Canada’s Luxury Hotspots: Study

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Real estate prices remain a hot topic for Canadians, especially in the context of affordability and market stability. And with an average home sale price of $472,247, Canadians are no strangers to expensive housing. In one of their latest studies, researchers at Point2 Homes decided to delve deeper into the topic of high-end housing to see exactly how much luxury real estate was available on the market, and the implications to consumers.

By looking into the number of homes listed for sale priced $1 million and above, and comparing it to the overall offerings of Canada’s 50 largest cities, Point2 Homes calculated the luxury home concentration for each city, also known as the luxury ratio.

Hover your mouse over each bar to see where each city stands:

To nobody’s surprise, Vancouver is firmly entrenched as Canada’s ultimate leader in luxury real estate, with 76 per cent of all homes for sale listed for $1 million and above. Furthermore, the Greater Vancouver cities of Burnaby, Coquitlam and Richmond also rank among the nation’s top five markets, when it comes to the luxury home ratio. However, the Greater Toronto Area’s luxury market also shows its muscles, as Richmond Hill came second in our ranking, with 67 per cent of all listed homes sporting prices above the $1 million threshold.

Despite market stabilization, GTA luxury offerings still abound

While Toronto itself is only #13 on our list, with a 29 per cent luxury ratio, it’s important to bear in mind that the Toronto real estate market boasts an overall for-sale inventory of 6,232 properties, about three times that of Vancouver. At the same time, the two real estate giants have approximately the same number of luxury listings – circa 1,800 properties.

The province of Ontario itself is fruitful ground for luxury real estate, with 23 cities on our list, most notably Richmond Hill as the runner-up for highest concentration of luxury homes vs average-priced properties.

The York Region’s Vaughan also ranks among the top 10, coming in eighth with 51 per cent of all listings above $1 million. Oakville and Markham came in sixth, both sporting a 54 per cent luxury ratio. Overall, the real estate markets of four cities in the 905 are more than 50 per cent composed of luxury listings. The GTA’s Burlington, Mississauga, Milton, and Whitby are also among Canada’s top 20 cities in terms of luxury home ratios, and are joined by Hamilton as well.

Although Vancouver also maintains a leading position in the uber-luxury category of homes priced $5 million and above, the runner-up, Toronto, remains a competitor to contend with – although the GTA’s recent real estate slump might change future outlooks.

Similarly to the luxury ratio, we calculated the uber-luxury ratio by tallying the number of properties priced $5 million and above and comparing it to the overall supply in Canada’s largest cities. Only 23 of the country’s most significant cities offer homes at this price point. You can hover your cursor above the chart below to see the exact numbers.

GTA challenges Vancouver in ultra-luxury category

With 11 per cent of all Vancouver homes for sale listed for over $5 million, the west coast powerhouse easily ranks as the most expensive city in Canada. In fact, most countrywide rankings of the top-most expensive homes tend to be dominated by Vancouver listings or properties from cities in the surrounding area, like Langley. This British Columbia city ranks second nationwide, with 2.2 per cent of all active listings being uber-luxury homes.

However, looking at sheer property numbers, it becomes obvious that Toronto is the true uber-luxury runner up, despite having a ratio of only 1.5 per cent. Overall, the Toronto luxury real estate market currently boasts 94 properties above the uber-luxury threshold, surpassed only by Vancouver with 214 properties.

Greater Toronto also took Greater Vancouver on – while the latter features five municipalities in our top 20 uber-luxury ranking, the GTA boasts eight in the form of Toronto, Richmond Hill, Oakville, Vaughan, Milton, Burlington, Markham and Mississauga.