recently started to see an uptick in activity, partly owing to historically low interest rates during the pandemic. Nevertheless, their house prices are still being greatly outpaced by some of the red hot markets, like Toronto and Vancouver, and this is why cash-flow hungry real estate investors are looking to enter the Calgary housing market, according to one realtor.
According to Steve Saretsky, from Vancouver-based Oakwyn Realty, those realtors from Toronto known to focus on new condo developments, are now pointing their attention to the more affordable Calgary market, where prices are significantly low compared to the Greater Toronto Area. “What we’ve been hearing is that [these realtors] have been actually flogging Calgary pre-sale projects and selling very, very successfully,” Saretsky told BNN Bloomberg in an interview on Wednesday. “Because I think when investors in Toronto, and even here in Vancouver, look at these projects, they think, ‘Oh wow, I can pick up a one-bedroom condo for $250,000?’. And this word cash flow – which really doesn’t exist in the [Greater Toronto Area] and in Vancouver – it’s quite attainable in Calgary.”
According to recent figures published by the Calgary Real Estate Board, condo sales in the city have registered a significant growth over the recent months, while prices have also been on an upward trend. In the month of January, Condo sales in Calgary reached 357, the highest for the month since 2007, as the unadjusted benchmark price of a condo grew by 2 per cent from the previous year to $251,200. However, these prices continue to remain considerably lower compared with Toronto, where the average price of a condo reached $760,643 in January, which amounted to an increase of 21.7 per cent from a year ago.
According to Saretsky, it is the cash flow potential in Calgary that is attracting many Toronto investors, despite many years of stagnation in that market. “People that are going to Calgary, I think, are typically a different type of investor. I think they’re more cash flow-oriented investors. The idea of parking money in a one-bedroom condo in Calgary and hoping for some appreciation over five to eight years, I think is not the same as investing in Toronto or Vancouver,” he said. “Buying condos in Calgary is a much different game. There hasn’t been any lift there historically and typically, like I said, it’s kind of a dead money.”
