do recherche about what is the national language of were you plane to make it your home innapropriate to adress Québec natioanl in english or chinese french is the only national language in thecultural and economic Métropole of Québec so tacky and small minded