Toronto's View On Hamilton

by Darrin DeRoches March 29 - April 4, 2012

I just spent the last three days shooting a TV show here in Hamilton with a crew from Toronto and it was very interesting to get their perspective of our “real estate market.” Every single one of the 10 crew members asks me about real estate in Hamilton at least once. We shot at three different locations and they were curious about values and locations throughout our city. They were impressed with our first location in Ancaster; they went on about the area and homes. They really felt how the house felt like a “home” instead of a property laid out in a grid pattern of suburbia. We then shot in a vacant renovated home near Eastgate Square. The property was a four level back semi–split and was a large home for about $230,000. They began to ask about its value and I asked them to guess. Most came in around at least $300,000 and up. I explained to them the area was okay and the house was actually a little overpriced.     Throughout the day the producer explained how he has been purchasing student houses in St. Catharines and asked how does Hamilton compare? Basically the comparison comes down to the property. Bring in a few hundred more a month but it will cost at least $50,00 to $100,000 more for the property. He felt that buying in Hamilton will not allow him enough profit, but when I explained to him the vacancy rates, and how Hamilton went up seven per cent in value last year, plus we still are considered “undervalued’ he started to ask more questions. By the end of our conversation he started to see how over the course of 15– to 25–years he would make substantially more money in real estate investing in Hamilton compared to St. Catherines.      One of the cameramen just bought a small condo in Toronto for $235,000 and he also wants to buy income properties in Hamilton. Our third location was a home near Gage Park that could easily be converted into an income property and cost less than his condo in Toronto. He went to Mohawk College to become a cameraman and he was also interested in student housing near the college. It seems whenever we had a break in shooting we were either talking about real estate or looking on the MLS to show them the value of investing in Hamilton. The director of the show even started to consider on ‘retiring’ to Hamilton since she could sell her home in Toronto buy a comparable home in Hamilton for cash and have a lot of money left over to travel.      It was very interesting to get the different perspective on the real estate market from 10 different people who own in Toronto and enjoyed every part of our city. They lunched on Locke Street and were so impressed with what our city had to offer in real estate, culture and amenities. The show is called “My House Your Money” and we are filming episode three for season two which will air late summer or fall!  V     Darrin DeRoches is a local real estate and mortgage broker. He can be reached to answer questions, comments or stories about real estate experiences through this weekly column at mail@uniquerealty.ca.