The average cost to build a house in Canada ranges from $120 to $195 per square foot for a detached home. For many Canadians, the dream of building a home is more appealing than just buying one. Building a home comes with many benefits, and if we’re being perfectly honest, some headaches.

What is the cost to build a house in major Canadian cities?

When it comes to the average cost to build a home in Canada, according to Altus Group’s 2021 Canadian Cost Guide, the price per square foot for a detached home in major Canadian cities is as follows:

  • Vancouver: $145 – $265
  • Calgary: $125 – $195
  • Edmonton: $125 – $195
  • Winnipeg: $120 – $185
  • Greater Toronto Area: $140 – $240
  • Ottawa: $120 – $200
  • Montreal: $105 – $175
  • Halifax: $90 –…

317 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

The Real Estate Market in the GTA just wrapped up another record breaking month in the March with 41% more sales than in March 2020 and saw the average home price increase 21.6% to $1,097,565. For many Canadians, Despite the economic challenges associated with the pandemic, real estate has become the most important place to put their money. The question many are asking..who's buying? and where?

In 2017 It was foreign buyers who were blamed for the over heating real estate market which led to the federal government issuing a special 15% foreign buyers tax that arguably did very little to cool the real estate market at the time. This time the blame lies squarely on domestic buyers as tourism, travel and immigration have come to a halt across Canada.…

806 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post


Have you tried to purchase a home lately? If you have then you know how challenging it is. If you haven't then strap in! It usually plays out a little like this. You find that perfect home. It seems priced right. Maybe even too low. Too good to be true? probably. Your agent tells you offers are being held back for about a week. That gives all the people who want to see the property a chance to can get in and see it. Some hot properties may see over 100 showings in a week. Assuming the property doesn't accept a pre-emtive (bully) offer before the offer date, there might be anywhere from 2-10 + offers on the property and prospective buyers are faced with what feels like a game of pin the tail on the donkey against numerous other offers with little to…

670 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

Pat yourself on the back. You made it to 2021. Happy New Year!

If you haven't seen the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray don't worry because your probably living it. In 2020, as lockdowns seemingly came and went and came again one thing remained. The Real Estate Market in Toronto and the GTA remained HOT! Maybe not always the same heat but generally HOT! Even with a pandemic, 2020 was no exception. In December alone sales were up 64.5%. Low inventory and historically ultra low interest rates (under 2%) helped drive a lot of the price growth throughout the GTA. The contrast within the market also loomed large.

While detached home buyers faced a challenging buying process with multiple offers and a lot of competition, the condo market in most…

900 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

As the end of 2020 quickly approaches, its safe to say it will be a year to remember in the real estate industry. Masks, sanitizer, virtual tours, virtual listing presentations, virtual open houses were all the rage as RE/MAX Realtors across the province worked tirelessly to help their clients buy, sell and lease property safely throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. It was also a year of records, mostly positive and from the numbers, excluding the blip and sputter in march, april & may, the gta saw consistent sales and price growth throughout the detached housing market segment for the majority of the year. Other than the continuing challenges in the condo market due to the Covid related on and off again lockdowns we can be confident to forecast a fairly…

2283 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

SALES

October has proven to be another red hot month in terms of overall sales. TRREB reported 10,563 sales which is up 25.1% compared to 8445 transactions in October 2019. The average price was also up 13.7% to $968,313 from this time last year. These numbers represent much of the listing/sales transactions that would normally have been part of the spring/summer market in April/May/June as we saw a delay in the new listings and sales when COVID-19 caused with initial lockdowns at the start of what would have been the spring market. The reality is that the number of year to date sales overall are very similar to where we were at this time last year while prices have still increased due to the ongoing supply issues. 

However, considering we are…

516 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

From toilet paper to lysol wipes. Yeast, flour and exercise equipment, if there is one thing the Covid-19 pandemic has proven, its that nothing can stop people from spending money. We all know that person,` maybe it was you! The pandemic baker or the pandemic exercise guru. Even I took up a short stint trying to bake bread when Covid-19 sent everyone scrambling for yeast, (it was a short career). As unnerving as it was to see grocery stores with empty shelves that would otherwise normally have some of the important household cooking and cleaning supplies, that was just the begining of the big spending. International travel became difficult if not impossible to most people (with borders still closed, the forecast still appears to be a…

225 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post


We've heard the stories, read the articles and maybe even listened to the monthly reports on the radio and TV. People have been buying and selling homes like sport throughout most of the time Ontario has been in lockdown or social restrictive measures. The lowest interest rates in Canadian history have certainly made mortgaging up a lot more attractive and what started off as a red hot market back in January 2020 (with a brief blip in April/May) appears to have continued throughout the pandemic and is poised to wrap up the year with more sales and higher prices throughout the GTA and even cottage country than in 2019. The question many are asking is where is everyone moving? and why? If one was to look strictly at the number of sales last month in the 416…

281 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

  

  • RE/MAX Hot Pocket Communities Report reveals double-digit detached price increases in 55% of Greater Toronto Real Estate Markets
  • Spring supply crunch drives strong price appreciation for single-detached homes across the board in the first half of 2020

Detached housing values have shown remarkable resilience in the first half of 2020, with 95 per cent of Greater Toronto real estate districts posting solid gains in average price, according to a report released today by RE/MAX of Ontario-Atlantic Canada.

The RE/MAX 2020 Hot Pocket Communities Report examined trends and developments in 65 Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) districts, finding that a steep decline in the number of homes listed for sale during Ontario’s…

298 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

Week 9

Welcome to week 9 of the stay at home, work from home, physical distancing marathon! I hope everyone has had some time to take a deep breath, adjust to the new routine and enjoy some time with your loved ones, a good book or perhaps some Netflix binging.

In less than two months, the real estate market in the GTA has gone from 100kph to about 25kph. Although there has been some recovery from the initial shock of the stay at home recommendations by the government, we have now had some time to look at some of the emerging trends in the marketplace. One thing is for sure, not even Canada's strongest real estate market (Toronto) is immune to the imapct of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sales are down nearly 63% and the average price dropped roughly 8%…

563 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post