A Third Of Canadians Want To Get A New Home & Now's Apparently The Time To Do It
It's an "opportune time" to grab a new pad, says one real estate expert.
A recent report suggests that a third of Canadians want to dip their feet back into Canada's real estate market, and one realtor says there's no time like the present.
The report from insurance company Aviva says that 31% of surveyed Canadians — 27% of homeowners and 42% of renters — want to find a new place to live due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A third of prospective movers also say they want to move somewhere in a rural or semi-rural area.
Cyrus Ghazvini is a Toronto-based realtor with Strata, and he told Narcity that the market is still competitive — especially so outside of the city and in cottage country.
"The cottage industry was booming like I've never seen before," Ghazvini said. "There's this business drive for people to want to work remotely and have more space."
However, Ghazvini dispelled the notion that people moving out of the city means lower prices within the city, simply due to a supply issue and desirability within places like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
"I don't see that there is going to be some type of price drop per se, with respect to this stat that came up with people wanting to leave the city," he said. "There will always be tourism, students, international students that want to be educated in these cities and immigrants that want to move into these big cities in Canada."
But the pandemic conditions can be a good thing, Ghazvini explained. With low interest rates and less competition, he told Narcity that now is a good time to try your hand at house-hunting.
"I do believe that right now, before the pandemic subsides, it would be an opportune time to make that move before a lot of other buyers that become confident in the market start entering it," Ghazvini said.