A COVID real estate success story

Lynda Cox

Let me tell you an interesting client story that will give you a picture of this strange COVID real estate season. Before Christmas 2019, before COVID-19 arrived here, a childhood friend referred an acquaintance of hers that was moving to Ottawa to work on the refurbishment project on Parliament Hill. Very early in the New Year he found and purchased a beautiful, executive, downtown condo in a bidding war. He moved in temporarily with just the basic necessities because his partner was still at home working and awaiting a job offer in Ottawa. Then the COVID lockdown hit. He began working on-line from his home base in Southern Ontario. He never did come back to work in Ottawa but continued to work remotely and probably would continue to do so for the remainder of the project. What to do? Sell and perhaps take a loss (when considering his expenses to date and the fact that he bought in a bidding war and paid over asking price) or rent it out for a while. Well, as you all know from my last article, during this COVID crisis, property values here in Ottawa have risen significantly due to low inventory and high demand, so, after staging the property we sold at a price that, after all expenses were deducted, still left money in his pocket even though he had owned it for less than 6 months. A happy ending.

That is the real estate reality in Ottawa. Now that we are into the second wave of the COVID crisis the Ottawa resale market is holding steady and then some. Condominium properties have increased in value by approximately 19 % over this time last year and other residential properties 25%. October’s new condominium listings have increased by 70% over 2019 and non-condominium residential listings by 48%.

Who could have guessed it? So yes, now is a very good time to sell.

Sandy Hill Real Estate update
September 2 – November 9,  2020

Residential

Active listings, 7; Conditionally sold,  0; Sold, 16 ― with 7 selling over list price ranging from $2K to $101K over asking.

Condominums

Active listings, 41; Conditionally sold, 2; Sold, 30 with 5 selling over list price ranging from $1K to $80K over asking.