TORONTO — When the warm weather hits, Arthur Parks usually sees up to 10 referrals from Toronto real estate agents with clients feeling the allure of lakeside living as the summer heats up.
That dampened demand has come amid a succession of interest rate hikes — the latest was made Wednesday, when the key rate was hiked by a quarter of a percentage point to five per cent — that have shaved down buying power and made some rethink purchases, especially those of the recreational variety. Reduced demand and a lack of supply would keep the national aggregate price more than 32 per cent above 2020 levels and come after two years of double-digit price gains across the recreational real estate market, the real estate firm said in a spring report.
These people tend to be looking for older, family cottages and are willing to sit on the sidelines until the market produces their ideal buying conditions, or at least clarity around where the market is headed."Knowing rates have increased and have changed the buying power, they're holding out for sellers to come around."
"When I looked at waterfront properties that sold this year compared to last year in Peterborough County, we have about 80 per cent of the sales we did last year."In the category of homes valued at $2.5 million and above, Parks said the Peterborough market has seen about 50 per cent of the sales this year that it had in 2022.