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How Can Newcomers Find the Right Home in Canada?
Written By
Steve Tustin
•
Mar 6, 2025
•
Housing
Finding affordable rental apartments in Canada can be challenging for newcomers and international students. This overview provides valuable tips on how to find accommodation in Canada and prepare for success in your housing search. While finding a short-term rental before you arrive is vital, the hard work is finding affordable long-term housing. Researching the housing market before you arrive will give you information about rent prices in Canada. It will also help you compete in a tight, low-vacancy rental market.
Edmonton, Alberta
An Overview of 2025 Rental Prices in Canada
Rental prices in Canada soared in recent years. Prices rose in Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Regina, as people left high-rent cities like Toronto and Vancouver searching for cheaper rent. Only recently have prices started to fall, a trend experts say will continue throughout 2025. However, while rental prices are decreasing in many cities, cost remains an issue.
How to Find Accommodation in Canadawith Rental for Newcomers
So why has this online site become so popular with newcomers seeking their first rental home in Canada? Because RFN helps people avoid the headaches, heartaches, and expenses of their rental search by promoting landlords who value newcomers.
Register for Free!
For immigrants arriving in Canada’s competitive rental market, sites like Rentals for Newcomers are invaluable. Plus, it’s FREE, but you must create an account! Register for free and connect with landlords.
How to Find Affordable Apartments in Canada?
Rent prices vary across Canada and some cities offer more affordable housing options. Researching and comparing rental prices can help you identify the most cost-effective cities. It’s equally important to ensure that suitable job opportunities exist. Ideally, you want to avoid making a costly secondary move to a new city.
Research Canada’s Rental Housing Market
Newcomers wanting to find accommodation in Canada must research the rental market before and after arriving. Knowing the rental landscape can help you find your first home more quickly. Rentals for Newcomers is a great place to begin research to find affordable apartments in Canada.
Rentals for Newcomers provides information about why you need renters insurance in Canada.
How Rentals for Newcomers Can Help You Find Accommodation in Canada
In addition to hosting rental listings from across Canada, RFN provides:
Current rental prices in Canada’s major cities
Links to a monthly housing newsletter and the latest rental market trends
Tips to impress Canadian landlords, avoid rental scams, rent without a credit history
Information on why you need tenant insurance, how to get it, and much more!
Dave Frattini, the Managing Partner at Prepare for Canada and Rentals for Newcomers, says RFN is an invaluable tool to find accommodation in Canada.
Renting your first home in Canada | Options & solutions for newcomers
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“Searching for affordable accommodation in Canada is more difficult than ever for newcomers,” said Frattini. He offers these tips to prepare to find rental accommodation in Canada:
Identify the type of housing and size you need for your family
Research rental prices in the city where you plan to settle
Gather essential documents to provide to potential landlords
“Sell yourself” to impress a landlord as a reliable and trustworthy tenant.
Newcomers must “sell themselves” as suitable tenants to landlords.
Frattini emphasizes that “newcomers must put their best foot forward when they meet landlords. Landlords can select the pick of the crop tenants for affordable rentals in prime locations.”
“Rentals for Newcomers is a great example of a partner agency,” said Jesse Greenwell, head of Communications Culture and Inclusivity at Mainstreet Equity Corp. Mainstreet is a leading real estate company for mid-market apartment rentals in Western Canada, “which can help prepare newcomers for Canada’s rental market.”
How Does RFN Help Newcomers Avoid Rental Scams?
RFN is part of Rentsync, a North American market leader for property technology. This gives RFN access to the latest rental technology, tools, insights, and trends.
Using Rentsync’s rental technology software network to verify landlords, Rentals for Newcomers ensures that scam listings are not on its site to protect newcomers. Sites like Craigslist and Kijiji are vulnerable to rental scams that target newcomers.
Get Verified Rental Listings
“Importantly, our listings are well managed,” said Frattini. “The platform is driven digitally and manually. Rentsync knows the landlords that are listed on RFN.” Frattini added, “We inform and update our audience about scams in the rental market in blog posts.”
Summary
Although rent prices are slowly decreasing and vacancy rates are improving, finding accommodation in Canada remains challenging for newcomers. Experts say this trend will continue throughout 2025. So, it’s vital to research and prepare to find your first long-term rental. Using Rentals for Newcomers can make your search easier, and faster, and help you avoid rental scams.
WRITTEN BY
Steve Tustin
Senior Editor, Prepare for Canada
Steve Tustin is the Editor for Rentals for Newcomers and a contributing editor for Prepare for Canada. He is also the former managing editor of Storeys.com and a former senior editor at the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star.
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