January intake is the quieter half of the student year, and it catches people out for exactly that reason. There is no obvious rush, so the search drifts into December — by which point the people who are organised have already signed, and the search has become a search for whatever is left.
The search runs two to three months ahead of the term
Housing decisions for a January start are made in October and November. Not because anyone is told to, but because the people who move in on the first of January arranged it while they still had the choice, and they are the reason the choice narrows.
If you are reading this in October with a January start, you are early in the useful sense: there is still a decision to make rather than an allocation to accept.
One semester is a real lease length here
The thing that makes a January start awkward almost everywhere else is the twelve-month lease. A winter semester runs January to April. A standard apartment lease runs a year, which means paying for eight months you may not want, or breaking it and arguing about what that costs.
The minimum term here is 4 months. January to April fits it exactly, with no sublet to find and no summer to cover. If you stay on past April, you stay on; if the semester was the whole plan, the lease was the whole plan too.
What to settle before you land
Approval is the part that takes time, and it is the part you can do from where you are now. A guarantor or proof of income is required, so whichever applies to you, arrange it before you start enquiring rather than after you have found a room.
The costs are published in advance: $200 processing when you apply, $150 key deposit at signing which comes back with the keys, and first month's rent. Beyond that, last month's rent if you are approved without a guarantor. How it works sets out the full sequence.
Arriving in a Toronto January
Two practical things, if this is your first winter here.
You will not want to spend the first week buying furniture. The room is furnished — bed, desk, storage, a chair — and the suite kitchen is equipped, so the arrival list is bedding, towels and groceries. The internet line is already in and already paid for, which matters more in January than it sounds: there is no waiting-for-an-installer week in the coldest month of the year.
And the heating bill is not a surprise, because there is not one. Hydro, heat, air conditioning and water are inside the weekly rate, with a thermostat in each suite. A February in a building where heat is metered separately is where most student budgets actually break.
