Hi,

I am planning to buy a Detached House at West End of the GTA. Because of High Prices, I don't want to goto Mississauga or Oakville. I am thinking of moving to Brampton Area.

Can anyone tell me, how good (or bad) is Brampton? And are there any particular areas in Brampton that I should avoid because of high crime rate / gang wars etc.

Thanks

I used to live in Brampton around the Chinguacousy and Bovaird area. There are some really nice new homes out there, nice area too. Lots of desi shops in the surrounding area.

Good luck!

Brown Girl

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Are you working hard, or hardly working?

What a wealth of info. I also intend to buy a house near Chingg/bovaird

For sometime I was wondering the rate difference between Brampton and Mississuaga nearly 40-50k . why so much diff?


Any other feed back, or any other good areas ?

In fact george town is better than Brampton. WHy stick to mississauga, pay more for the crowded environment ? Especially the Square One area is now so crowded with COndos, it is definitely not what it is used to be. It has become very crowded of late. Go to Brampton or beyond and enjoy. Save soem money too. ..

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Non illigitamus carborundum

As far as real estate is concerned there are some big differences between the two cities. In Mississauga there is not much new land left for the future single housing units. Most of the development that's taking place in the Churchill Meadows area of West Mississauga shall be completed in next 1-2 years. Mississauga is a fully matured and very well planned suburb. Being the closest suburb toToronto and looking into the demand and supply of the housing, the prices in Mississauga tend to be higher than that of Brampton.

The housing start (being built, completed, under contruction and approved) for single units in 2004 was 5114 (Brampton) and only 1237 (Mississauga) where as the multiple units housing start was almost the opposite, 1556 and 3115 for Brampton and Mississauga respectively.

Let me paste an interesting article from Toronto Star, dated Feb 23. 2005. I would like to conclude that in my my opinion the infrastructure in Brampton's new development is bound to get better and one can surely think to buy an affordable house in Brampton. Here is the article:

Febuary 23, 2005

Suburban bliss, suburban reality Brampton faces services crunch
Development cap is well-received

Two years ago, Paul and Neera Rishi bought their dream home in a brand new development on the edge of Brampton.

Their kitchen window frames the nearby Hindu Sabha temple. With two storeys and five bedrooms, there is plenty of room for Neera's aging parents and two sons. The Rishis were amazed that they could afford to buy in a neighbourhood near The Gore Rd. and Highway 7.

But shortly after moving in, the downside became apparent. "It's a good area, but there are no facilities," said Neera, a real estate agent.

She rhymed off a list of everything the area lacks: "There is no grocery store, no bus shelters, no community centre, no doctors, no hospital. There is only one elementary school, only four buses in the morning, four buses in the evening," she said with exasperation.

The family did its homework before moving in and knew the area wasn't fully equipped, she said, but is frustrated that after two years, the amenities still aren't available.

"If I need a bag of milk, I have to drive 15 minutes to buy one.... That kind of growth is senseless without services to support the families who already live here."

Like the Rishis, many Brampton residents are hoping that their growing pains will be relieved — temporarily at least — with a development cap that's expected to be approved by Brampton City Council next Monday and take effect at the end of the year. The move is designed to give the municipality time to build infrastructure to serve new subdivisions.

Brampton's population has skyrocketed since 2001, when 325,000 people called it home, according to the last census. The city now boasts about 400,000 residents and the population is expected to reach 426,000 next year. The plan, if ratified by council, will scale back the number of residential units to 5,500 a year, compared to 9,500 building permits issued last year for housing units of all types.

The city has a strong, established South Asian community and many of the homes shelter more than one family as part of cultural traditions, said Harry Abrol, who lives with his mother-in-law, wife and their two children.

"Instead of one or two cars on the driveway, you have three or four cars to one house. Instead of having two kids going to school in one house, you have three or four," he said. "I don't think (the city) thought about that when it did its planning."

Even with the two short years his family has lived in the community, Abrol said he's had enough of Brampton's "over-development."

"We moved here because we wanted to have more space for our kids. We don't have a single park in our neighbourhood and the closest library is eight kilometres away from us," said Abrol, who lives in the Springdale neighbourhood, near Bramalea Rd. and Sandalwood Parkway, one of the fastest growing subdivisions in the city.

"Traffic has become heavier. My two children go to school in portables. And the snow removal in the city is terrible," said Imran Qayyum, 38, a Brampton resident for 14 years.

"There is just too much density and not enough proper planning. The city has a lot of catch-up to do," he said.

"We are seeing gridlock across the city all day long, not just during rush hour. People are spending more time in their car than at work or with their families," said Sheldon Leiba, general manager of the Brampton Board of Trade.

"The city really needs to step back and catch a breath to ensure the infrastructure is there to support its rapid growth."

Recreational facilities are so lacking near Bramalea and Mayfield Rds. that the Bramalea Christian Fellowship Church is working on raising funds for its own recreational centre to serve the children and teens in the community.

"When my family moved into Brampton 32 years ago, there were only 50,000 people here. Now we have about 400,000. There are 30,000 families in this area alone, but we don't have one recreational centre," said Anthony Morrison, building and special projects co-ordinator for the church initiative.

"We are delighted to see so many people attracted to the city. Brampton was a Caucasian city and we just love the diversity of people that we are seeing in our community. It couldn't have happened without the growth we've had in the city."

For some more info about Mississauga Brampton housing, demographics and Places to Grow click below links:

http://www.realestate-ontario.com/mississauga.htm

http://www.pir.gov.on.ca/userfiles/HTML/cma_4_40902_1.html

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Amit Kalia, Broker, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Real Estate Centre., Brokerage
independently owned & operated
100 City Centre Dr, Unit 1-702
Mississauga, ON L5B 2C9
Phone No.: 905-339-5111
Website: https://www.realestate-ontario.com/
Condo Blog: https://condopundit.com/blog/

The article quoted above is certainly not representative of the Chinguacousy / Bovaird or Chinguacousy / Sandalwood areas that are presently being developed – and which were referred to earlier on this thread.

In regards to there being no groceries: There’s a plethora of small convenience stores in the area. Besides, Bovaird Drive – between the 410 and Creditview has a mid-sized mall at almost every other intersection, and the larger chains of stores (like Fortinos, Sobeys, Canadian Tire, Wal-mart, et al) are well represented. Of course, this is a typical north american suburb, so there isn’t going to be a bus to wherever you want to get, expect that you WILL need a car.

Traffic is an issue. However, that is partly on account of the road widening that is presently taking place on Bovaird. Bovaird has already been widened to 6 lanes east of Hurontario, the portion that is west of Hurontario will be complete during 2006.

As regards schools: There are at the very least a dozen schools around Chinguacousy – between Mayfield and Bovaird, so this criticism doesn’t hold good either.

For people that need to travel downtown, the ‘Mount Pleasant’ GO station has been opened in the area. For those that need to drive to Toronto for work, however, the 407 can get pretty expensive, and with gas prices too, that does tend to add up.

The area hasn’t been known for crime, but then it hasn’t been around for very long either.

If you are looking for a detached home larger than 2,000 sq ft, the cost differential as compared to Mississauga, makes this part of Brampton a very attractive proposition.

TWo years ago and even till May of 2004, when I was looking for a house and considered Brampton for cheaper and bigger houses availability, the reason which made me decide against buying a house there were similar to the one detailed in the article. I have a couple of families that I know who live there, specially the Bovaird and Chingu.... area, and yes though Sobeys etc are there, as Crenshaw has remarked, having a car is almost a must there.

I do not know whose responsibility it is, but even after two years of living, my friends did not have a good 'pakka' road in their lane the last I visited them - which is just about 400-500 mtrs from Sobeys.

However, it is true, that a lot of construction and road widening is going on there and prices of houses are still cheper there compared to Missisauga or Toronto or Vaughan/Richmond Hill/Markham.

Chandresh

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Chandresh

Advice is free – lessons I charge for!!