Toronto market can change on a dime… Perhaps we are seeing start of a shift.

In the fall, listings sat on the market with no showings. One was lucky to get an offer. Market was tough. Towards the end of the year and the beginning of 2024 – houses that had been sitting, slowly started selling. Early January, in houses started gating a lot more showings. In many cases, buyers “woke up” and started buying. It appears that to some extent confidence in the real estate market is being restored. In hot areas where there has been little product there is pent up demand – in some cases multiple offers are back. We had a listing in a central area that ended up with 8 offers within 4 days of being listed and sold well over list.

It is not certain how this trend will continue. The high end now has a luxury tax – how this tax will influence the market is still to be seen. It is hard to say how condos will fare.

Luxury cottage rentals readjusting post pandemic. When the pandemic started and no one could travel demand for cottage rentals surged. Demand was so high that prices more than doubled. Many who never wanted to own cottages because they wanted to travel bought cottages so prices surged. Now stuck carrying these cottages with higher carrying costs due to inflation and increasing interest rates, cottage owners are trying to subsidize with renting. Also, people are travelling. Hence less demand for rentals, more supply and readjustment of prices.

We will see how many cottages come for sale as those who are not really cottage people decide that owning a cottage is just too much work and too expensive. It’s not for everyone.

Desire to live out of the city does not appear to be waning. With the world slowly opening up, outlook on life has changed for many. Those able to work remotely and who had places to work out of the city opted to work there for extended periods of time. A good number decided that they actually liked it and preferred living in country serenity with outdoor activities –  therapeutic for those with stressful jobs. Hence popular areas like Collingwood/Thornbury continue to see growth and increasing prices. That doesn’t appear to be ending. The world has definitely changed. Hopefully those quiet country oasis continue to be just that.

Higher interest rates and inflation are in the forecast. Everyone is asking how this will impact the real estate market. The answer is we have no idea. Yes higher interest rates and living costs should impact affordability but with such high demand and low supply of housing we are not sure how it will all go. We are not really seeing supply go up substantially and we aren’t seeing demand subside. Increasing supply of housing is not an easy fix as much as government would like to make it so. Perhaps solutions need to be more creative and out of the box.

Buyers need to be well prepared when buying in todays market. Buyers need to have their ducks lined up in order to buy a house in todays hot market. When a well priced house comes on the market one has little or no time to think. Well prepared buyers have firm offers coming in quickly – sometimes within hours of coming to market. Hence if one wants to buy, market knowledge and financing have to be in place. The ability to make a quick decision is critical. This is true for houses of all price points and for many condos. Market is hot hot hot…

Buying in a good location always pays off. You may pay a bit more for a premium location, for example a park, nice lot, good exposure, good neighbourhood, quiet street but this will pay off when you go and sell. Last week we sold a home in a great neighbourhood, two doors away from a park on a quiet street with good exposure. We had 6 offers and it sold $300,000 over list price. This applies to condos also – buy with good exposure, good floor, good layout and good neighbourhood it will always be easy to resell. It is true what they say – location, location, location.

Housing is a hot topic for this upcoming election – a key election issue. Toronto and surrounding areas just don’t have enough houses for the demand. This includes many parts of Canada. The Government is trying to make housing more accessible by putting more money in buyers hands. However this does not address the need for more rentals and more ownership of housing. Perhaps it may be helpful if there is incentive and less bureaucracy to create rental and homes for purchase – a better plan to create density in certain areas. Understanding that density has to be strategic and neighbourhoods have to be preserved, we just need more. Maybe more effort and money to reassess what we currently have and what we need.

Hot real estate outside Toronto. The demand for vacationing and or moving to areas outside of Toronto has been significant. Prince Edward County is one of the areas which has recently gained popularity. When you go there one can see why. Not only are there some great places to stay but what is interesting is its variety of things to do and visit. It has become somewhat of a foodie area – great restaurants, cheese places, cideries and wineries. Without the hills but with a lake it almost started reminding me of Cherlevoix/Baie St Paul area. The area around Waupoos where we stayed is one of the hot parts. Wellington has the renowned DRAKE DEVONSHIRE and some more known wineries like Norman Hardy but Waupoos has its own vibe. You can enjoy cider and great food overlooking a vineyard and Lake Ontario. Picton has some great restaurants. One can only imagine what this has done and will do to real estate prices.

Rental market in the city is heating up. It’s back to bidding wars for city condos as people start heading back to in person work. The young employees who were working remotely and moved home now need a place to live in the city as employers are calling them back. The subway is not the best option as some companies actually do not want their employees going on the subway due to Covid risks. I can’t imagine the traffic if everyone starts driving downtown. We haven’t even started with a lift on immigration which would also bring an influx into the city.