Strong Buyers’ Market Conditions Persist in Ottawa

Across the entire City of Ottawa, only one neighbourhood was in overbidding territory over the past three months.

By Josh Sherman | 2 minute read

Regardless of property type, the second quarter was a quiet one for bidding competition on homes in Ottawa.

Homebuyers continued to call the shots in Ottawa during the second quarter of the year as the overwhelming majority of neighbourhoods across the city saw homes selling for less than asking.

Looking at the differences between list and sold prices, 89% of Ottawa neighbourhoods were in underbidding territory over the period between the beginning of April and the end of June.

While the share of underbidding neighbourhoods is down from 94% in Q1, only one Ottawa neighbourhood was overbid: Trend-Arlington, which had a median overbid amount of $500. 

The downtick in underbidding was the result of a rise in neighbourhoods selling at-asking. Some 10% of Ottawa neighbourhoods sold at asking, compared to 3% in Q1.

Both the single-family home and condo segments were quiet in terms of bidding activity in the most recent quarter. However, the former saw a little more competition. When only counting the sales of single-family homes, 4% of neighbourhoods were overbid and 9% were selling at-asking. For condos, those numbers drop to 2% in overbidding territory and 7% at-asking.

Higher-Priced Ottawa Neighbourhoods Are the Most Underbid

The neighbourhoods that saw prices bid down by the largest amount tended to have higher price points than those selling around asking.

Wahi has observed a similar trend of pricier neighbourhoods being the most underbid in the Greater Toronto Area, where 71% of neighbourhoods were in underbidding territory as of June.

How Wahi Ranks Ottawa’s Overbidding and Underbidding Neighbourhoods

At the end of each quarter, Wahi compares the differences between median list and sold prices to determine whether neighbourhoods are in overbidding or underbidding territory, excluding those neighbourhoods with fewer than five transactions in a given three-month period. A total of 90 neighbourhoods met this threshold in Q2, unchanged from the previous quarter. Data is sourced from the Ottawa Real Estate Board and Information Technology Systems Ontario.

The top overbidding and underbidding neighbourhoods are ranked by the median overbid or underbid amount. The median overbid and underbid amounts are calculated by subtracting the list price from the sold price of each individual listing in a given neighbourhood. These are then ranked by the median of all subtractions and presented as the median overbid or underbid amount.