Finding a Good Neighbourhood in Ottawa

We’ll try to point you towards good neighbourhoods, ranging from rural right into the heart of the city.

Farther out is best for lower crime, larger lots and cheaper real estate prices.

Nearer downtown is better for cultural activities, short commutes, and a more active nightlife.

We’ve organised these pages using the highest rated public secondary schools as a starting point for finding good places to live.

Not everyone is comfortable ranking schools by academic performance, including many people who work in education.

In the absence of any other measure, however, we’ll use rankings from the Fraser Institute to identify Ottawa’s best performing public schools and their neighbourhoods.

If you have children of the right age, these areas will probably be important to you. Even if you don’t have children of the right age, areas around good schools are often among the best to live anyway.

We also try to pick the lowest crime areas, but please don’t get too obsessive about crime. Ottawa is one of the safest cities in Canada/North America.

Having said that, Ottawa does suffer typical city problems, such as drug abuse and gang activity, albeit on a smaller scale than most. You are unlikely to have any issues in Ottawa if you exercise common sense.

Types of dwelling in Ottawa

Almost 70% of dwellings in Ottawa are houses.

The remaining 30% are mostly condominium apartments.

Just over 60% of Ottawa’s houses are detached; the rest are row houses and semi-detached.

Prices

According to the Ottawa Real Estate Board (2020) the price of a two storey house averaged $603,000 in mid 2020, bungalows averaged $595,000 while condominiums averaged $368,000.

When we give average house prices below, they’re the average for all houses; the average detached house will be more expensive.

Favourite Neighbourhoods

Here are our own favourite Ottawa neighbourhoods. If we’ve not included your personal favourite, we’re sorry.

Ottawa has many great places to live, and we’ve done our best to select some of the best.

If you haven’t visited Ottawa before, you could use these as starting points when you search for a place to live.

1. West Carleton-March

West Carleton-March is in Ottawa’s far west. It’s a rural area, made up of scattered small villages and communities. Its total population is about 26,000.

Here, within a short distance of the nation’s capital, you can pursue the Canadian dream of owning a large house with plenty of space around you.

West Carleton-March has the lowest crime rate in Ottawa.

It also has one of the city’s best secondary schools, West Carleton Secondary School, which is rated very highly by the Fraser Institute, both for its raw academic results and for ‘adding value,’ achieving better results than expected.

If you’ll be working in Kanata, West Carleton-March is an easy drive.

If you’re working in downtown Ottawa, West Carleton-March is less convenient. It’s about a 30 to 60 minute drive in normal traffic, depending where you live, but at rush hour you could add about 25 minutes or so to your commute time.

Bus travel from West Carleton-March to downtown isn’t possible – you would need to drive to Kanata first and take a bus from there.

Expect to pay about $500,000 – $700,000 for an average house.

2. Kanata North

Kanata North is a family oriented suburban area with a population of about 37,000. It lies just south of West Carleton-March.

Kanata North population grewing by 12 percent between the censuses of 2011 and 2016, with a large number of new homes built.

Crime rates are a little higher than West Carleton-March, but are still comfortably below Ottawa’s average.

Two secondary schools in Katana North were rated very highly by the Fraser Institute: Earl of March Secondary School and Holy Trinity Catholic High School.

KRP Properties, formerly Kanata Research Park, has 4 million square feet of commercial accommodation in 556 acres.

Enterprises such as Bridgewater Systems Corp, CIBC World Markets Inc., Computer Science Canada Inc., Deloitte Touche, JDS Uniphase Inc., Nokia Products Ltd, Pfizer, and Tyco International Ltd have bases there.

In addition to the Research Park, a large number of businesses, such as Research in Motion and Alcatel-Lucent are also located in Kanata North. You can see some of them by taking a virtual drive along March Road in the Google Streetview on the right.

The Centrum Shopping Centre is a large shopping area with cinemas and plenty of large, free parking lots.

Ottawa’s National Hockey League team, the Senators, is based in Kanata North.

Driving downtown in rush hour will take about 50 minutes; the bus journey takes a similar time.

Expect to pay about $450,000 – $550,000 for an average house.

3. Barrhaven

Barrhaven lies on the west side of Ottawa. It’s closer to downtown Ottawa than West Carleton-March is, but still lies beyond the greenbelt. Its population is about 60,000.

It has one of Ottawa’s fastest growing populations, growing by about 85% between the 2001 and 2012, with a large number of new homes built. By 2031, the population is projected to swell to 110,000.

Barrhaven is a family oriented suburban area; it enjoys some of Ottawa’s lowest crime rates and best secondary schools.

Three of Barrhaven’s secondary schools were rated very highly by the Fraser Institute: John McCrae Secondary School, St Joseph High School (catholic), and Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School.

The west and south of Barrhaven are our preferred areas; these are the catchment areas for the highest rated schools – John McCrae Secondary School and St Joseph High School.

There are plenty of family activities in the area, with the Walter Baker Sports Centre, Barrhaven Tennis Club, and a variety of parks all close to John McCrae Secondary School.

In the South, you can take a drive along Market Place avenue, a large shopping area, with plenty of large, free car parking lots.

One of Ottawa’s two inter-city train stations, Fallowfield Station, is located in Barrhaven. (The other is near downtown.) All Ottawa-Toronto trains stop at Fallowfield.

Next to the railway station is OC Transpo’s FallowField Bus Station and a 1,660 vehicle park and ride lot – you can reserve a parking space for $60 per month.

Travel time between Fallowfield and downtown by bus is about 35 minutes during the rush hours, while driving will take about 45 minutes.

Expect to pay about $500,000 – $600,000 for an average house and about $300,000 for an average condominium apartment.

4. Aylmer, Gatineau, Quebec

Although this page is about Ottawa, it would not be complete without looking at Gatineau, Quebec.

Gatineau is within the National Capital Region, sitting opposite Ottawa on the north side of the Ottawa River. Its population is over 250,000.

Commuting to downtown Ottawa can be quicker from parts of Gatineau than from Ottawa’s own outer suburbs.

Tens of thousands of people, including Anglophones, choose to live in Gatineau and commute to work in Ottawa. Here are some considerations:

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