Shrinking condos don’t interest first-time home buyers and the Home of the Week: Canadian real estate news for August 23

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Here are The Globe and Mail’s top housing and real estate stories this week and one home worth a look.

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First-time home buyers are shunning today’s shrinking condos

There are signs that first-time buyers are souring on condo living, writes Kelsey Rolfe. A recent survey of Canadian renters found that most respondents still wanted to buy a single-family home, despite citing high home prices and the down payment as their top challenges to buying. Just 12 per cent want a condo, a figure that dropped even further for younger respondents. Even though condos are still the only affordable option for many first-time buyers, realtors say the shrinking square footage of available units is causing many prospective homeowners to grow frustrated and angry with what’s on offer. For young renters, a year in less than 500 square feet may feel like a minor concession to live downtown. But for first-time buyers, that can look more like many years in a space they don’t love and that they aren’t sure will appreciate in value as it did in the past. Some motivated buyers are moving further out in search of space, but others are simply opting out of condo ownership.

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Borrowers on the hook for millions after Ont. private lending collapse involving former child star’s company

About a dozen borrowers are facing demands for millions of dollars in unpaid debts amid one of the largest private lending collapses in Canadian history, writes Shane Dingman. The Lion’s Share Group Inc., a promissory note lending business run by former mortgage broker Claire Drage, was the primary broker of close to $130-million in private mortgage and promissory note loans for the insolvent real estate company controlled by former child actor Robby Clark, who bought more than 400 houses in Ontario. In July and August, a series of court judgments ordered the repayment of more than $2.5-million in debt from Ms. Drage’s borrowers, offering a window into the amount of debt these small lenders were extending in recent years.

Online lender Nesto aims to grab market share as wave of homeowners face mortgage renewals at higher rates

A slew of homeowners will soon be renewing their cheap pandemic-era mortgages at much higher interest rates and online lender Nesto believes this will be the company’s opportunity to build its portfolio of residential loans, writes Rachelle Younglai. The Montreal-based company was pushed into the big leagues of non-bank lenders in June with the acquisition of CMLS Financial Ltd., the country’s third-largest mortgage finance company. Homeowners and buyers who took out a mortgage during the pandemic were able to get loans with interest rates below 2 per cent. Many of those cheap mortgages have five-year terms that will have to be renewed in 2025 and 2026. With mortgage rates now hovering around 5 per cent, those homeowners will see a significant increase in their payments and they will be looking for their cheapest options, and will likely be shopping around to compare their options. Nesto’s CEO Malik Yacoubi said the company calls it “the great renewal.”

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Opinion: It’s maddening to say, but now might be a generational opportunity to buy a first home

As weak as housing affordability is right now, it might never be better for aspiring young buyers, writes personal finance columnist Rob Carrick. Mortgage rates have declined lately, and home prices are moving sideways on an average national basis. Short of a crash that sends prices reeling, this is what passes in Canada for a buying opportunity. The real question is how long will the housing market continue to coast before it corrects itself in a big way. In many big cities, houses are very far from affordable for first-time buyers without high incomes or high-income parents. Also, a lot of people feel terrible about their finances after years of high interest rates and inflation. But there still might never be a better time to buy.

Home of the Week: A one-time dancehall on Presqu’ile Bay

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77 Bayshore Road, Brighton, Ont. – Full gallery here

This four-bedroom home is located in a little getaway just outside Prince Edward County known as Presqu’ile Point. Built in 1923, it once served as a vacation home known as the Woodmere Lodge, just across from a major hotel and dance pavilion. The main room is like visiting the central-casting version of an early 20th-century hunting or fishing lodge. Every other room in the house extends off this central space that rises up two storeys and are panelled in walnut-coloured wood. The space is dominated by a huge fieldstone fireplace and chimney that rises through the loft balcony above it. Off to the left is a breakfast room that connects to the wood-panelled kitchen, extending to a small bedroom or den, which the owners say was likely an office or oversized pantry when the home was a working hotel.