High-End Cottages

If you’ve been waiting for prices to come down on high-end Muskoka cottages, this may the year.

Sales of all properties in Muskoka were down 30 per cent compared to the same time last year, according to figures from the Muskoka and Haliburton Association of Realtors.

And this year there must have been four distress or power-of sales, all well over a million dollars.

One palatial six-bedroom cottage on Lake Joseph listed at $4.9 million and sold for $3.8 million in the spring, suggesting some properties are going for deep discounts relative to their asking price.

Brokers say there’s an “unusual amount” of high-end listings above $2 million for sale in the market. The region, consisting of lakes Muskoka, Rosseau and Joseph, is about a two-hour drive north of Toronto. And while high-end sales of more than a million dollars may be moving more slowly, real estate agents say more affordable cottages are attracting bids.

Prices were down by as much as 15 per cent last year, but realtors say it is too early to tell where prices are going this year. Much will depend on where the economy is heading.

The selling season, which kicked off on the Victoria Day weekend, may have started slowly, but the weather shares the blame with the economy.