Listen to the whole show or go right to the real estate segment staring at 14:35
Anna-Marie: Without question. And really with the rapidly changing real-estate market these days, it’s important to offer solutions that can increase people’s wealth instead of eroding it. And that’s why we turned into real-estate agent Sean Mahoney every week, he’s with Harvey Kalles and is principal at the Mahoney Real Estate Group. Hi Sean, welcome!
Sean: Hey, how are you?
Anna-Marie: Sean, first let’s talk about the real-estate landscape. It has really been an interesting year to say the least, what kind of trends that you’ve seen that are directly affecting the real-estate market?
Sean: Yeah, for sure, it definitely has been an interesting year to say the least. What I’ve been finding is that having a lot of conversations with clients regarding their living situation, I know that for many people when the lockdown happened it forced people to really look at where they are living and reassess after they came out of that whether they wanted to be there, whether they needed more space, I know a lot of people who are self employed maybe living in condos, I myself actually, my partner and I we decided to sell our condo and get a home because we just need it. We needed more space my locking closet was actually my office in many situations. So that is one big thing, having conversations, we’re starting to see secondary markets, communities, Barrie, Hamilton, Milton, you know, people are going out there they’re able to put their money and it goes a little bit farther they’re able get that house, cottages and recreations we had like $800 million worth of transactions this year which I don’t know if it’s a record but that’s a massive number, I’ve had many clients who still want to stay in the city, they have their house, they have their condo but at the same time they’re looking for the word that people are using is a Sanctuary or a place to be safe and go away to.
I’ve also seen a lot of panic selling with investors, we’ve seen the AirBnB market take a real hit with tourists, so it’s been an actual opportunity for people who’ve become brave enough to pick up those condos and I think it’s a great buying opportunity and another massive thing that’s being affected is the rental market, so we’re seeing rental markets down as much as 15-20% to put that in relations with 1 bedrooms about $400 less per year than it was the same time last year. There has definitely been a lot of real-estate shakeup and I don’t think it’s ever been seem like this before.
Anna-Marie: Can you tell people, many of our divorce clients have a significant or valuable real-estate holdings and often they increase their wealth by going shopping, when things are on sale. Is this something you recommend? In 30-seconds or less, can you tell people about this?
Sean: Yeah, I certainly think that in this case, I don’t know that things are going on sale and the market’s still really quite strong, what we are seeing is that this is an opportunity, I know that for some of my downsizing clients who’s been looking to retire in 3-5 years, there’s a lot of unique properties that have been on the market for a long time so there’s a lot of good opportunities to buy really solid houses, condos, lofts that maybe not necessarily would’ve been on the market if people aren’t panicking and selling so I certainly still think that this is a great opportunity and the market is still doing very well.
Anna-Marie: Thanks Sean for your insights, they’ve been very helpful this week. How can people get in touch with you?
Sean: For sure, you can visit me at enjoyyourwealth.ca, you can call me at 647-444-6683 or I’m at LinkedIn under SeanMahoney.
Anna-Marie: Thanks Sean, we’ll chat more next week!
Sean: Have a great day!