Real Life Stories Buying A House In Alberta, Canada

Date Published:

07/07/2008

Two years ago, the Gregorys were only interested in Canada for one thing - the ski slopes. Wendy tells us how a two-week holiday changed their minds – and how their love affair with the country shows no signs of waning.

My name is Wendy Gregory and I’m 44. In 2005 I bought a four-bedroom, three-bathroom log cabin in Three Sisters Mountain Village in Banff, Canada with my husband, Kevin. Our home is in an area called Hubman Landing, and has views over the mountains and a soon-to-be built golf course. We’ve sold our house in Orpington, Kent and are moving to Canada in July.

I had no desire to live in Canada – we only went because of the skiing! We’d skied all over Austria and France and heard Canada had good snow. We went over at Christmas 2004 – and it blew us away. It’s absolutely beautiful and the people are so friendly. We were there for two weeks and it was a fabulous holiday.

Kevin and I had discussed buying an overseas property, so we visited Three Sisters. We thought it was stunning and put down a deposit. We originally planned to use it as a holiday home, but when we got back to the UK we decided we’d made a mistake. We had terrible jet lag and couldn’t imagine making the trip regularly enough to justify the CAD$560,000 (£290,070).

We returned a year later and the same house had gone up by CAD$120,00 (£62,000)! This time we decided Canada was an opportunity too good to miss. The housing market was buoyant and we decided to buy and, at the very least, keep the property as an investment.

We bought a house in the same resort for CAD$719,000 (£372,030). It has decks on every level and a living room at the top of the house so we can make the most of the lovely views.

Our next-door neighbours at Three Sisters gave us the idea of emigrating. We visited Canada every school holiday, often with our son Sam, who’s 18, and our neighbours said: 'Why don't you get a visa and come here permanently' So we did.

We applied for a visa and sold the UK construction company we ran together. The visa process took about a year to complete but it was much easier than people think. If you have a trade, as Kevin does, the Canadian government is very encouraging.

We don’t plan to work in Canada – we want to travel for at least the first year. We’ve only explored the west of the country. We took three days driving from Banff to Vancouver. It was an amazing trip, but tiring. We’d like to see more of Canada, and would also like to go to China and America.

Canada has been a love affair for us. We really didn’t expect things to turn out the way they have. I’d say the main difference between Canada and the UK is the space – there is so much of it! The people are great, the cost of living is much lower and there’s much less crime – I don’t feel threatened when I walk around at night.

Sam starts at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in August. He’s enjoyed his holidays in Canada as much as me and is really looking forward to moving here.

He’ll be studying economics. It will cost more to take our dog, Rolo, to Canada than it will to fly Kevin and I. We don’t mind, though – we couldn’t leave him behind, he’s part of the family. But I do wonder what he’ll make of the aeroplane...

For more information on buying at Three Sisters Mountain Village, call 01483 242 491 or visit www.tsmv.ca.

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