The Cottage Market

by Shawn Lackie

As we head into the meat of the spring selling season, how about a peek into the world of cottage sales? The Cottage Market is a funny beast and, in many ways, marches to its own tune. Oftentimes, when the residential market is humming along, the cottage world is not. And vice versa.

I remember back in the mid-90s, when we would rent a place for two weeks in the summer, it seemed everywhere you looked, there were for-sale signs. Just as quickly, they disappeared, and not much was for sale.

When the pandemic was in full swing, you couldn’t find a recreational property to save your life, and if you did, you would have paid a premium for it. All the city folk were snapping up these properties like there was no tomorrow.

Which brings us to 2025. It would seem those same buyers from up to six years ago are now trying to divest themselves from their earlier, sometimes panicked purchases. I have just been working with a client for the past number of weeks, months actually if we go back to the start of the quest. At first, there were dribs and drabs of listings being posted. Like anything else, we had to go see them in person. Our scope was from the Georgian Bay area over to the Kawarthas.

Once we became more focused on a certain area the task became much more aligned. There was certain criteria which needed to be met, access, size of the cottage, bunkie or no, lakefront access, and most important - price.

Do yourself a favour if you start to look. Set a price range and stick to it. There are any number of listings coming up. What started as a few here and there became a full-on torrent of new listings to sift through. The most important aspect of your hunt is to physically see the place in person. Just like residential listings, the pictures can make the place look bigger than it is or smaller. However, with a cottage, what the pictures DON’T show you is how accessible the cottage actually is.

I had to laugh because one of the places we were at caused my guy to wonder out loud if we’d ever make it out of there alive. I tarted humming the theme song from Deliverance. Yes, it WAS that remote. It became one of our joke lines as we moved on.

Some places will stand out, others not so much. Like the residential market, if something is under-listed price-wise it will garner more attention and maybe even generate multiple offers. If you stay on your game you should benefit.

We ended up finding a nice place which needs work but has a tremendous upside. With a little work and some patience, they will turn this into a family oasis for many years to come. The other thing which should be mentioned is that, like residential purchases, you should consider your exit strategy before your entrance strategy and by that, I mean if you decide to sell 5 to 10 years down the road, will you make money on the sale? If the answer is yes, then go for it. A place like that should bring you and your family years of enjoyment.