By NICK STEWART
The growing trend of an increasingly robust real estate market in the City of Timmins has continued throughout the last year and shows little sign of stopping.
“Even two or three years ago, we probably would have been running maybe 20-something new houses a year, and we’ve been hitting almost 50 per year.” says Mark Jensen, director of community development for the City of Timmins. “So we’ve been doubling our home construction, which is a good sign.”
By the end of May, Timmins had a total of 28 new housing starts, representing a value of $5,136,630. This is up from the same period last year, which featured 23 new housing starts worth $3,484,500.
Although hesitant to single out any specific areas due to the strong general interest in the market, Roberta Toner, president of the Timmins Real Estate Board, says executive-style homes are particularly sought after. These include high-end homes upwards of 1,800 square feet and with double-car garages. An influx of small families into the city have also increased demand for three-bedroom bungalows.
“Anything priced well is moving,” Toner says. “Even your little fixer-uppers that were rough and nobody paid attention to for years are being bought and fixed up. I can’t think of a single residential sector that hasn’t improved in the last year.”
Subdivisions are also being actively pursued, with five currently undergoing development in Timmins, representing a total of up to 233 new lots.
The largest of these is the Highlands Subdivision, which involves the southerly portion of the former Melrose Heights Subdivision, east of J.V. Bonhomme Blvd. and west of McLean Drive. This 26-acre parcel is due to be developed into 101 residential lots across three phases.
Other notable examples include the Shelswell Subdivision, a 51-lot development off Sony Street and Nadine Street in South Porcupine, as well as the 39-lot Park Avenue Subdivision, north of the intersection of Park Avenue and Acres Crescent.
“We’re getting a lot of new people moving into the community with De Beers and the different mines, which is nice,” Toner says. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had this healthy of an economy in Timmins.”
As some of the new population opts to rent rather than buy, income properties such as detached houses containing up to four rental units are also increasing in popularity. This is especially true as the city’s vacancy rate for rental space has been steadily decreasing in recent months, she says.
As of April, the vacancy rate was 3.5 per cent, marking a decrease from 3.8 per cent in October 2006. It also sits below the current provincial average of 3.9 per cent.
“For a long time, income property was a stagnant market, but it’s just now starting to move upwards,” Toner says.
The average cost of construction for a new home runs between $215,000 and $225,000, with most new lots being sold for $40,000 to $45,000. Toner says these costs are to be expected given the rising cost of transporting supplies due to the high price of gas and the increased demand for contractors.
This flurry of construction has also increased construction costs to nearly $150 per square foot, making additions and alterations more attractive to existing homeowners, Jensen says.
With 104 permits submitted this year to date for this kind of renovation work, the total is above the 95 seen in the same period last year, and at $1,061,969, the value of such permits is also nearly $200,000 more.
“With Home Depot and some of our other home building centres, people are starting to look at their own houses and doing some of this kind of work themselves because it’s likely to be cheaper than buying a new home,” Jensen says.
“This results in collecting building permit revenue and increasing the assessment base of the municipality, so it’s all good for the city.”
