Buying a Townhouse in the GTA

[Eric Truong]

Hello BP family! I am relatively new to real-estate investing but definitely have some ideas as to what type of property I want to be purchasing. 

Just a bit of a background story about real estate journey: I purchased my first condo in Toronto in 2014 with the help from my family cosigning with me. I sold it right after my mortgage term ended (end of Nov 2019) which also happened to line up exactly before the whole COVID situation got out of hand. I was living in the condo most of the time but also used it as an income generator by renting it out during peak season through Airbnb. 

A little over a year has gone by and I am now ready to purchase my second property. I have my preapproval ready and have been actively looking at freehold townhome properties the past few months. What I am looking for is a freehold with potential to create a separate basement living suite. This would mean that ideally, the property would need side-by-side parking available. There were several properties available maybe two months ago. Ever since then, the properties have been selling off easily $200K over asking price with less than two days on market within the GTA area. 

I have also been looking at pre-construction condo townhomes, but after doing the math, the purchase price is far too high compared to the freeholds with additional maintenance fees (easily over $650/ month) for the sizes I'm looking at.

I would love to hear some thoughts from experienced investors in the GTA area. Would you bite the bullet and compete with everyone bidding on these properties now? When do you think things will slow down & would you rather invest in other building types?

Looking forward to hearing from the community!

Eric T