Is it true that it's hard to find a job and an appartment for rent in Montreal in the winter ???

Question

I'm about to get my permanent residency visa and am looking forward to settle down in Montreal in Februar 2008 , but my friend who's been living there keeps telling me to put my arrival out to the next summer and according to him , there's no way I find a job and a rent in winter time ( January - April)
Should I believe this and come til next summer or should I just ignore that ******** and come as soon as possible ??

Answer 1

Most leases run from July 1-June 30th so you may have some trouble finding an apartment in the popular parts of town, but if a place is vacant it's probably been vacant since July, so the landlord will definitely want to rent it out. You may be asked to sign a lease until June 2009, but you can refuse to. (No renter HAS to sign a lease of more than 12 months.)

As for the job, might be hard, I'm not sure. Probably hard in retail or tourism, easy in accounting. You'll have a jump on the students who want summer jobs, so that's a plus.

Answer 2

Yes. For some reason ALL Montreal leases terminate at the end of August. I was there in June and could not find a single listing! Returning students gobble up the rentals as soon as they come available. I don't know about the job situation, but I imagine it's the same. Don't let that stop you, however. Think of it as an adventure, though it's likely to feel more like a pain in the ***.

Answer 3

Ignore what he says , he must be a slacker or something cuase there are jobs all year round, now that would be silly no jobs in the winter come on....lolllll that just made my day i've been laughing for the last 10 minutes on this one......hihih, move here whenever you want and if you want a job you'll find one. So i say come as soon as possible but it depends from where your leaving, say your from Florida or some other hot place don't come in February cause you knockers will freeze on you , its damn cold in Feb. Anyways goodluck

Answer 4

I don't see what difference it makes as to the time of year. Sure, if you depend on public transportation it's more difficult to get around in the winter, but certainly not enough to force you to put off your trip. Jobs? There's lots of jobs available when all the university students are back to studying. Accomodation? What difference could it possibly make what time of year it is. Check out the newspaper ads for accomodation and jobs ...
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/index.html
http://www.highwayhome.com/media/newspapersbycity/quebec/quebecnewspapers.html
http://www.mondotimes.com/1/world/ca/63/3144/14603
http://newslink.org/nonusnque.html

By the way, if you don't speak French you will have no serious problem in Montreal. If you plan to live there for a long time, however, you might want to consider taking a French course either before you go there or after you arrive.

Good luck!! Bon chance!!

Answer 5

no don't believe