Recreational-Property Buyers Are Dipping Their Toes Back in the Ontario Market

Home sales and prices in several Ontario cottage, vacation, and retirement destinations haven’t returned to past high-water marks, but momentum is building.

By Josh Sherman | 2 minute read

Despite green shoots, Ontario’s recreational-property locales aren’t immune to the overall cooling trend that has swept across most Canadian real estate markets.

Home sales data and Realtors active in some of Ontario’s most popular recreational-property markets suggest local homebuying competition is beginning to rebound.

“The market has picked up a lot,” says Janet Piotrowski, a Broker at Royal LePage Locations North who serves the Blue Mountain and Collingwood markets. She notes that she sold three homes within two days recently, and is expecting the market to continue its turnaround into the fall: “I feel a lot of the pent up buyer activity is starting to let loose.”

In July, the average price of a home in the South Georgian Bay area — which encompasses Collingwood, Blue Mountain, Meaford, Wasaga Beach, Clearview, Grey Highlights, Tiny Township — was $836,837, according to the OnePoint Association of Realtors. That’s up 14% from the same time a year ago.

Home sales increased 31%, on a year-over-year basis, driven by activity in the single-family freehold market. “It’s a lot of end-users, a lot of full-timers,” Piotrowski tells Wahi. 

Some are buyers from Toronto who are exiting the workforce in the coming years and fast-tracking planned retirement purchases to take advantage of prices that have yet to recover from pandemic peaks, she explains. 

For much of the downturn, sellers had remained stubborn on prices and buyers were waiting for a perceived bottom to prices, sometimes resulting in lowball offers. Now, Piotrowski says, she’s beginning to see bidding competition.

Some buyers are benefitting from back-to-work mandates as locals who purchased during the pandemic to work remotely are being forced to sell at a loss as they’re summoned back to the Greater Toronto Area. 

However, similar to what has been playing out in some of Canada’s biggest cities, the condo segment remains underwater. The Blue Mountains is home to resort-style condos that had previously attracted investors who, by Piotrowski’s estimate, could earn upwards of $100,000 a year in short-term-rental income on a three-bedroom suite. These buyers have yet to return.

In the Muskoka market, which has a higher share of true vacation properties compared to full-time residents, there are also signs of life. Home sales edged higher in July across six communities comprising the Muskoka market, according to data from the OnePoint Association of Realtors. 

“I think people, the smart ones anyway, are starting to realize it’s a very good time to buy,” says Shawn Woof, sales representative and senior vice president at Sotheby’s International Realty Canada. “We’ve come off significantly from the COVID high of pricing,” adds Woof, who operates out of Port Carling.

He suspects that severe weather earlier this year contributed to an even slower start to the spring recreational real estate market than was anticipated. “The late winter… ice storm, coupled with uncertainty around tariffs, may have impacted some people’s level of certainty around purchasing,” he says.

Tariff threats may remain but are less of a factor today, he suggests. “People tend to get tired of uncertainty — or they become accustomed,” he tells Wahi.

Woof’s comments echo the findings of a recent national survey by Wahi. Some 79% of Canadians who had not otherwise ruled out buying property over the next year said tariffs weren’t influencing their homebuying decisions.

Looking ahead, Woof has a somewhat mixed prediction for the fall real estate market in the Muskokas: “I expect it should be a moderate to buoyant market in the fall.”