When it comes to investing in real estate there are plenty of different places to choose from, but for many real estate investors Durham Region is quickly becoming the market of choice.
One of the major reasons is because Durham Region is located within an hour’s drive east of Toronto, yet still offers large, single family homes at reasonable prices.
This is because for many years Durham Region, which includes the cities of Pickering, Ajax, Whitby and Oshawa, was often overlooked for regions that were considered more attractive places to live such as Mississauga and York Region.
Today, however, many of those areas are built out and overpriced making it nearly impossible for real estate investors to get into the market, let alone make a healthy return on their investment.
In fact, for decades the average price of a home in Oshawa was about 40 per cent lower than in Mississauga. Today that spread is closer to 20 percent thanks to increasing house prices and a healthy demand from people looking for a place to live, work and play within an hour’s drive of Toronto.
According to Remax, in 2020 the average price for a home in Durham Region was $696,000, up from $611,000 in 2019, which is an increase of 14 per cent. Experts expect prices to continue to increase in 2021 by an average of three per cent to approximately $717,000.
In comparison, the average price for a single-family home in Mississauga is now $1.1 million, while the average house in York Region is just over $1 million, making it nearly impossible for a real estate investor to get in the market.
On top of this, many real estate investors are flocking to Durham Region because there are still single-family homes available to purchase at a fair price. In March 2021 there were 2,837 new listings in Durham Region and only 2,076 residential transactions. This means the housing market is beginning to loosen up giving investors more options to choose from than in other real estate markets in the region.
In fact, while the Durham housing market has seen prices soar over the past 12 months, experts anticipate the market to cool down in 2021 as inventory grows.
This will help keep prices in check and allow first time real estate investors to get in the market, or seasoned real estate investors to purchase a second or third property.
Another positive trend for real estate investors is the fact that the average price to rent a 2-bedroom house in Oshawa is currently $1,622, which is a seven per cent increase compared to the previous year.
This bodes well for real estate investors who intend to purchase a single-family home and renovate it to create a secondary unit. In fact, Durham Region may be one of the last few places within an hour drive of Toronto where real estate investors can still purchase a single-family home at an affordable price and rent it out for a healthy monthly income.
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