Renovations Boost House Prices by $50,000 in the GTA

New analysis from Canadian real estate listing website Wahi shows how renovations affect home prices around the Greater Toronto Area.

By Josh Sherman | 3 minute read

A taste for turnkey translates to tens of thousands of dollars when it comes to the price of a home in the GTA.

Canadian homebuyers sure like their homes renovated.

In fact, Wahi’s 2024 Great Canadian Dream Home Survey showed that 64% of potential homebuyers prefer renovated homes over fixer-uppers or tear-downs.

With its latest study, the Canadian digital real estate brokerage and listing website now looks at how renovations can influence the price of a home in the country’s biggest housing market. 

To do so, Wahi analyzed nearly 100,000 listings for single-family homes that sold throughout the Greater Toronto Area between the beginning of 2023 and the end of this year’s first quarter. Wahi compared sale prices for those listings that mentioned renovations and those that did not.

The results?

GTA-wide, the median price for renovated homes was $1,200,000, compared to $1,152,000 — a difference of $48,000, or roughly 4%.

That’s good news for owners of renovated homes who are looking to sell in today’s buyer’s market, though exactly how much a reno will pay off depends on the individual home.

“The latest Wahi analysis gives us an idea, in broad terms, of the premium that homebuyers put on renovated homes,” says Wahi CEO Benjy Katchen. “However, every home is different. How much more a renovated home sells for depends on myriad variables, including local market conditions, quality and style of the build, and overall investment, to name a few,” he continues.

Different home features also appeal to different buyers, as Wahi previously highlighted with its 2025 What Homeseekers Want Survey. While the survey found that a backyard is the most sought-after feature, a renovated kitchen or bathroom also ranked highly. Some 59% of respondents cited it as one of their top five features making it the second most popular attribute, beating out finished basements, garages, and more than 20 other options.

Renovated Homes in the City of Toronto Command the Highest Premium

Within the GTA, the biggest price premium on renovated homes was observed in the City of Toronto. There, the median price of a renovated home was $1,339,000. That’s $89,000 higher than the median price for non-renovated homes ($1,250,000), representing a difference of approximately 7%.

On a percentage basis, the City of Toronto had the biggest pricing difference between renovated and non-renovated homes in the region. This makes sense, given Toronto’s single-family housing stock is older than those of the surrounding suburban regions, where there are newer developments to choose from.

In other parts of the GTA, renovated single-family homes sold for about 2% to 5% more than dwellings without any listed improvements — with one exception. In York region, there was not a significant difference in pricing between renovated ($1,368,000) and non-renovated ($1,370,000) single-family homes.

Note that Wahi’s study doesn’t take into account the types of home-improvement projects that sellers have undertaken before putting their property on the market, only that there is reference to a renovation of some type in the listing. A renovation could include anything from a full restoration project or a redone powder room. Some 66% of GTA listings that have sold since 2023 made reference to some form of renovation.