Housing

My family never imaged we would buy another house in Canada very soon when I decided to quit my job and left China last year. A series of unexpected things happened after I arrived in Canada, leading to my purchase of a new home in Unionville. First, my boss pushed me to buy a house near our company quickly and he would provide financial aid to me. Surprisingly, after I signed an unconditional purchase agreement, he ate his words. The house costs me a huge fortune, as high as C$1.55m. If I couldn’t execute the agreement, it would be a disaster to my family -- not only impacting my credit and financial status but also incurring potential suing. Fortunately, one of my classmates helped me out and borrowed lent C$ 0.4m to me. This was just like a light at the end of the tunnel.

I like three things about my new house.

First, the neighborhood of Unionville is excellent. There are many parks, ponds, green lands, and trails nearby. It is joyful for my family to walk or exercise outside. My father-in-law especially loves the Chinese shops and restaurants because he finally can speak Chinese to while buying stuff by himself, which is impossible to do in Oakville.

Second, the school district is ranked at the top of Ontario. This will give my daughter a leg up to enter a better secondary school and top university in the future.

Third, it is a big bungalow, which was built early in 2000. It will be more convenient for us to walk in the house since we don’t need to frequently go up and downstairs in the future. The floor area is about 2000 square feet (not including garage and basement), and the height is over 9 feet. It is so spacious and bright that we will feel more comfortable living in it. The lot size is as big as 8500 square feet, which increases the future potential to of rebuilding a new house there. For example, if I have enough money in the future, I may consider adding one floor to convert it into a mansion.

However, the only defect of the house is the old decoration style. It seems all the decorations and appliances were original and never changed in the last 20 years. I guess the previous owner should be an old couple who didn’t have a passion for home improvement. So I need to invest money to make renovations before my family or other tenants move in.

After purchasing this house, I have to repay a lot of money on the mortgage. It means I will scrape by in the coming years. Considering the house price will keep increasing in the future with the inflow of new immigrants, I believe the short-term financial difficulty will be worthwhile in the long run.