Why This Neighbourhood is the Most Underbid for GTA Real Estate

East Lake, in southeast Oakville, has been deep in underbidding territory for the past 15 months, but homebuyers aren’t necessarily getting bargains.

By Josh Sherman | 3 minute read

Eastlake’s waterfront is just one of the reasons homebuyers are drawn to the Oakville neighbourhood.

While most Greater Toronto Area’s neighbourhoods are seeing homes consistently sell for less than the owners are asking, no neighbourhood has seen stronger underbidding activity this year than Eastlake — at least by one measure.

The established Oakville neighbourhood, which is located on the shores of Lake Ontario, just east of Downtown Oakville, has been among the top five most underbid neighbourhoods in each of the past 15 months, according to Wahi’s analysis.

Most recently, in August, the neighbourhood was once again tops for underbidding, with a median underbid amount of $186,500. That marked the sixth time that the waterfront community has earned that title in 15 months, the most of any of the approximately 400 GTA neighbourhoods Wahi analyzes on a monthly basis. 

Custom Homes and High Prices Contribute to Underbidding

If you were thinking that homes are regularly selling at a huge loss in Eastlake, you’d be mistaken, suggests a REALTOR® with eight years of experience dealing in Oakville.

There are two main reasons that Eastlake may top the underbidding list — and neither is because of fire sales: “I think the biggest reason is because of the price points of the homes but also because there are custom homes,” Realtor Kyle van der Boom tells Wahi. 

When looking at how much home prices are bid down in terms of actual dollars, neighbourhoods with higher price tags will generally rank higher for underbidding than lower-priced communities. For instance, two neighbourhoods may have prices bid down by 10% each, but the one with the higher home prices will have a greater underbid amount.  This is clearly a factor in Eastlake, where the median price of a home, including condos and houses, was a whopping $2,862,500 last month. That’s more than three times the GTA-wide median price of a home, which was $935,000 as of August. “Eastlake is one of the most desirable neighbourhoods in Oakville,” says van der Boom.

In general, he notes, Oakville real estate commands a premium thanks to the city’s quality schools, well-maintained homes, and proximity to Toronto. In particular, Eastlake is known for its large lots, quiet, tree-lined streets, and affluence. It’s minutes from shopping and amenities in Oakville’s downtown, and it has waterfront access. “It’s where the people with the most amount of money go,” says van der Boom. “If they can afford it, they want to move there.”

Over the past 15 or so years, these well-heeled homebuyers have taken advantage of Eastlake’s large lots by tearing down smaller post-war bungalows and erecting massive custom homes. This feeds into the underbidding trend because these homes can be harder to accurately value, suggests van der Boom.

In Oakville neighbourhoods such as Glen Abbey, River Oaks, Joshua Meadows, there are many cookie-cutter subdivisions filled with similar homes. Sellers can look at how much a similar floor plan sold for a few months ago before listing their own.

Eastlake’s sprawling custom homes, on the other hand, may have unique attributes and high-end finishes not seen in many other listings. “Agents will list the home higher — or the client will want to list it higher — because there’s not a perfect comparable for it,” says van der Boom. “They have to wait and see what the market shows them instead.”