Areas/buildings to avoid?

[PapaPetrovitch]

I am currently looking for a place to rent and I started wondering if there are known buildings/areas a current Ottawa resident would recommend newcomers to avoid. 

 

I am mostly looking in the Golden Triangle (as that seems to be the most popular choice for students) and I was advised by a friend to avoid the renting the Sandy Hill area because, as he put it, its a dump. Any recommendations or tips are greatly appreciated!

[Chewy]

Are you planning on owning a car or sticking to walking, biking, or transit (yikes)?
 

Sandy Hill isn’t a dump at all. There are some parts around Rideau Centre that, yeah, I wouldn’t want to live in (most of Byward market area, too), but most of Sandy Hill is great.

Golden Triangle is one of my favourite parts of the city and is a no brainer if you can find vacancy and if you can afford it. Same with Centretown, the Glebe, North Vanier around Beechwood Avenue, and Rockcliffe.
 

Areas to avoid would be:

1. Byward Market - Noisy and lots of homelessness/drug use. Honestly, it’s the only “unsafe” area of Ottawa, in my opinion, but even then, the homeless tend to not bother the general public. You’ll probably just hear loud yelling in the middle of the light.

2. Lower Vanier - Kind of a dump with not many redeeming qualities. Montreal road isn’t great.

Everywhere else is great though. A severely underrated city, in my opinion.

[scooter]

5 hours ago, PapaPetrovitch said:

avoid the renting the Sandy Hill area because, as he put it, its a dump

There are really nice buildings in sandy hill and really dumpy ones. Same goes for the landlords. I wouldn't write off the entire neighbourhood, you have to go see it to understand. Sandy hill near the river is totally different from sandy hill near besserer street. Personally if you are looking at sandy hill I would recommend being south of Laurier. North of Laurier you are closer to Rideau and the market and tend to have more of the issues described above. 

My general advice would be to stay within walking distance, at least for first year. You'll have class every day, often early in the morning. The buses and the train in Ottawa are not the most reliable... especially when the weather is bad. Golden triangle or the nicer parts of sandy hill are good options. The other areas Chewy mentioned above are also nice but most of them are not walking distance from campus (on a nice day maybe, but not at 8:30am in the snow).

[Siteslow]

1 minute ago, scooter said:

There are really nice buildings in sandy hill and really dumpy ones. Same goes for the landlords. I wouldn't write off the entire neighbourhood, you have to go see it to understand. Sandy hill near the river is totally different from sandy hill near besserer street. Personally if you are looking at sandy hill I would recommend being south of Laurier. North of Laurier you are closer to Rideau and the market and tend to have more of the issues described above. 

My general advice would be to stay within walking distance, at least for first year. You'll have class every day, often early in the morning. The buses and the train in Ottawa are not the most reliable... especially when the weather is bad. Golden triangle or the nicer parts of sandy hill are good options. The other areas Chewy mentioned above are also nice but most of them are not walking distance from campus (on a nice day maybe, but not at 8:30am in the snow).

do many/some people commute by car? I have my own car that I was thinking of bringing to Ottawa, and was considering saving a bit of money by living in Gatineau/Hull and driving in each day (as opposed to paying more money to live within walking distance) - is this a terrible idea?

[scooter]

6 minutes ago, Siteslow said:

do many/some people commute by car? I have my own car that I was thinking of bringing to Ottawa, and was considering saving a bit of money by living in Gatineau/Hull and driving in each day (as opposed to paying more money to live within walking distance) - is this a terrible idea?

Not the worst idea, but just be aware that what looks like a 15 minute drive on google maps might be more like 30-45 minutes during rush hour, and many first year classes start at 8:30-9:30 am. Some people definitely do it though. I'm not sure how hard it is to get a parking pass but there is a garage in Brooks, which is attached to the law building.

Maybe if someone lives in Gatineau/Hull or commutes by car from elsewhere they can chime in!

[Chewy]

7 hours ago, scooter said:

The other areas Chewy mentioned above are also nice but most of them are not walking distance from campus (on a nice day maybe, but not at 8:30am in the snow).

Yeah that’s a fair point. Only experienced my first Ottawa winter this past year and I wouldn’t want to be walking that early with that much snow, even if the amount of snow we received was more than usual this year.

[PapaPetrovitch]

On 5/25/2023 at 7:12 PM, Chewy said:

Sandy Hill isn’t a dump at all. There are some parts around Rideau Centre that, yeah, I wouldn’t want to live in (most of Byward market area, too), but most of Sandy Hill is great.

I plan on walking/taking public transit. I own a car right now but I plan on selling it before moving to Ottawa. I talked with another friend that lives in Ottawa and they said the exact same thing (Sandy hill is good but just avoid Rideau and anywhere north of the uni). 

 

Whats a fair monthly rent for a 1br/studio in those areas? So far the options im finding are $1,700-$1,950 on average. 

For anyone also looking for housing: Rentals.ca, Facebook Marketplace, and PadMapper come highly recommended (but leave some for me please).

On 5/26/2023 at 12:13 AM, scooter said:

There are really nice buildings in sandy hill and really dumpy ones. Same goes for the landlords. I wouldn't write off the entire neighbourhood, you have to go see it to understand. Sandy hill near the river is totally different from sandy hill near besserer street. Personally if you are looking at sandy hill I would recommend being south of Laurier. North of Laurier you are closer to Rideau and the market and tend to have more of the issues described above. 

My general advice would be to stay within walking distance, at least for first year. You'll have class every day, often early in the morning. The buses and the train in Ottawa are not the most reliable... especially when the weather is bad. Golden triangle or the nicer parts of sandy hill are good options. The other areas Chewy mentioned above are also nice but most of them are not walking distance from campus (on a nice day maybe, but not at 8:30am in the snow).

Yupp i've heard horror stories about the transit system in the city. Buses aren't the best but I heard the train system is a bit more reliable. 

I'm looking for walking distance housing on my own for first year then i'll probably move a bit farther away for cheaper rent with a roommate second year once i have an idea of what I'm doing in school. Thanks for your input on all the Ottawa posts Scooter