Robert Harris and Cheryl Vanditelli near one of their five properties in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Dec. 28, 2019. TARA WALTON
Cheryl Vanditelli and her husband own five houses in Niagara Falls, the tourist city bordering the United States.
They bought back in 2015 and 2016, and the market was so good, her husband, Robert Harris, quit his job as a tool and die maker. “We went all in with everything we had,” said Ms. Vanditelli, who has since retired from her job at a bank.
They live in one of the houses and keep the other four as rental properties. Every property has doubled in value since they bought.
They are part of a growing trend: Investors are sensing opportunity and snapping up houses in smaller centres, driven in part by the rise in home prices in Toronto, the country’s second-most expensive market, where the average selling price of a detached house in the city itself and most of the surrounding suburbs is more than $1-million.
That same affordability issue in the Toronto area increasingly has homeowners looking to locate in smaller cities far from a major job centre. The result is that real estate prices in places such as Niagara, St. Catharines and Kingston – though still about half the cost of a Toronto-area house – are on the rise.
In the Niagara region, the benchmark price, or the industry representation of a typical home sold, was $431,200 in November. That is an 8-per-cent increase over last year, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).
In comparison, the benchmark price in the Greater Toronto Area was $823,700 in November, a 6.5-per-cent increase from last year.
The increase is steeper over five years, with the price of a typical home in the Niagara region up by 86 per cent while the benchmark price in the Toronto area rose by 58 per cent over the same period, according to CREA.
It’s not just investors who are interested in cities such as Niagara and St. Catharines, where a two-storey house sells for about $450,000. The cheaper real estate prices have made it more desirable for baby boomers, immigrants and young families.
“Baby boomers are cashing out of wherever they are and buying in cash or not having a mortgage,” said Brad Johnstone, a realtor with Royal LePage who has worked in the Niagara region for more than two decades.
“We are also getting young families coming out of the Greater Toronto Area that can’t buy a house,” he said, adding that with more people working from home, it’s easier to settle outside of a major labour market such as Toronto.
“We have got flexible work schedules. All those factors have led to continuous growth,” he said.
It’s a similar story in other Ontario cities. In London, the benchmark home price was $420,494 in the third quarter. That is 10 per cent higher than the same quarter last year and nearly 20 per cent higher over a two-year period, according to Royal LePage.
In Kingston, the typical home price was $392,209 in the third quarter, a 3-per-cent increase over the previous year and a 17-per-cent increase over a two-year period.
Unlike many suburban homeowners, who either commute or work in major job centres such as Toronto and Mississauga, this crop of buyers spends more time working from home, according to Royal LePage chief executive Phil Soper.
They seek out smaller, cheaper cities “because of the affordability of living, affordability of housing and the fact that work is portable now,” he said.
Smaller markets have also generated immense interest from individual investors such as Ms. Vanditelli and Mr. Harris.
The couple ventured into real estate for another source of income. At the time, Ms. Vanditelli’s employer was laying off her colleagues and the couple feared she would soon lose her job.
The first house they purchased in Niagara Falls was $154,000; the second house was $123,000; the third property, a duplex, was $178,000; the fourth purchase, another duplex, was $203,000; and the fifth property was $145,000.
Ms. Vanditelli said recent appraisals show that every property has doubled in value.
“We felt that it was a hidden gem that nobody had tapped into at that point,” said Ms. Vanditelli, 54. “I think we got in at the right time,” she said. The couple now own a café in town.
Government efforts to cool the housing market had no impact on places such as Niagara and Kingston, according to local realtors. When the stricter mortgage rules went into effect in 2018, home sales and house prices declined in Toronto and Vancouver, the country’s most expensive real estate market. But Niagara continued to appreciate. Mr. Johnstone, the realtor, expects prices to continue appreciating here.
“We were undervalued for years,” he said.
Sarah Larbi, who owns 10 properties in Ontario and runs a real estate investment club, says interest is growing in property investing. The 35-year-old believes St. Catharines is ripe for investment and shuns expensive areas such as Toronto, Mississauga and Oakville. Her real estate club’s monthly sessions attract upwards of 200 people who want to learn more about how and where to invest.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
MONTREAL – The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says Montreal-area home sales rose 9.3 per cent in August compared with the same month last year, with levels slightly higher than the historical average for this time of year.
The association says home sales in the region totalled 2,991 for the month, up from 2,737 in August 2023.
The median price for all housing types was up year-over-year, led by a six per cent increase for the price of a plex at $763,000 last month.
The median price for a single-family home rose 5.2 per cent to $590,000 and the median price for a condominium rose 4.4 per cent to $407,100.
QPAREB market analysis director Charles Brant says the strength of the Montreal resale market contrasts with declines in many other Canadian cities struggling with higher levels of household debt, lower savings and diminishing purchasing power.
Active listings for August jumped 18 per cent compared with a year earlier to 17,200, while new listings rose 1.7 per cent to 4,840.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
