‘Move-over buyers’ are invading the suburbs

TORONTO, ON. (NEWS 1130) – They’re known as “move-over buyers.” They are people looking for a better deal on a new home, even if it takes them out of the city and into the suburbs.

And a new report from RE/MAX shows that kind of activity is on the rise in Greater Vancouver as well as in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). That’s fuelling real estate fever in the outlying suburbs, which in Greater Vancouver, stretches into the Fraser Valley and beyond.

“[Move-over buyers are] looking at the overall aesthetics that a neighbourhood provides so that price and home size become somewhat secondary to what the neighbourhood can provide. And that fits into their affordability factor. But ultimately, the homebuyer today is more interested in lifestyle than they are in size of home,” explains Elton Ash with RE/MAX.

The report shows over two-thirds of Canadians consider the location of a home to be more important than the style or size.

Both Toronto and Vancouver have introduced taxes on foreign home buyers with the BC government implementing a 15 per cent levy last summer in a bid to cool the red-hot market. The tax is pushing buyers looking for the best deal on a home into outlying areas and away from crowded urban areas.

“Victoria and Kelowna were huge benefactors of that. In Victoria, we saw prices go up 12 per cent and in Kelowna go up 13 per cent,” says Ash, expanding on numbers from last year and early this year.

He says there’s a similar situation in the GTA which is also seeing strong growth in surrounding areas like Hamilton and as far away as Kingston.

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