Hello everyone,
I'm part of the military, and this summer I'm being posted to Ottawa.
I have been looking at different real-estate options (condo, strata, house, renting), and I'd like to hear from anyone who has some experience with the city about things to avoid / things that I should be thinking about. I live with my S/O and I'm moving from a house in Quebec City, and preparing to downsize a bit, since prices in Ottawa are higher than in Quebec.
The area in which I'll be working is East of the airport (CFB Leitrim), and my S/O is a paralegal, so ideally, I'm looking for something within 15km of Leitrim (so I can bike to work) and near transit lines, as my S/O is French, and would probably have more luck in Gatineau. So far, I've worked out that the best area would be North of the Airport and East of the Rideau Canal.
I've noticed that there are quite a few buildings/areas that have HOA of 350+ even for Stratas of less than 200k. To me that seems like a crazy amount of money for "maintenance". I've had a House in Quebec city, and "maintenance" sure as heck doesn't cost that much.