Moving house is said to be one of the most stressful things you can do. But imagine that, at the same time, you are also changing jobs and uprooting yourself and your family to a new life several thousands of miles west. Give yourself just three months in which to do it and you begin to get a sense of what emigration feels like.

Yet sitting here in our modern, 2,400 sq ft house, two months after we landed in Vancouver, British Columbia, it has already all been worth it. The location – in the east of the city, just off Main Street, which is full of shops, cafes and bars – is superb. We can see the mountains on the North Shore from our backyard, with the promise of winter skiing a 45-minute drive from our door. The beaches at Kitsilano are less than half an hour away, and it takes Jo, my wife, 20 minutes to drive to work – a quarter of her commute in London.

As for the house itself, it has the kind of features – walk-in wardrobes, underfloor heating, central vacuum system, double garage – that most Britons would associate with extreme home-makeover shows on television.

We had been toying with the idea of living in Canada for several years after visiting on a couple of holidays. The quality of life, the work-life balance, the inhabitants’ positive nature and the whole outdoors culture had great appeal – especially as a place for our children, Sam, six, and Alice, two, to grow up in. Matters crystallised last November when Jo came across the perfect job in Vancouver, working for a media research firm. Interviews ensued, followed by a mountain of paperwork to satisfy the Canadian High Commission that we were eligible to live there.

Before leaving, we researched where we wanted to live. Looking online, however, does not prepare you. Locations that look okay on screen can be very different in reality. (Why didn’t they mention that six-lane motorway outside the front garden?) Thanks to London’s mad property market, we had £250,000 in equity after selling our four-bedroom house in Wimbledon, southwest London. However, we still had to stretch to the limits of our £440,000 budget to get the home we wanted.

After more than 20 years in London, with its rows of Victorian terraces and Edwardian semis, property in Vancouver came as a real eye-opener. For a start, it is rare to find two identical houses next to each other. Each street has a rich and bewildering choice of architecture, ranging from picture-book wooden heritage homes – some of which are nearly 100 years old, and most of which are beautifully maintained – to new-builds and “Vancouver specials”. These are a local architectural anomaly: two-level homes with balconies across the front of the house, brick or stone finishes on the ground level of the facade and stucco elsewhere.

Potential buyers should start their search using the Multiple Listings Service (www.mls.ca), an online central database, accessible to all, provided by realtors (estate agents who act for buyers and sellers) across Canada. It gives the address, price, lot size in square feet and other details of each property.

Buying a home in Canada is very different to buying one in Britain or Ireland. Here, sealed bids are submitted on a date decided by the seller. (This is usually on a Sunday night.) Your buying realtor should suggest a reasonable price to bid, and will be told by the selling realtor if there are likely to be multiple bids, which will drive up the price.

These are common: over the past five years, the average price of detached houses across Vancouver has risen by more than 100%, with the highest rise in West Vancouver, at 114%, according to the MLS Housing Price Index. There was a slowdown in the second half of last year, in the aftermath of the US property-market crash, but things have picked up again recently. “The sales to active listings ratio – the proportion of houses sold in a month – has risen back to above 30%,” says Andy Ni, a market analyst at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. “It’s a seller’s market. We forecast a further healthy rise for the rest of 2007.”

Bryan Velve, a realtor with Re/Max Crest Realty, is bullish about the prospects for investors: “If you’ve got money in the UK, it’s a great market in Vancouver,” he says. “Buying property here will always make you money.” The city is regularly ranked as one of the best in the world to live in, and a further boost is expected from the 2010 Winter Olympics. All over the city, work is under way on new buildings and transport links, and the economy shows no sign of slowing down.

One of Vancouver’s big attractions is waterfront property. There are condo developments springing up all over downtown, from basic two-bedroom condos for £190,000 to luxurious penthouses, with incomplex gyms and pools, for more than £700,000. Despite recent price rises, Britons are often struck by how much property they can get for their money – even in urban areas. “There have been lots of British and European buyers in the past year,” says realtor Laura Lee, of Royal LePage Westside, another Vancouver-based firm. “Many have been wealthy Brits and Europeans who are nonresident in Canada, buying condos by the water, as they like having the city as a second home.”

Despite the common language and culture, there are potential pitfalls for the unwary buyer. At a basic level, there are language differences to get your head around. Flats are known as condos; a duplex is two homes on one plot. Townhouses, meanwhile, are our equivalent of terraced houses, and suites – also known, picturesquely, as mortgage-helpers – are self-contained accommodation within a property that can be rented out. And that’s just for starters.

Before taking the plunge and making a serious offer, you should always get a qualified engineer to carry out a home inspection report. Not only will this help you spot any hidden defects, it will give you the confidence to make an unconditional offer, which would be more attractive to the seller. The owner, meanwhile, must provide a standard disclosure statement, which includes answers to questions such as “Has the property ever been used as a marijuana grow operation?”.

Frank Gerryts, of Macdonald Realty, co-runs a specialist immigration site aimed at Britons, www.relocation2bc. com. He has seen many deals collapse, especially when people are trying simultaneously to sell in the UK and buy in Canada. “In Canada, when you make your offer, it is a legal contract commitment, which has good and bad sides,” he says. “It gives you the security of knowing the deal is tight here, but if you are in a similar situation at the same time in the UK, and the offer falls through there, then you will incur heavy bridging finance costs to maintain your Canadian commitment.”

Other aspects of the buying process, such as obtaining a mortgage offer and arranging conveyancing through a lawyer, are similar and at similar prices. The mortgage market is as competitive as the property one, and a broker should get you a good, secured rate. But watch out for property purchase tax, the equivalent of UK stamp duty, which is levied at 1% on the first 200,000 Canadian dollars (£94,000) and 2% on everything above that.

Still, having done the maths and made the move, when you’re lighting the barbie in the backyard again, you’ll realise it is all worth it. And provided you stay on the south side of the city, you won’t have grizzly bears for neighbours, either.

Vancouver homes

A five-bedroom house in Dundarave, West Vancouver, with ocean views from all the main rooms. It has a sauna and a kitchen for a serious chef.

For sale for £967,000. Contact Patricia Graham at Dexter Associates Realty; 00 1 604 228 9339, www.dexterrealty.com

In Point Grey, in Vancouver West, this family home, built 15 years ago, has five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a large family room with a built-in entertainment system and a huge rooftop deck.

For sale for £727,000. Contact Linda Robins; 00 1 604 267 7555, www.lindarobins.ca

This appealing five-bedroom, four-bathroomhouse is in Mackenzie Heights, a desirable suburb in Vancouver West.

For sale for £600,000. Contact Kathy Young at Macdonald Realty; 00 1 604 263 1911, www.kathyyoung.ca

A new-build two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo in Yaletown, downtown Vancouver, with ocean views. It has a private parking space and use of a gym with sauna.

For sale for £240,500. Contact Andrew M Hasman at Re/Max Realty; 00 1 604 263 2823, www.andrewhasman.com

To search for properties for sale in Canada on propertyfinder.com click here

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