Cornwall Market Update

Hear from Derek McEwen about the opportunities and hot areas in Cornwall in 2021
 
Francois: We have Derek now from Cornwall. Welcome. We're very excited to have you.

Derek: Thank you. Okay. So , what's going on in Cornwall right now? It's a very active market 2020, where it was very active and there was no let up over the fall winter break so far. We've discussed it a little bit over past webinars here, but just a little bit of a history of what has happened in Cornwall. So, going into 2020, there was a bit of an inventory problem. During the last five years, more and more properties have been bought up. And now we're seeing a lack of inventory.

We're not seeing as many properties being listed. And going into 2020 with the COVID problem there were fewer properties that went on the market, creating a bigger demand. Also what we're seeing is the push that's coming from Ottawa since Ottawa is so active and so expensive. We're actually seeing a lot of people both investors and actually residents that are looking for a residential place to live. They'd rather live in Cornwall now and actually travel to Ottawa for work.

We're seeing an extra demand for our marketplace here. In addition to that, we are seeing people coming in from Montreal investors as well downsizers looking to move out of the city into a smaller area. And so, that's creating a strain on our inventory and raising the prices. I had a chance to speak with an interesting investor in the late fall, early winter. And we had this discussion and he added to it that with COVID.

He's seeing a lot of people wanting to move out of the bigger cities. So, he's seeing an Exodus from Toronto to the outlying areas and Montreal to the outlying areas. So, he indicated to me, and I've been keeping an eye on the insight that I have had from him and a lot of the things that he said has come true so far. And what his prediction was for 2021 is we are going to see a lot more activity in Cornwall and in the smaller cities, just because people are fearing the pandemic. And they want to get away from the bigger crowds for 2021. I'm anticipating that.

Francois: It's a huge change of pace. I've traveled, I'm in Orleans. So, suburban Ottawa.. I've been to Cornwall to look at my properties and whoa, there's hardly any lineup. So, it's a lot more pleasant.

Derek: That's it there's a little bit less stress, obviously. We're feeling nervous about the whole situation, but like you said, there's not a lot of lineups. It's easy to get in and out of the store when you need to. It's a little bit more relaxed. So, for 2021, what I'm seeing right now is we still have a lack of inventory. I checked before for rental properties. There's only a few rental properties that are under $300,000. They usually have a pretty good cap rate. They do cash flow.

My advice for anybody is just to say, not to worry about the cash flow that much, look for the long-term because these properties are definitely going to go up in value with the higher demands we're seeing. Tenants are paying more and more for rent because of the lack of inventory. So, the cash flow will be okay, but the long-term gain in my opinion is where I want it as a realtor. But as an investor myself, I'm looking for long-term gain. So, right now under 300,000, there's only 18 rental properties available around the city and eight of them already have offers.

There's not that much available for detached houses under 300,000. There's only a dozen all right now. So, that is a significant increase in price for Cornwall, which really means you've been able to get properties for good, real, reasonably nice properties.
Three, four years ago 200,000 has gone up a lot more in value. And I truly believe that trend is going to continue. So, my advice for everybody, even though we are seeing bidding wars on either residential properties or multis I would still get involved in a bidding war to your comfort zone. Just knowing that the long-term gain is always going to be there. If you can handle the smaller cash flow now, then take it on the chin a little bit and look for your long-term growth.

Francois: If Cornwall has been undervalued for many years. I remember you could get tons of properties for the low one hundred. And now, like you're saying 300 to me, it still sounds cheap, but it is for Cornwall. It's very expensive compared to what it was.

Derek: If you compare that to Kingston or Hamilton or London, Woodstock. I was in Cornwall, they can get for 250 to 300, which is going to be 450 to 500 in those other cities. So, for growth. It's not too late to get in.

Francois: Thank you so much, Derek.
So, Derek, you're a realtor for Storm Realty in Cornwall, and we will be sharing your information there in the chat. Please stick around and thank you for sharing your knowledge. Daniel, do you have a question for Derek?

Daniel: I have a question, Derek. Thank you very much for taking the time when you were talking about the small town, would you be talking for example about, say Morrisburg, Brockville, Castleman, or would you be talking more like Belleville and Trenton and places like that? For example?

Derek: I consider Cornwall Small Town as well, like me and our population is only about 50 thousands around Cornwall. But if you add the whole if you had the whole region, then we're up over a hundred thousand. In Cornwall, I find it a fairly small city, especially if we want to compare it to Montreal, we only have 50,000, but there's good infrastructure. The other cities I think we're pretty comparable to something like Bellville.

Daniel: Okay. The other thing too is when you look at the map there, if you live in Cornwall, how long does it take you to get to Ottawa or to Montreal?

Derek: Oh, just over an hour. It's great. Yeah, it's an ideal location for everybody.

Daniel: Yup. All right. Thank you very much again, Derek.

Francois: Thank you so much.