Hot Real Estate Canada

Mar 15, 2007 - Linknet Real Estate News >>

Kitchener-Waterloo, Barrie will be next real estate hot spots - While Alberta and British Columbia have grabbed most of the headlines in the recent 2006 census report, Ontario's population growth over the last five years was also very significant. Driven mainly by immigration, the population of Ontario grew 6.6% between 2001 and 2006. That compares to an increase of 10.6% in Alberta and 5.3% in B.C.

And while the Calgary-Edmonton corridor is viewed as the primary economic development hot spot in Canada, Ontario has a much more diversified economy and tends not to suffer from the same economic peaks and valleys as the western provinces. Virtually all economic growth in Alberta and B.C. is tied to resource development -- especially the price of oil.

This led Don R. Campbell of the Real Estate Investment Network to say "If I were to invest in the country, I'd say Barrie and the Kitchener-Waterloo region would be my two top choices."

The main reason is that of the 6.6% population increase in Ontario's registered over the last 5 years, 84% of that growthtook place in Toronto and the towns and cities surrounding the city. That amounts to almost half of the entire population growth in the entire country.

And of that growth in the Toronto area, only 0.9% took place in the city itself. The suburban ring around Toronto -- accounting now for more than 5 million people -- is pushing further and further out, creating new suburban hot spots. Barrie and the Kitchener-Waterloo are on the edges of the ring. They are already hot real estate markets, and are almost certainly going to get much hotter in the next few years.