The
Victoria Times Colonist newspaper has an article today on the challenges of student rentals. Their
classified ads are online. The Gordon Head and Lansdowne neighborhoods are closest to the University. Like Adroit says, the Gorge area is nice and not as expensive as some others. Vic West is near downtown and can be cheap.
This map is clickable and will give you some idea of the neighborhood names that are advertised
Budget rental housing is difficult to find - the more money you can spend, the easier it becomes.
There is adequate public transit to the University from most core municipalities, check the transit maps at
bctransit.com
The Greater Victoria area is made up of something like 13 different municipalities. Victoria City, Esquimalt, Saanich and Oak Bay are considered the core municipalities. Langford, Colwood and Metchosin are called the "Western Communities" and there is a significant traffic bottleneck between there and Victoria City (called the Colwood Crawl for it's breathtaking lack of speed in rush hours). View Royal sits between the core and the Western Communities and gets caught in the same traffic. The municipalities on the Saanich Peninsula - North Saanich, Sidney, Central Saanich have a lot of acreages and upper scale housing and are less convenient with transit - so although there may be some affordable apartments in Sidney, it means a car or a long bus commute.
I don't know as there are any streets that are more 'dangerous' than others - most trouble is downtown when the bars close and the drunken idjits hit the street. There's a fairly high homeless and transient population, and where we live (in James Bay, easy walking distance from downtown) we get a fair but of incidental burglary and car window smash & grabs.
If you are renting sight unseen, its best to deal with a property management company or to ask for photos and references - there have been scams with people advertising apartments and taking deposits by mail - when they don't actually own the place. If it is an apartment in a building, find out who the management company is and verify. If you are unfamiliar with the BC renters laws, they are
here. Apart from a refundable 1/2 month security deposit, IIRC asking for "key" money (a non refundable 'bribe' demanded by the landlord to agree to rent) is not legal here.
Obligatory Mac content: There's a strong
Mac community in town, and although there are no Apple Stores, there are several independent Apple dealers and service providers.
