Renting can be a smart financial option for many families. Given the cost of interest on a mortgage, renting makes a lot more sense than buying for some families. More often than not, the hardest part of renting is finding an apartment that fits your family. Larger apartments with multiple bedrooms aren’t being built at the same pace as one-bedrooms and studios, making it harder to find a place with enough room for family life.
These tips can help you find more family-friendly apartments in Vancouver. Renting can be a smart way to prioritize your money on investing rather than owning.
1. Find a Family-Friendly Building
One of the first things to look for is a family-friendly building. The good news is that new provincial legislation limited strata age restriction by-laws to 55-plus and now protects those living in 55-plus-restricted buildings if their family structure changes.
But being allowed to rent in a building is not the same thing as renting in a family-friendly one. See if you can find out how many other families rent in the building.
2. Check Out Floor Plans
When you have a family, time is at a premium. You don’t want to waste hours looking at units that aren’t going to fit your family, but photos rarely give you a real sense of the space and layout of a unit.
One way to speed up this process is to pay attention to floor plans and request them if they’re not included in the listing. This will help give you a full picture of the space a unit has and weed out those units that advertise dens and living rooms as second bedrooms.
3. Safe Walk or Transit Route to School
When kids are young, parents are more likely to accompany them to and from school, but there will come a day when they seek out more independence and want to walk or take transit to school on their own.
It can be a big change, but it’s also a positive one. Studies show that kids who walk to school are less stressed throughout the school day and perform better academically. It will also make them more aware of their surroundings and their community, improve their sense of direction, and make them feel more prepared to become independent later on in life.
4. Save Money with Older Units
New condos look nice, but you can wind up paying a hefty premium for some fancy new finishings. You don’t always need to rent the newest units to have a great place to live. In fact, in many cases, going with an older unit is the best way to get more room.
Condo and apartment sizes have been shrinking over the last two or three decades as developers scramble for scarce downtown space. Units built several decades ago can offer substantially more square footage.
5. Two Bathrooms Could Be Worth the Price
As one final tip, there is one thing you may want to consider spending extra on — a second bathroom. Apartments with two bathrooms aren’t exactly common, but they can be well worth the price for a family.
Working with only one bathroom can put a major time crunch on mornings and make an apartment feel much more cramped than it really is. Splurging for the extra bathroom will be well worth the price. The next time you’re looking for an apartment in Vancouver, these tips can help you find a space that works!
