New cottage hot spots
Surging development in other lakeside counties is cutting into Muskoka’s slice of the recreational housing market
Jane Cayley hasn’t looked back since she and her husband traded their expansive Muskoka retreat for a smaller two-storey holiday home in Grey County’s growing Lora Bay community, west of Collingwood.
“It was beautiful,” the 60- something psychologist says of her former digs overlooking Lake Rosseau, “but as we are heading into our semi- retirement and retirement years, it just wasn’t ideal. I also wanted more sense of community, a year- round active lifestyle, and beautiful natural surroundings. Lora Bay has all that.”
The Toronto resident — and veteran triathlete — is far from alone in her appreciation of new recrea
tional residences outside Ontario’s most popular, and priciest, cottage region. While spring flooding across the lake- blessed province hasn’t dampened demand for vacation property ( stats bear this out), surging development in less- developed lakeside counties — Grey, Bruce and Prince Edward, to name a few — is cutting into Muskoka’s share of the recreational housing market.
Or is it a case of Muskoka faltering? Maybe in terms of volume: According to the Lakelands Association of Realtors, sales of waterfront properties in Haliburton and Muskoka totalled 256 units over the first four months of 2019, down 15 per cent from the same period last year.
The downturn in volume, caused mainly by a two-year cottage- supply drought that continues across the region, has led to a “dramatic increase” in residential prices, says Wendy Webb, president of the Lakelands Association.
“Some areas are experiencing a levelling off in demand. However, that is not the case for Haliburton and Muskoka.”
How high has this supply- demand conundrum pushed prices? Royal Lepage reported its average 2018 lakefront price in Muskoka to be $1.65 million, up 10 per cent from the year prior. According to the Lakelands Association, the median April price for waterfront was $610,000.
On the other side of Georgian Bay, the Realtors Association of Grey- Bruce- Owen Sound reported that aside from “an aberrant reading” in August 2018, this April’s $ 384,580 average sale price was the highest on record.
Naturally, this pleases Lora Bay’s Cayley, who is treating her new abode as a part- time cottage. “At this stage in life, I need to be confident in my investments,” she says.
“I’ve tracked the data, and I absolutely know I’m going to get a return on this one. Economically, Thornbury is thriving. Prices have gone up 30 per cent since I started looking.”
Go east, young cottagers
Many younger types, meanwhile, are said to be looking east for strong returns. In Prince Edward County, the average residential sale price for April — $ 361,848 — jumped 6.6 per cent year- over- year, reports the Quinte & District Association of Realtors.
“I see Prince Edward County as the new hot spot for the next generation of cottage-lifestyle seekers,” says Tom Storey of Royal Lepage Signature Realty in Toronto. “I know millennials who have uprooted their lives and are building their own Airbnb businesses in houses they bought. The County is a lot less expensive than places like Muskoka, and it’s full of properties to rent out when you’re not using them.”
Recently enacted rent- control measures in Toronto are another factor, he adds. “Clients whose rent increases are locked in at 1.8 per cent a year have this amazing city lifestyle. So, instead of buying in the expensive city, they are looking outside it.”
Port Picton Homes is among the developers aiming to draw urbanites of any age. A draft plan for the company’s namesake community is expected to be approved in August, owner David Cleave says, with sales starting this summer and construction beginning sometime in the fall of 2020.
Set amid two swaths of parkland, Port Picton’s 300 units will encompass single- family homes and midrise condominiums along the western shores of picturesque Picton Harbour. The now- defunct Claramount Inn & Spa, meanwhile, is to be transformed into a central clubhouse with restaurants, a wellness and fitness centre, pool, tennis and pickleball courts, all fronted by harbour docks.
“We have this wonderful jewel of a protected harbour, which is deep enough to accommodate big boats with heavy keels,” Cleave says. “That’s why it has always been a shipping port, and that’s why it’s so close to downtown Picton.”
Connecting to Port Picton via a boardwalk, the town’s core “is exploding into this agritourism hot spot,” he adds. “At the same, there are more and more baby boomers leaving Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, so we need more housing. And with residential prices growing at 12 to 15 per cent per year, it wouldn’t be your worst move to invest in Port Picton.”
Good times, good prices and golf
The town of Port Elgin is also experiencing plenty of growth thanks to the multiyear, multibillion- dollar refurbishment of the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station down the Lake Huron coast.
At the Westlinks development just east of town, some families have already moved into the first phase of 26 bungalow townhomes that are under construction, Rice Development owner Rod Rice says, with roughly 100 households completing the townhouse community over the next two years. “Our amenities really stand out,” Rice says. “There’s the 12- hole golf course that’s already here, plus tennis, pickleball, and a fitness centre going in soon. Being so close to Port Elgin is really valuable too, because it’s just a short spin into town to get whatever you need.”
Then there’s the price proposition Westlinks offers. “We are much more price- competitive here, certainly more so than in the Muskoka or Collingwood areas.”
Cayley, for her part, says she is actually getting more for less from her new abode. With a Tom Lehman- and Thomas Mcbroom-designed 18- hole golf course on the property, “I would argue that Lora Bay offers much more than Muskoka,” she says. “As well as golf, there’s lots of cycling, hiking and skiing, with the Georgian Trail coming right through, and Blue Mountain close by. We’re kayakers, so we can access the water here too. There’s the new Roost winery up the road, and I can get any goods and services I want for my simple weekend life in Thornbury or Collingwood. There’s a lot of active pride, and less privilege, in this community.”
I WOULD ARGUE THAT LORA BAY OFFERS MUCH MORE THAN MUSKOKA. AS WELL AS GOLF, THERE’S LOTS OF CYCLING, HIKING AND SKII NG, WITH THE GEORGIAN TRAIL COMING RIGHT THROUGH, AND BLUE MOUNTAIN CLOSE BY. — FORMER MUSKOKA COTTAGER JANE CAYLEY
THERE’S A LOT OF ACTIVE PRIDE, AND LESS PRIVILEGE.