September 15th 2019
In conversations with one of my salespeople the other day, she told me that over the past year she has listed seven or eight bungalows in North End St. Catharines. What is interesting is that every one of them was bought by people from Toronto. In some instances it was buyers relocating to this area. In other cases it was investors wishing to acquire rental properties. In still other cases it was renovators looking to “fix and flip”. All these buyers from Toronto.
The next day, in conversation with another of our agents, he told me he was in negotiations to sell a small starter home to a buyer from Toronto. What’s interesting is that the buyer told him that with this acquisition that would bring his total to 54 rental properties he now owns in St. Catharines.
What do they know that we don’t?
Three or four years ago I met a businessman/investor from Toronto who told me Toronto real estate had become so expensive that he felt rental properties were no longer viable there. He was now looking at acquiring properties in Barrie. Now I believe more and more that attention has shifted to Niagara.
It makes a lot of sense. Here we are right in the Golden Horseshoe. Close to the G.T.A., right along the shores of Lake Ontario. A stone’s throw from the U.S. border. And our properties, though more expensive than a couple of years ago, are still very much a bargain.
I think sometimes we are too close to the situation to realize the potential right at our fingertips. It’s like the many stories we’ve heard and biographies we’ve read of immigrants coming to this country. They arrive often with only a suitcase and a dream. Ten or twenty years later they not only own the house they are living in, they own most of the homes on the block. They really do recognize Canada, and more specifically Niagara 
as the land of opportunity. We sometimes do not. I’m convinced too that these newly arrived entrepreneurs are often conditioned to look forward, while we too often concentrate on the rear view mirror rather than the windshield.
I was speaking with a business associate recently who remarked “I should have done what you did and bought real estate back when it was cheap.” But, see, that’s all relative. Yesterday’s prices seem cheap today. In like fashion, today’s prices will seem cheap tomorrow.
I remember only 4 or 5 years ago when semi-detached homes were being marketed at around the $170K mark. People weren’t lined up to buy them. Can you imagine the frenzy if a few appeared on the market at that price today? Just wait. When I entered the Burlington marketplace 25 years ago, semi-detached resale homes were about $45,000 more expensive there than here. Today that differential is over $200,000. We see older semi’s in the North End of St. Catharines selling in the $320,000 range today. I believe $400,000 isn’t too far off. And along with that, we will see a corresponding increase in all types, styles and ranges of property.
If you’ve ever played the game of Monopoly you’ll know that the person with all the properties always wins. That’s true in life. And nowhere more so than here in Niagara.
Discover what so many new immigrants to this country have realized. What Toronto investors have woken up to. Niagara – land of opportunity. Be a winner. Get in the game.
Wayne Quirk, Author
“THE MONEY MACHINE”
wayneq@remax-gc.com