Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mail
Some hot locations such as the Muskoka Lakes, Georgian Bay or Collingwood north of Toronto are seeing prices soar because of short supply, but these properties may now be as unaffordable as Toronto. That’s prompted potential buyers to look to properties in Prince Edward County east of Canada’s largest city, or west, to the shores of Lake Erie.
Canadians have been buying recreational land before a principal residences for decades, often parking a motor home or pitching tents until ready to build.“One of the trends that has been identified in Ontario particularly was this first home purchase in cottage country,” says said Phil Soper, CEO of Royal LePage. “Now it’s a relatively small slice of the market but it was big enough that it came through in our interviews of our practitioners in the field.
The sales prices of recreational properties in Ontario and Quebec are currently increasing at about seven per cent compared to little increase at all for urban locations following a correction. But Soper said that’s an anomaly. The recreational market was dead in the post-recession years, but is strong now because of low unemployment, implied wealth from urban home prices and the Canadian dollar making it attractive to U.S. buyers.