How to Find a Place to Live in Victoria
If you're coming to Victoria to study ESL, the first thing you'll want to do after lining up a school is find housing arrangements.
Homestays
Many schools will help you take care of this process, by arranging a home stay with a Canadian family in or near Victoria. Whether you are just visiting, or you want to move to Canada, living with a family who can help you get to know Canadian culture, as well as helping you practice your ESL, can be very useful.
Some language schools that offer a homestay option include Victoria International Academy, which offers a detailed form you can fill out to indicate your housing preferences, and the Four Corners Language Institute, which guarantees three meals a day and your own room.
Your next resort should be an agency like Victoria Homestay, which promises that the families they find will "provide accomodation, meals, and emotional support - a home away from home!" Their website includes guidelines for international students to help make the homestay experience more successful, mainly common-sense cohabitation rules like using your own bathroom supplies rather than your host family's. The homes they set you up in are rated as "Standard," "Semi-Deluxe" and "Deluxe," and priced accordingly.
Living on Your Own
If you're ready to strike out on your own and get your own apartment, there are plenty of websites with Victoria real estate listings. Try 24/7 Apartments, which allows you to search by neighborhood. Small "bachelor" apartments can be had for as little as $460 Canadian per month. For a three-bedroom, you'll have to pay at least $1,200 a month.
You could also get in touch with the well-reputed Brown Bros, who have been helping people find apartments in Victoria since 1918. They do both apartment listings and real estate for homes.
Even Craigslist has a branch in Victoria, with plenty of opportunities to find a roommate situation or a place of your own.
When looking at apartments, it is best to keep the total picture in mind: not just the rent and the location, but the likely utilities cost, year-round. Victoria has a mild climate compared to most parts of Canada, but it still routinely goes down to 40 degrees Fahreinheit in the winter, and if you will be running the heater, you should anticipate a higher utility bill during the winter months. If a potential landlord agrees to bundle your utility costs in with the price of the rent, that may end up saving you money, since rent doesn't vary from month to month.