Author

Zia

Zia has 5 years of experience in moving, relocation, housing and real estate, and writes and reviews the guides on getahouse.ca. The focus is on what people actually need to budget and decide before a move: rent, utilities, the income landlords expect, and the provincial rules that apply to deposits, notice and rent increases.

How our guides are researched

Official data first. Rents and vacancy rates come from the CMHC Rental Market Survey and Statistics Canada where available. Current asking rents come from listing reports such as Rentals.ca and liv.rent, and each post says which source and month it uses.
Utility costs from providers. Utility figures are built from published rates (for example Toronto Hydro, Manitoba Hydro, EPCOR, SaskPower, Nova Scotia Power, BC Hydro and FortisBC) and typical usage, then rounded into ranges.
Provincial rules checked against the law. Deposit limits, notice periods and rent-increase rules are checked against each province's residential tenancy legislation or official government guidance.
Estimates are labelled. Where no reliable figure exists, the post says it is an estimate and explains how it was made.
AI-assisted, human-reviewed. AI tools help with research and first drafts. Every guide is reviewed by Zia before it is published, and figures are re-checked when posts are updated.

Independence

getahouse.ca does not represent any brokerage, developer or landlord. Partner links are labelled on the page where they appear. Spotted an error or an outdated figure? Let us know and it will be corrected.