The local Centre Wellington & area real estate market continues to trend behind 2025 activity levels, with downward pressure on pricing also continuing.

Unsold inventory is starting to build as new listings are outpacing actual sales. Sales are happening of course – just slow overall.

As you probably have heard, the provincial and federal government has announced an HST exemption on new home sales for the next year (with some qualifying limits) – which theoretically means a 13% reduction in new home pricing.

While I appreciate the government trying to do something about affordability, this is frankly just a temporary builder bailout to help builders sell unsold inventory at the expense of the taxpayer. It does nothing to address systemic unaffordability in the housing market.

And regarding the other provincial government plan to lower development charges – the reality is many municipalities were planning significant INCREASES in development charges moving forward – so the government’s announcement to temporarily reduce development charges really isn’t grounded in reality.

This move also simply spreads the cost of new development across all taxpayers instead of just on new housing. So, you are paying for this, not the government. The only thing all of this emphasizes is how much of the cost of a new home is because of various forms of TAXES.

Did you know the peak year of Baby Boomer births in Canada was 1961? Which means all those folks are turning 65 this year.

This demographic fact will shape the real estate market moving forward as more Boomers downsize – and will simply stop moving as much in the future.

Further, many will not include a retirement home in their plans as was the case for those who preceded them. It would take a few pages to discuss this subject – but I just mention it as a bit of a segue into a brief discussion on condos.

A reader asked if I would touch on why condos aren’t selling. After all, given the Boomer situation, shouldn’t condos in fact be a big thing? Here are my brief thoughts.

The answer is complex in my opinion – so I can only scratch the surface here. And I’m only talking Centre Wellington – not Toronto. Toronto has its own issues with having built too many condos – including too many “dog crate” condos under 500 square feet. We don’t have those issues.

Firstly, condos are actually selling a bit better here than a year ago (in fact, Amanda & I sell a lot of condos) – but yes, some are still struggling to sell. Here’s the thing – if a house isn’t selling in this market – the number #1 reason is PRICE.

For local condos, it’s more complicated. Yes, price is still a major factor of course. But the demographic buying condos skews more towards more older buyers in CW vs. first time buyers in larger centres – and other factors are of major importance to those buyers too.

Yes, maintenance fees are an issue – as they have increased at a higher rate since COVID. It takes a while for many to get their heads around maintenance fees and why they are so high – but I would still argue maintenance fees in most of our condo buildings are in a reasonable range compared to other areas.

However, unit size, unit layout, finishes, building design/layout, amenities and parking are very important as well. Buyers want condos to tick all the boxes – not just price.

And this is where there might be a bit of a disconnect. This explains why even though prices on condos have come down and arguably there are some good deals out there, sales are still sluggish.

Again, I could write multiple pages on the condo subject – but I simply believe many buyers feel the condos we have in our market “tick two or three boxes”, but not the 5 boxes the [predominantly Boomer] buyer wants.

Moving into a condo is a big adjustment for many – so it needs to tick all the boxes. Nice unit, but the building itself feels like an apartment building when you walk in. Nice building, but wonky unit layout or certain spaces too small and not enough closets.

I would agree we don’t have enough true 2-bedroom units (both with windows) – especially in the higher price points. And all the condos with only one parking space in a community with no public transit can be an obstacle.

So even when potential buyers are okay with price and accept maintenance fees, they don’t make an offer and simply stay put since other important factors don’t align with their wants and needs.

However, I do believe the local condo market will improve further over the next year – and I will also go further and say we actually need more condos in the Centre Wellington market. But builders – please build what buyers want to live in.

Until next month, take care.

George