A survey from REMAX revealed that demand for recreational properties is surging.
In particular, the survey showed that retirees are driving demand for vacation properties in 91% of regions surveyed. Moreover, 78% of regions surveyed showed that the median prices of recreational properties increased in 2018 compared to last year.
Elton Ash, REMAX’s regional executive vice president, says that, while Quebec was excluded from the survey, Ontario and British Columbia showed the strongest results.
“Cottage country north of Toronto up to the Haliburton area, and British Columbia, are the most popular,” he said. “There’s a slightly softer market in the Prairies and Maritimes.”
Moreover, he says that the trail edge of baby boomers are leading the charge.
“The key finding is Canadians want to own recreational property. This report showed the trailing edge of the baby boomer demographic is influencing the market to a greater extent than we’ve seen in the past. Canadians continue to want to enjoy the lifestyle that owning recreational properties provide.”
The same boomer demographic recovered from the Great Recession with relative ease, too, he added.
Another interesting result from the survey is that Canadians who own property in the United States are able to capitalize on the high American dollar and “repatriate” Canadian dollars.
“There’s a contingent of Canadians selling their sunbelt properties in California, Arizona and Florida, reaping the benefits of strong price recovery and demand in the U.S. and in Canadian dollars, so when they bring that strong U.S. dollar back into Canada there’s a high ROI on that,” said Ash. “There’s repatriation of Canadian dollars out of the U.S. coming back into Canada affecting the market positively, specifically in Ontario and B.C.”
Some people are even working remotely from cottage country or their winter homes in the United States.
“To the extent that that expands further, I think it will further enable the larger trend of working from places that you like,” Brad Henderson, president and CEO of Sotheby’s International, told The Canadian Press.
“My place of pleasure is in Naples, Fla., not even in my country,” he added.
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Neil Sharma is the Editor-In-Chief of Canadian Real Estate Wealth and Real Estate Professional. As a journalist, he has covered Canada’s housing market for the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, National Post, and other publications, specializing in everything from market trends to mortgage and investment advice. He can be reached at neil@crewmedia.ca.
