Canada - British Expat Forum

Hi
We are moving out to Canada once the house has been sold having secured our PR cards (family of four - two young children).
My husband is going on a driving course in BC, after which he can almost choose where we want to live in the state job-wise.
Have pondered over Rossland, Nelson (not permanent though - just for first year or so) or on a more permanent basis the Okanagan Valley.
This is where I need help though!!!
All the towns seem to have their own attractions in the Okanagan but I was wondering which are the nicer parts of Kelowna, and also how far the lake country is from Kelowna itself roughly?
Also, does anyone have any info on Penicton and Naramata/Keremos?
Finally(!), anyone recently been to Rossland or Nelson as they both seem to be booming.
Many thanks Julie

Hi Julie: I'll do my best to answer your questions. I don't live in the Okanagan proper but I live very close by and my daughter lives in Kelowna/Westbank.
I didn't think Nelson was booming as it's a sort of weird place; there is another thread on this somewhere on the site, try searching for Nelson.

Rossland and Trail are doing some better, but there isn't too much to compare to the Okanagan Valley. It's become a lot busier over the past few years with many people retiring there, this has impacted the traffic big time and makes getting from A to B miserable on a good day.

If you want to live in Kelowna then the southern areas and the norhtern areas are nice, Rutland is quite nice as are Lake Country and Winfield.
Penticton is definitely a retirement town, but then again you could say that about every town in the valley as the weather is good and the amenities are excellent so people tend to want to live there. I like Penticton with the two lakes, it has a small airport, great shopping and is at the junction of several major roads (almost). Keremeos is a little town with orchards and fruit/vegetable growers, it is very hot in the summer and a little remote in the winter. Peachland and Summerland are also great little places to look at.

Naramata is again a little town but you have to go through Penticton to get to it, it has some water problems as far as I know but is a lovely small community. My B-in-L looked at it to open a bed and breakfast and we had a nice tour around there, it's sort of neat but not a thriving busy community.

Let me know if you have any specific questions. Try going on www.castanet.net and looking at all the smaller communities attached to it (it's the electronic newspaper for the Okanagan).

Hope that helps.
Graeme

Hi Julie

We moved to West Kelowna in April last year. I don't know much about living in other areas although we have travelled a fair bit since we've been here. From Okanagan North you have Vernon, travelling down the map you have Lake Country area, then Kelowna, then Westbank, then Peachland, Summerland, Penticton with a few little places on the way. Where's best? Depends what you want.

Outdoors: Vernon is good for outdoors stuff. Still smaller than Kelowna and it shows in their outlook. Kelowna is also very central for all outdoors stuff. Vernon has Silver Star pretty close by (20 mins) Kelowna (depending on where you live) has Big White approx 30 - 40 mins away. I board, Big White is awesome.

City Life: Kelowna. If you wants some nicer clothes, bars and restaurants this is your only choice. Some find Kelowna a bit snooty compared to other towns in the area. Kelowna is more expensive too (not compared to UK though)

Quiet Life: Peachland is really nice. There are also a ton of places that are a bit more out of the way but close to the main cities like Enderby is Vernon. If you want rural there is lots of choice but someone may be better placed to give you a proper idea of what they are like.

Lake Country (the place) is around 20 minutes from Kelowna.

Rutland is not that good a place to live in Kelowna. I am sure it's nice but not the nicest. West Kelowna Estates and The Mission are probably the best and certainly more expensive. We have a good friend who is a Realtor that you could email without hassle. She can give you the lowdown on all of Okanagan from house point of view. She is young, fun, enthusiastic and the BEST person to go house shopping with. She also knows the UK move to Canada issues and was a massive help when we moved. House prices in Kelowna $300k very minimum to $10 million.

The Bridge: New bridge being built due to open in July 2008. Will make the trffic jams better. They are not too bad at the moment though. Better than arund Birmingham thats for sure!!! Expect a 20 min slow movement in an average peak times. I have not had it worse than that this year. I live on the Westside in West Kelowna Estates and work a lot in Kelowna.

Am I happy I chose Kelowna??? Yes. I love it here. My second choice would be Vernon. Nelson is nice but seems not as nice as people say, weather is not as good and it is more out on its own.

Horses for courses though!!!

Thanks so much for all the info. Basically, our house is on the market in the Brecon Beacons, Wales and as soon as it sells (plus six months) we will be en route to Canada (visas sitting in our passports ready to be utlised!).
Have decided on BC but maybe initially Rossland or Nelson as Justin my husband works for the Forestry Commission and may well have a posting close to either of those areas but we will be hoping to move to Kelowna (have also been looking at Peachland as well) once he sorts something else out. I am a sports journalist by trade but fancy doing something completely different for a change when we emigrate! Your message was really interesting - what are house prices like in Kelowna and beyond etc. Seems like they are rocketing from this end! Sorry about the delay in replying. Went on a family holiday to Spain - hopefully the last one we will experience (for all the right reasons you understand!!!) before our move.
Hope to hear from you soon,
regards Julie

House prices in the whole of BC seem to be rocketing. There are few bargains to be had, especially around areas like Kelowna, Nelson etc etc. Basically the further you get from a city the cheaper they get. As everyone say's "..the secret is out .." and BC's hotspots are firmly on the map. Having said that we have a really nice place, lake view. double garage, 3000 sq foot. third of an acre in a really nice area and it was effectively the same price as our terraced house in the UK. Although it was a nice terrace in a nice area it still doesn't compare! You will almost certainly be upgrading for the same money. Take a look at www.mls.ca

Nearly every house for sale in canada is on there. You can search by area and price range so you'll get an idea of what's what. Oh, and you'll have to ignore the interiors. I have yet to see a house in which someone had any clue about interior design!!!!! They all look my nans house inside, actually more like a bizarre mixture of nans houses. [/code][/b]

Read your post from 2007 - researching moving to Okenagan Valley with two children. We are thinking of doing just that and wondered how t had panned out for you?

The bridge was completed on schedule and made a huge difference to travel into Kelowna (as mentioned above by Jaymz). House prices peaked in 2008, retreated slightly and are now slowly increasing, they are over the 2008 hiatus now. It would be interesting to hear how Jaymz worked out, hopefully he'll respond.