Last Updated on January 24, 2024 by CREW Editorial
Canada’s hot real estate market continues to attract both domestic and international investors. In 2023, prospective investors are looking for markets that offer high ROIs, economic stability, positive trends, and robust infrastructure development. To maximize their returns, potential investors should always consult with local experts like real estate agents and lawyers knowledgeable about local regulations, taxation policies, and zoning laws who can help them evaluate the condition of the properties they wish to purchase.
We believe the best places to invest in the Canadian real estate market today are Durham Region, Greater Moncton, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Fredericton, Halifax-Dartmouth, Sudbury, Windsor Essex, Rideau-St. Lawrence, and Huron Perth. These regions offer relatively affordable real estate markets with a high demand from buyers and renters. Despite the volatile nature of the industry, investing in the top Canadian real estate markets presents lucrative investment opportunities for long-term growth potential. Read the full article:
In the ever-evolving landscape of real estate investment, Canada continues to capture the attention of both domestic and international investors seeking lucrative opportunities to invest in real estate. As we delve into 2023, it becomes imperative to explore the top destinations that offer promising returns, rental prices and long-term growth potential.
This comprehensive analysis aims to unveil the crème de la crème of Canadian real estate markets, combining factors such as market trends, economic stability, infrastructure development, and demographic shifts.
Whether you’re a seasoned investor or a budding entrepreneur, this article will serve as your guide to discovering the hottest investment properties and hotspots in Canada, helping you make informed decisions and navigate the dynamic landscape and invest in real estate with confidence.
Things to Consider With The Real Estate Market in Canada
When embarking on the journey of purchasing real estate in the Canadian real estate market, several crucial factors demand careful consideration. Firstly, understanding the local market conditions and trends is vital, as each region possesses its own unique dynamics and potential for price growth. Evaluating economic stability, job market opportunities, and population growth rates can provide valuable insights into the market’s future prospects.
Additionally, familiarizing oneself with local regulations, zoning laws, job opportunities, and taxation policies ensures a smooth transaction process.
Thoroughly inspecting the rental property beforehand, assessing its condition, and estimating potential maintenance costs are essential steps to avoid unexpected expenses and determine reasonable prices.
Lastly, consulting with local experts, such as real estate agents and lawyers, can offer invaluable guidance, enabling buyers to make well-informed decisions, buy property, and secure a successful investment in the Canadian real estate market.
Methodology: How We Determined the Best Place to Invest in Real Estate
In order to identify the areas and communities that would provide homebuyers with the best value in 2023, we looked at real estate data from Canada’s top real estate markets. Based on data gathered at the end of March 2023, it is relatively easy to rank various Canadian home prices and neighborhoods.
The national ranking’s housing price information was taken from CREA. Based on the information CREA provided, we chose which regions to cover. There may be some regions in our analysis that are not included because CREA does not provide data for all of the best cities and major markets.
The information for some cities, such Hamilton and Burlington, is provided by CREA and reflects the benchmark price for the two cities taken as a whole. We compared the rankings of several geographic areas’ regions and neighbourhoods.
Best Places to Invest in Rental Properties and Other Real Estate
When you stand back and consider investing in real estate investments, long-term, real estate may appear to be a risky roller-coaster ride in 2022, but if you know the best places to invest in real estate in Canada in 2023, there are plenty of opportunities.
In recent years, real estate investing in Canada has grown in popularity. With the pace of inflation, it seems sense that Canadians would prefer to invest their hard-earned money rather than keep them in a bank. Our ranking of the top places to buy real estate in Canada in 2023 is provided below.
For Canadians, inflation significantly increased the cost of living in 2022, and so far, it appears that this trend of price growth will continue in 2023.
Durham Region
For potential buyers searching for a property near a park or the water, Durham Region, which borders Lake Ontario, is a great option. Eight municipalities make up the area, and cities including Ajax, Brock, Clarington, Oshawa, and Pickering are more affordable compared to cities in other regions.
Although it is one of the smaller regions in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), with a population of roughly 700,000. In 2022, the Durham Region housing market got off to a fast start. In December 2021, the median home price crossed the $1 million mark for the first time; in February 2022, it reached its highest point of $1,228,990.
The average home price did, however, start to decline in March 2022 as a result of an increase in interest rates, similarly to the national average. By May, it had fallen back under $1 million, and by December, it had dropped to $874,456.
Greater Moncton
According to Greater Moncton Realtors, the overall inventory of properties decreased to its lowest point since last spring. As a result, the balanced market remains competitive with a clear seller’s advantage.
Even though the most recent data is positive, the current shortage of properties for sale could prove to be a hindrance to the spring market’s customarily brisk activity. February saw a second straight month-over-month increase in home sales, which was in line with historical norms.
Even though the average benchmark price of a property increased slightly in February to roughly $305,000, home prices already had been on the decline, falling by almost 7% from a year ago and by 3% from the previous year.
Sault Ste. Marie
Intermittently the fastest growing city in Ontario, the affordable housing market in Sault Ste. Marie grew in 2022 thanks to the influx of out-of-town buyers who enabled its benchmark real estate prices to finally reach the $300,000 range. The benchmark price reached a peak of $320,700 in May 2022 and held above $300,000 for three more months, signalling a particularly active summer market. The benchmark price fell somewhat in the final quarter of 2022, ending the year at $275,400.
Buyers looking for detached, single-family homes and investors looking for multi-family apartments were the two groups that were in high demand in 2022. The detached three-bedroom house was in high buyer demand when it came to family housing. Duplexes, triplexes, and anything else that provided passive household income moved swiftly for multi-family residences.
North Bay
North Bay is once again among the top three best locations to purchase real estate. North Bay, which is located on Lake Nipissing in northeastern Ontario, is only 125 kilometres away from Sudbury.
One of the most affordable places in Canada to buy real estate is North Bay, which had a composite benchmark price at the end of 2022 of $413,525, 47% less than the national average. Despite recent large price increases of 21% in only one year, 83% in three years, and a staggering 90% in five years, this remains the case for most affordable cities.
This is fantastic news for the city’s current homeowners, investors, and potential buyers searching for an entry-level, reasonably priced rental market.
Fredericton
In spite of increasing interest rates, the MLS Home Price Index, which tracks price trends, continues to show a year-over-year increase, according to data from January issued by real estate boards in Moncton, Fredericton, and Saint John
Greater Moncton Realtors’ president Mike Power stated in a press statement that they are “cautiously optimistic” that sales have recovered to their seasonal average.
The overall inventory decreased for the fifth consecutive month, according to Power, as new listings for the month of January continued to trend below average.
As a result, the situation in our area is still fairly tight, and the market balance is shifting more and more in favour of sellers.
St. John
In April, 147 homes were sold, according to the Saint John Real Estate Board. That remained far below typical for this time of year and was down from 151 residences the prior month.
The decline, according to board president Kevin Donovan, was brought on by a drop in the number of listings. In a news release, Donovan suggested that the lack of appealing replacement options in recent months may have discouraged homeowners from listing their homes for sale.
Lower and housing supply thus continued to have an impact on the number of sales in April. In April, there were 216 new listings, a modest rise from the 211 listings in March.
Halifax-Dartmouth
The economic hub of the Maritimes and one of the most populous places in the province is Halifax Regional Municipality, which is located in the capital city of Nova Scotia. This region, which consists of Halifax, Dartmouth, and Bedford, is home to about 440,000 people.
In April 2022, Halifax’s median home price peaked at $603,386. By year’s end, the average price had dropped to $474,389, a decrease of more than 21% over a period of eight months. Competition in the housing market, which has seen record-high house prices and historically low inventory across Canada, is to blame for the early 2022 price increases.
Sudbury
In many cities in northern Ontario, the demand for housing is still high and the supply is scarce. However, 2023 is predicted by local real estate professionals to be a better year for purchasers.
Even if significant demand has decreased from 2022 highs due to rising mortgage rates, according to Adam Haight, chair of the Sudbury Real Estate Board, it is unlikely to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
In 2023, Haight stated, “I genuinely believe that we’re still looking at a sellers’ market, probably through the entire year.”
If interest rates keep rising, there is a possibility that house prices themselves will begin to trend downward.
Windsor Essex
values reached their highest level ever this year, but the market also experienced a sharp fall as interest rates shot up. Some prospective buyers and sellers are now pondering what 2023 might hold in store for the local economy.
Higher borrowing and rising interest rates might not deter some purchasers from making purchases during a strong economy, and sellers who had delayed planned sales might not be prepared to wait much longer. The reduction in housing costs is a significant change in favour of purchasers.
According to information from the Windsor-Essex County Association of Realtors, the monthly average price for a property in Windsor-Essex peaked in March 2022 at $723,739 but has since fallen down to $511,275 for November.
Rideau St. Lawrence
In April 2023, 96 residential units were sold via the Rideau-St. Lawrence Real Estate Board’s MLS® System. This represented a significant decline of 22.6% from April 2022.
In April, home sales fell 13.6% below the 10-year average and 14.7% below the five-year average.
Home sales over the first four months of the year as a whole amounted to 216 units. This marked a significant decrease of 29.4% from the same time in 2022.
A lot more accurately than is feasible with average or median price metrics, the MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) tracks price movements. In April 2023, the aggregate MLS® HPI composite benchmark price was $544,500, a significant drop of 11.7% from April 2022.
Huron Perth
In April 2023, there were a total of 171 houses sold via the MLS® System of the Huron Perth Association of REALTORS®. This represented a significant decrease of 22.3% from April 2022.
For the month of April, home sales fell 6% below the five-year average and 9.6% below the 10-year average.
Home sales over the first four months of the year as a whole amounted to 497 units. This represented a considerable decline of 25.8% from the same time in 2022.
According to Bob Heimpel, president of the Huron Perth Association of REALTORS®, “home sales have fluctuated up and down with no real trend emerging over the past few months, although we can categorically say that activity is not falling.”
Vancouver Island
In the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) region, single-family house sales decreased last month by 26% from a year earlier (515), but increased by 73% from February 2023 (220).
Sales of condo apartments were 66 in March 2023, a 6% increase from the prior month and a 46% decrease from the same month last year. Row/townhouse sales increased by 54% from February to 77 units in March, a decrease of 26% from a year earlier.
Kawartha Lakes
In April 2023, 76 residential properties sold through the Kawartha Lakes Real Estate Association Inc.’s MLS® System. This represented a significant decrease of 38.7% from April 2022.
For the month of April, home sales were 36.7% and 27.8% below the five-year and 10-year averages, respectively.
Home sales over the first four months of the year as a whole amounted to 251 units. This represented a considerable drop of 29.7% from the same time in 2022.
