You have two offers open and they look close. Almost always they are not close, and the gap is hidden in units — one is monthly and one is four-weekly, one includes heat and one does not, one is a lease on a bedroom and one is a lease on a flat.
This is the worksheet. Ten lines, written so that after filling them in you are comparing two of the same thing.
We operate one of the buildings in this market, so read this as a method rather than a verdict. Every “ours” below is there to be checked against the other column.
The ten lines
1. Rent, converted to the same period
Write both figures per four weeks or both per calendar month, not one of each.
The conversion people get wrong: a four-weekly figure is not a monthly figure. A nine-month term billed four-weekly is nine and three-quarter payments. Ours: $560–$880 every four weeks, quoted four-weekly because that is what is billed.
2. Heat — included or billed?
Ask explicitly, and in writing. In Edmonton this is the single largest hidden variable. Ours: included.
3. The other three utilities
Water, power, internet. Each is either in the figure or an account in your name with its own connection fee. Ours: all three included, no accounts to open.
4. Furniture
Bed and mattress, desk, chair, lamp, storage — and whether the shared kitchen is furnished. If it is not included, add what you will buy and subtract what it resells for in the spring. Ours: included, bed made up before arrival; kitchen and sitting area furnished.
5. What the lease is for
Bedroom or whole unit? On a joint tenancy, a housemate leaving in February shifts their rent onto you. On a per-bedroom lease it does not. This is a risk line, not a cost line, and it is the one most often missing from a comparison. Ours: the bedroom.
6. Bathroom ratio
How many people to one bathroom. Rarely in a listing, permanent in your day. Ours: four bedrooms to one bathroom, both buildings, no exceptions.
7. Term, and the exit
Start date, end date, break clause. A lease you intend to break is an expensive lease. Ours: nine months, September to May; a summer term June to August on two room types at Garneau Towers.
8. Deposit and its return
Amount, and the law it returns under. In Alberta a security deposit is capped at one month’s rent and comes back with interest after move-out and inspection. Anything above that cap is worth questioning. Ours: one deposit at signing, listed per room.
9. The walk, in January
Measure to the building you will actually be in, in winter — not to “campus”. Ours: from University Tower, five minutes to the Education building and four to the hospital; from Garneau Towers, seven and six. Why those minutes are worth paying for.
10. Which amenities your specific room includes
Not the building’s list — your room’s. Ours, and this catches people: the gym, the two laundry rooms and the lounge are at Garneau Towers, for Garneau Towers residents. A University Tower room does not include them.
Then do the arithmetic once
Take column A and column B, and for each:
Total four-weekly cost = rent + any utility not included + (furniture ÷ number of periods) + transport the location forces.
Then note the two things that are not money: what happens if a housemate leaves, and how far you walk in February.
Nine times out of ten the headline gap closes to a fraction of what it looked like, and the decision comes down to the bathroom ratio and the walk.
The questions the worksheet cannot answer
Two, and both need a tour: what the kitchen feels like with four people in it at 8am, and how long it actually takes someone to come when the heat fails on a Sunday night. The full tour checklist is here.
And one to ask each operator directly: where are you the wrong choice? Ours is on the record — private bathroom, pets, choosing your own housemates, terms under nine months outside the summer window, budgets under $560.
