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Canadian Real Estate: Hottest Recreational Markets | RE/MAX Canada – RE/MAX News

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For years, the Canadian real estate market has been dominated by a handful of cities, such as Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. Everyone wanted to live in these red-hot markets – and for a good reason. These urban centres have everything you would want, from arts and entertainment to a diverse range of amenities. Then, of course, the coronavirus pandemic happened, and it turned everything upside down, including the dominant trends within the Canadian real estate market.

Who would have predicted at the start of 2020 that big city dwellers would be fleeing these metropolises to live in rural areas? This is one of the trends unfolding in the fallout of the COVID-19 public health crisis. With more Canadian businesses embracing work-from-home policies, many people are taking advantage of the opportunity to relocate to cottage country. As such, small cottage country towns are becoming attractive destinations for homebuyers.

Whether you are ready to pack up and leave your city-living days behind, or you’re looking for your next big investment opportunity, here’s what you need to know about some of the hottest markets in Canadian cottage country.

Canadian Real Estate: The Hottest Markets Across Cottage Country

#1 Kawartha Lakes, Ontario

The Kawartha Lakes has long been a getaway target for Torontonians since it is roughly a 90-minute drive from the heart of the city. The region is mostly known for its cottage vacations, but it offers a diverse array of activities and sights, including horseback riding, boating, hiking trails, golf, and so much more. Plus, you can access the Trans Canada Trail and Ferris Provincial Park. Now that the pandemic has altered buying trends, Kawartha is turning into an all-season home for many city dwellers.

According to the Kawartha Lakes Real Estate Association (KLREA), residential home sales surged 39.5 per cent in July. Home prices rose 3.8 per cent to a record high of $480,164. Since Kawartha is becoming a top destination for homeowners in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), there has been a surge in demand, but supply has been unable to keep up, which has turned the municipality into a seller’s market.

#2 Muskoka Lakes, Ontario

Like the Kawarthas, Muskoka is at the top of the list of most popular cottage country destinations. And, like the Kawarthas, Muskoka provides so much more than an idyllic getaway. From Gravenhurst to Bracebridge, you can relish in great seasonal festivals, hiking, wineries, and art galleries, all year long.

The Lakelands Association of REALTORS® reported a 29.8-per-cent jump in non-waterfront residential sales and a 64.2-per-cent spike in waterfront sales in July. Prices within Muskoka have also popped: 15.5 per cent for non-waterfront properties ($385,250) and 21.5 per cent for waterfront housing ($675,000). The housing supply in Muskoka remains low, but the demand continues to rise, resulting in a seller’s market.

#3 Gulf Islands, British Columbia

If you desire to be on the west coast, consider the Gulf Islands in British Columbia. This has long been a much-desired cottage destination, mainly for its five major islands (Pender, Galiano, Mayne, Salt Spring and Saturna). Although the Gulf Islands are appealing due to the fact that you can choose to disconnect, or you can still stay connected to the outside world with frequent B.C. Ferries, water taxis and private boats.

The Gulf Islands have been steadily rising for several years now, and real estate agents in British Columbia say that the region could attract even more interest in the months to come. Over the last year, prices have risen as much as 41.61 per cent. Since 2015, prices have gone up as much as 132.7 per cent!

#4 Eastern Townships, Quebec

For years, people have rented cottages for their chalet-style getaways in Eastern Townships. The Quebec region has 89 municipalities, including Magog, Sherbrooke and Coaticook. In addition to being surrounded by nature, the southeastern Quebec region has plenty of gourmet wine facilities, spas, golf courses, and winter sports, as well as more than a dozen national and regional parks that can be enjoyed year-round.

Data from the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers suggest transactions climbed as much as 20 per cent in this region. Prices above the $500,000 level are also the new norm, and experts forecast that prices will continue to go up amid more Montrealers fleeing to the suburbs.

#5 Frontenac County, Ontario

Frontenac County is a three-hour drive from Toronto, sandwiched between Kingston and Ottawa. It would be easy to surmise that Frontenac is attracting mostly Torontonians, but the urban flight trend is bringing people from large cities across Ontario. The main problem is that affordable all-season cottages do not stay on the market long, especially those priced below $500,000.

In July, Kingston and its surrounding areas witnessed a new sales record, rising 35.8 per cent from the same period last year, says Kingston and Area Real Estate Association (KAREA). The average price of homes sold was an astounding $458,026, which was up 15.2 per cent from July 2019.

Earlier this spring, many cottage country mayors discouraged urbanites from leaving their big cities to come to these small towns for fear of spreading the highly infectious respiratory illness. But these warnings might not have been enough for city dwellers searching for vacation homes or all-season cottages. As people from the nation’s largest cities seek less densely populated communities, cottage country destinations nationwide can anticipate a massive boom – and this could last all year long for many of these rural regions. For realtors within these small communities, perhaps the fiercely competitive bidding wars commonplace in Toronto and Vancouver’s real estate transactions, will become the new norm in 2021.  Stranger things – like for example, a global pandemic and killer hornets – have happened.

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Here are some facts about British Columbia’s housing market

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Housing affordability is a key issue in the provincial election campaign in British Columbia, particularly in major centres.

Here are some statistics about housing in B.C. from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s 2024 Rental Market Report, issued in January, and the B.C. Real Estate Association’s August 2024 report.

Average residential home price in B.C.: $938,500

Average price in greater Vancouver (2024 year to date): $1,304,438

Average price in greater Victoria (2024 year to date): $979,103

Average price in the Okanagan (2024 year to date): $748,015

Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Vancouver: $2,181

Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Victoria: $1,839

Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Canada: $1,359

Rental vacancy rate in Vancouver: 0.9 per cent

How much more do new renters in Vancouver pay compared with renters who have occupied their home for at least a year: 27 per cent

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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B.C. voters face atmospheric river with heavy rain, high winds on election day

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VANCOUVER – Voters along the south coast of British Columbia who have not cast their ballots yet will have to contend with heavy rain and high winds from an incoming atmospheric river weather system on election day.

Environment Canada says the weather system will bring prolonged heavy rain to Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Whistler and Vancouver Island starting Friday.

The agency says strong winds with gusts up to 80 kilometres an hour will also develop on Saturday — the day thousands are expected to go to the polls across B.C. — in parts of Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver.

Wednesday was the last day for advance voting, which started on Oct. 10.

More than 180,000 voters cast their votes Wednesday — the most ever on an advance voting day in B.C., beating the record set just days earlier on Oct. 10 of more than 170,000 votes.

Environment Canada says voters in the area of the atmospheric river can expect around 70 millimetres of precipitation generally and up to 100 millimetres along the coastal mountains, while parts of Vancouver Island could see as much as 200 millimetres of rainfall for the weekend.

An atmospheric river system in November 2021 created severe flooding and landslides that at one point severed most rail links between Vancouver’s port and the rest of Canada while inundating communities in the Fraser Valley and B.C. Interior.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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No shortage when it comes to B.C. housing policies, as Eby, Rustad offer clear choice

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British Columbia voters face no shortage of policies when it comes to tackling the province’s housing woes in the run-up to Saturday’s election, with a clear choice for the next government’s approach.

David Eby’s New Democrats say the housing market on its own will not deliver the homes people need, while B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad saysgovernment is part of the problem and B.C. needs to “unleash” the potential of the private sector.

But Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, said the “punchline” was that neither would have a hand in regulating interest rates, the “giant X-factor” in housing affordability.

“The one policy that controls it all just happens to be a policy that the province, whoever wins, has absolutely no control over,” said Yan, who made a name for himself scrutinizing B.C.’s chronic affordability problems.

Some metrics have shown those problems easing, with Eby pointing to what he said was a seven per cent drop in rent prices in Vancouver.

But Statistics Canada says 2021 census data shows that 25.5 per cent of B.C. households were paying at least 30 per cent of their income on shelter costs, the worst for any province or territory.

Yan said government had “access to a few levers” aimed at boosting housing affordability, and Eby has been pulling several.

Yet a host of other factors are at play, rates in particular, Yan said.

“This is what makes housing so frustrating, right? It takes time. It takes decades through which solutions and policies play out,” Yan said.

Rustad, meanwhile, is running on a “deregulation” platform.

He has pledged to scrap key NDP housing initiatives, including the speculation and vacancy tax, restrictions on short-term rentals,and legislation aimed at boosting small-scale density in single-family neighbourhoods.

Green Leader Sonia Furstenau, meanwhile, says “commodification” of housing by large investors is a major factor driving up costs, and her party would prioritize people most vulnerable in the housing market.

Yan said it was too soon to fully assess the impact of the NDP government’s housing measures, but there was a risk housing challenges could get worse if certain safeguards were removed, such as policies that preserve existing rental homes.

If interest rates were to drop, spurring a surge of redevelopment, Yan said the new homes with higher rents could wipe the older, cheaper units off the map.

“There is this element of change and redevelopment that needs to occur as a city grows, yet the loss of that stock is part of really, the ongoing challenges,” Yan said.

Given the external forces buffeting the housing market, Yan said the question before voters this month was more about “narrative” than numbers.

“Who do you believe will deliver a better tomorrow?”

Yan said the market has limits, and governments play an important role in providing safeguards for those most vulnerable.

The market “won’t by itself deal with their housing needs,” Yan said, especially given what he described as B.C.’s “30-year deficit of non-market housing.”

IS HOUSING THE ‘GOVERNMENT’S JOB’?

Craig Jones, associate director of the Housing Research Collaborative at the University of British Columbia, echoed Yan, saying people are in “housing distress” and in urgent need of help in the form of social or non-market housing.

“The amount of housing that it’s going to take through straight-up supply to arrive at affordability, it’s more than the system can actually produce,” he said.

Among the three leaders, Yan said it was Furstenau who had focused on the role of the “financialization” of housing, or large investors using housing for profit.

“It really squeezes renters,” he said of the trend. “It captures those units that would ordinarily become affordable and moves (them) into an investment product.”

The Greens’ platform includes a pledge to advocate for federal legislation banning the sale of residential units toreal estate investment trusts, known as REITs.

The party has also proposed a two per cent tax on homes valued at $3 million or higher, while committing $1.5 billion to build 26,000 non-market units each year.

Eby’s NDP government has enacted a suite of policies aimed at speeding up the development and availability of middle-income housing and affordable rentals.

They include the Rental Protection Fund, which Jones described as a “cutting-edge” policy. The $500-million fund enables non-profit organizations to purchase and manage existing rental buildings with the goal of preserving their affordability.

Another flagship NDP housing initiative, dubbed BC Builds, uses $2 billion in government financingto offer low-interest loans for the development of rental buildings on low-cost, underutilized land. Under the program, operators must offer at least 20 per cent of their units at 20 per cent below the market value.

Ravi Kahlon, the NDP candidate for Delta North who serves as Eby’s housing minister,said BC Builds was designed to navigate “huge headwinds” in housing development, including high interest rates, global inflation and the cost of land.

Boosting supply is one piece of the larger housing puzzle, Kahlon said in an interview before the start of the election campaign.

“We also need governments to invest and … come up with innovative programs to be able to get more affordability than the market can deliver,” he said.

The NDP is also pledging to help more middle-class, first-time buyers into the housing market with a plan to finance 40 per cent of the price on certain projects, with the money repayable as a loan and carrying an interest rate of 1.5 per cent. The government’s contribution would have to be repaid upon resale, plus 40 per cent of any increase in value.

The Canadian Press reached out several times requesting a housing-focused interview with Rustad or another Conservative representative, but received no followup.

At a press conference officially launching the Conservatives’ campaign, Rustad said Eby “seems to think that (housing) is government’s job.”

A key element of the Conservatives’ housing plans is a provincial tax exemption dubbed the “Rustad Rebate.” It would start in 2026 with residents able to deduct up to $1,500 per month for rent and mortgage costs, increasing to $3,000 in 2029.

Rustad also wants Ottawa to reintroduce a 1970s federal program that offered tax incentives to spur multi-unit residential building construction.

“It’s critical to bring that back and get the rental stock that we need built,” Rustad said of the so-called MURB program during the recent televised leaders’ debate.

Rustad also wants to axe B.C.’s speculation and vacancy tax, which Eby says has added 20,000 units to the long-term rental market, and repeal rules restricting short-term rentals on platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo to an operator’s principal residence or one secondary suite.

“(First) of all it was foreigners, and then it was speculators, and then it was vacant properties, and then it was Airbnbs, instead of pointing at the real problem, which is government, and government is getting in the way,” Rustad said during the televised leaders’ debate.

Rustad has also promised to speed up approvals for rezoning and development applications, and to step in if a city fails to meet the six-month target.

Eby’s approach to clearing zoning and regulatory hurdles includes legislation passed last fall that requires municipalities with more than 5,000 residents to allow small-scale, multi-unit housing on lots previously zoned for single family homes.

The New Democrats have also recently announced a series of free, standardized building designs and a plan to fast-track prefabricated homes in the province.

A statement from B.C.’s Housing Ministry said more than 90 per cent of 188 local governments had adopted the New Democrats’ small-scale, multi-unit housing legislation as of last month, while 21 had received extensions allowing more time.

Rustad has pledged to repeal that law too, describing Eby’s approach as “authoritarian.”

The Greens are meanwhile pledging to spend $650 million in annual infrastructure funding for communities, increase subsidies for elderly renters, and bring in vacancy control measures to prevent landlords from drastically raising rents for new tenants.

Yan likened the Oct. 19 election to a “referendum about the course that David Eby has set” for housing, with Rustad “offering a completely different direction.”

Regardless of which party and leader emerges victorious, Yan said B.C.’s next government will be working against the clock, as well as cost pressures.

Yan said failing to deliver affordable homes for everyone, particularly people living on B.C. streets and young, working families, came at a cost to the whole province.

“It diminishes us as a society, but then also as an economy.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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