Renowned Canadian interior designer Sarah Richardson helped decorate the inside of this $6.5 million home in Grafton, Ont.
This one is for HGTV lovers.
A sprawling 117-acre country estate has hit the market for $6.5 million and a TV personality familiar to fans of home renovation shows helped design the interior of the home.
Sarah Richardson, renowned Canadian designer and star of TV shows such as Design Inc. and Sarah’s House, had a “heavy hand” in curating the look of the home, according to Cailey Heaps, broker and chief executive of Heaps Estrin Team.
The home combines contemporary accents and historical decor elements to maintain a cozy cottage appeal despite its large size.
“It’s really unlike anything I’ve seen in my 25 year career,” Heaps told Yahoo Finance Canada by phone.
Located in Grafton, Ont., a roughly 90 minute drive east of Toronto, the seven-bedroom (three below grade), 5-bathroom house has a history that spans multiple centuries, according to the listing.
The house consists of a two-storey 1837-built log tavern (yes, as in an old-school pub) that originally stood in Kitchener, Ont. The seller saw a newspaper ad for the deconstructed building and had it moved more than 200 kilometres to their property in Grafton. A basement was added and the foundation was rebuilt to accommodate the expanded structure.
“The two structures come together very seamlessly. It doesn’t feel like you’re going between two houses,” Heaps says, mostly thanks to architect Jamie Wright, who did the drawings to connect the existing house and log tavern.
The garage has a similar history. It’s a post-and-beam former Presbyterian church built in 1847. The owners have sometimes used it as an event space, including for a family wedding.
“It was a very intentionally-designed project. I would argue that it’s totally irreplaceable. I don’t know where you’re going to find a home with two 1800-dated structures that have been restored and added on to it. It just doesn’t happen,” Heaps says.
Throughout the house, you’ll find Canadian and American antiques that have been collected by the sellers over the years. If you’re really inclined, most of the furnishings can be purchased under a separate agreement.
Heaps says a home listing with a name such as Richardson’s attached to it adds credibility and can help generate buyer interest.
But don’t expect there to be an open house. Serious buyers only please!
Potential buyers are properly vetted to prevent showings to people who are just hoping to get an in-person peek at the estate, Heaps says.
Other feature rooms you’ll find indoors are a billiard room, workshop, pottery studio, yoga studio and, naturally, a wine cellar.
If that’s not enough to keep you entertained, head outside to enjoy the pool, hot tub and elaborate gardens.
“The sellers have green thumbs. So the gardens are spectacular,” Heaps says. “The perennial gardens are more than two decades old and have every variety of flower you can imagine. There’s a ton of natural wildlife as well.”
Within the forests, you’ll also find a network of walking trails.
“The property itself is almost 120 acres, so it’s like living inside your own park. It feels like you’re arriving in the middle of the British countryside when you get there,” Heaps said.
Michelle Zadikian is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow her on Twitter @m_zadikian.
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.
