Oh man, apartment hunting in Vancouver sucks for everyone, the vacancy rate is just so low. Most places are GONE in the first week of the month, so I imagine right now you are seeing the expensive and/or skeeviest places. Having cash on hand to pay the deposit & rent when you see the apartment can sometimes be very convincing to landlords. (Usually the kind of landlord that doesn't have anything as fancy as a written application form.) Copies of bank statements showing your savings, or a letter from school officially confirming your funding, plus a pre-typed short letter explaining why you don't have a Canadian credit history but are still totally a reliable organized potential tenant are useful for anywhere that IS organized/official enough to have an app form.
I'm sure you've seen it, but the alma mater society has an Off-campus housing registry (http://www.amsrentsline.com/). All these landlords are open to students, and to them "grad student with funding" not to mention "isn't a 19 year old living away from home for the first time" are magic words. You might want to stop at Langara College - W. 49th & Manitoba - and look at postings on the bulletin boards in their little student union building. There are lots of basement suites etc. near Langara that the landlords don't bother advertising in the paper, and anything near there is an easy commute by bike or bus to UBC. The Marpole area - around 70th & Granville - is not a bad place to look at apartments in. Older buildings, but usually with lots of space for the price. There's an express bus to UBC from 70th & Granville, and the area is cheap because it's a really boring neighbourhood full of seniors and the buildings are from the 50s but usually well maintained, rather than because it's unsafe or of dubious compliance with the construction code. Speaking of which, if you are looking at places near Commercial drive, or a basement anything in Kits, be wary of unsafe apartments of dubious compliance with the construction code. The Drive has a lot of buildings that are old AND run by lazy bastards, a dangerous combo, and for some reason despite Kitsilano being a yuppie enclave, there are a lot of cheap-ass home owners with super sketchy basement suites, caveat fish.
Wow, typing this makes me SO glad to own my apartment.
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I'm sure you've seen it, but the alma mater society has an Off-campus housing registry (http://www.amsrentsline.com/). All these landlords are open to students, and to them "grad student with funding" not to mention "isn't a 19 year old living away from home for the first time" are magic words. You might want to stop at Langara College - W. 49th & Manitoba - and look at postings on the bulletin boards in their little student union building. There are lots of basement suites etc. near Langara that the landlords don't bother advertising in the paper, and anything near there is an easy commute by bike or bus to UBC. The Marpole area - around 70th & Granville - is not a bad place to look at apartments in. Older buildings, but usually with lots of space for the price. There's an express bus to UBC from 70th & Granville, and the area is cheap because it's a really boring neighbourhood full of seniors and the buildings are from the 50s but usually well maintained, rather than because it's unsafe or of dubious compliance with the construction code. Speaking of which, if you are looking at places near Commercial drive, or a basement anything in Kits, be wary of unsafe apartments of dubious compliance with the construction code. The Drive has a lot of buildings that are old AND run by lazy bastards, a dangerous combo, and for some reason despite Kitsilano being a yuppie enclave, there are a lot of cheap-ass home owners with super sketchy basement suites, caveat fish.
Wow, typing this makes me SO glad to own my apartment.