As I previously mentioned, www.kijiji.ca
is the best place you can find
accommodation in the entire Canada. This is where I found my
place in early
August. I created an account for free and spent only a few hours
searching for
a place. It is important to specify your preferences, such as:
·Category: are you
looking for a
room, condo, or a large apartment? The larger the place, the
higher is the
price!
·Location: would you
like to
live in Ottawa, or in Gatineau on the Quebec side?
·Distance: this is an
amazing
option – you can specify the radius within you want to stay in.
Places in
downtown tend to be more expensive; if you decide to live in the
suburbs, make
sure there is a bus that will take you to downtown.
·Pet friendly: if you
have or
intend to have a pet, this might be of interest to you.
·Furnished: you might
want to
rent a fully furnished apartment since it is more convenient,
and you don’t
have to waste time and money on buying furniture.
·Price range: this one
is
important – you can specify the price range you want to be
within in; I suggest
not going over $800 if you are a single person, and not going
below $400.
Once you find your desired place
to stay
(it would be great if you find more than one so that you have
more options),
contact the owner and ask for the details. They usually respond
very quickly.
If you receive a suspicious or very short response, don’t bother
– it might be
a scam. It would be great if you could have a video call with
the owner so that
you can “meet each other” and have a real conversation. They
will most likely
ask for the safety deposit – I paid for it before I arrived,
through online
banking.
I haven’t used it much, but it
looks
decent. If you don’t find anything on Kijiji, you can try this
one. However,
Kijiji should be your first choice since I believe there are
more scams and
frauds on Craigslist.
If you are interested in
on-campus
accommodation, these links might be very useful:
I personally don’t have any
experience
with it, but I was told that I should better seek off-campus
accommodation
since it is cheaper and the quality is better. However, this
might be of
interest to you.