Cost of Living in Vancouver

Hi siansteenkamp!

Welcome to Expat.com!

Armand

Hi there,
The cost of living in Vancouver depends quite a bit on where in the city you choose to live.

In my opinion, a minimum budget for living downtown (Westend) would look something like this:
- Rent (1 Bedroom apartment): $1100 to $1500 depending on building amenities and size of the apartment
- Food (Eating all meals at home): $500 to $800
- Utilities (Electricity, cell phone x2, internet): ~$150
- Transportation (Bus pass x2): ~$170

This comes to a monthly total of $1900 to $2600.

Please note that I did not include entertainment, dining out, alcohol, etc. since those can vary a lot from person to person.

If you decide to live a bit further from downtown (Kitsilano, Burnaby, North Vancouver), or share a place with roommates you can probably reduce the rent to $800 or so.

Hope this helps. Best of luck with your immigration project!

Zak

Hi Zak, thank you very much for your reply I really appreciate it.

If you don't mind i would like to ask you a few more questions.
Firstly how does tax work in Vancouver, does it get deducted from your salary every month and percentage wise how much tax do you pay?

Secondly do you pay for a medical aid, of health insurance?

Greetings from very far

Sian

We moved to Vancouver seven years ago and lasted 5 then had to return back to the UK because we just could not afford to live there.
I'm going to try and be as bias as possible. First of all Vancouver is a wonderful city with something for everyone. But unless you have bundles of money or have won the lottery forget downtown. The eastside near main and commercial is a bit cheaper whoever you be tripping over crack heads and hookers. And totally forget the Gas town area, especially if you have family.
You will get a lot more for your money and enjoy the real Canadian lifestyle if you go to the suburbs, White Rock is extremely nice and Coquitlam is also a nice safe place to bring up a family.
If you don’t have permanent residence or not a citizen you will have to pay for medical insurance which can be expensive especially if you have a family.
Now for the good stuff eating out is really cheap and general entertainment is cheap. You have some of the most amazing places to visit and are a stone throw away for Whistler a world class skiing resort.
Vancouver Island is great for holiday rentals and we used to book through Ownersrentals.com  they are based in yaletown Vancouver and we have never had any problems.
Harrison springs was another of our favourites especially jet skiing. We are thinking of moving back as we do miss the lifestyle but are thinking of moving to Vancouver Island as you get a bit more for your money.
Hope this all helps, if you want to know anymore i would love to help.

Thank you for your information Creamandbrowns

I would like to know though is Vancouver more good than bad?

Gretings:)

In regards to your question is Vancouver good or bad, it depends on what your looking for.
I would say for families that the downtown area is not such a good place for familes. However if your young free and single, its a good place to be, and has everything you could with for.Your only minutes from all the ski slopes including the famous grouse mountain and cypress. Or you could rent a holiday apartment in the world famous Whistler ski resort.Salmon fishing is pretty cool here as well.But it all comes with a price tag.

My only negative to Vancouver is keep well clear of the eastsite especially Gas Town and commerical, At night it can become very dangerous.
If you want to know anymore feel free to ask.

Hola. me gustaría saber cuánto cuestan los cigarros en Vancouver (benson) y si se puede fumar en las calles? Me pueden orienar, por favor. Gracias

Hi Linda and welcome to Expat.com!

Could you please post in English in this Anglophone forum?

Thanks,
Harmonie.

My husband and I moved to Vancouver from London 2 years ago. For us the move was definitely a good one in terms of our quality of life and finances. I'm not sure how Vancouver cost of living would compare to South Africa, but we don't earn much more than we did in the Uk but because utilities are so cheap and much of these items are included in our rent we always have more money saved at the end of the month than we had in the uk.
Vancouver is a really beautiful city and we find people to be very friendly and we love the outdoors lifestyle.
The only big downside for us is the cost of buying a house here - foreign investment has really driven up costs to ludicrous levels. But renting in central Vancouver is actually quite reasonable and we live in South Granville an area just south of downtown which is very affordable and a great place for families and young people alike.

Hi. Is there anyone here who has been to Emily Carr University of arts and design? How was it. Do they have somekind of student apartments there for families? Is it very expencive to live in Vancouver?  How is the schools there for the kids? Where is the best part to live for families?

Hi, can you tell me about renting price in vancouver?

Vancouver area is very big, all depends what part you want to live at. Downtown and the closest parts are expensive, our daughter rents a one bedroom for $1800/month plus utilities.
Further you go less expensive it gets, but if you have to drive a car or take a public transportation it adds to the cost of living too.

The City of Vancouver is without a doubt the most expensive place to live in Canada, but it also has one of the highest ratings for quality of life in the world.

For more detailed information check the following link for Numbeo:

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/ci … =Vancouver

For information on other cities in the Greater Vancouver Regional District, just type in the name of the city.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Brazil & Canada Expert, Expat-blog Team

Cigarros son caro end Canada, tienen impuestos grande ($8-11 por paquete). La meyor de gente no fuma y es una cuidad muy ineresante en la salud. Es permitar a fumar an la calle per no es permitar end restaurants, edeficios y unos lugares publicos.

Emily Carr school of fine arts does not have student housing, but they are in the midst of expanding, the school isn't like a large university, but had an excellent reputation and is difficult to get into. Vancouver housing is very expensive, even in the nearby suburbs, you can save money on food though, but things like TV can be costly, as is having a cellular phone. There are tons of schools, both downtown and in the surrounding areas, Vancouver is a family friendly city with lots of parks and playgrounds.

The downtown east side is slowly changing, it is still the purest postal code in Canada and had lots of challenges, but the condo craze is slowly gentrifying the area and the poorer residents are in some ways benefiting from the improvements or being forced to leave.  It's a very difficult and complex situation.

I grew up in and spent the majority of my life in Vancouver. I have yet to find a city like it, we have relocated to Ecuador so that I could retire early, so that speaks to the cost of Vancouver and it's environs.