City stays in Top 10 for buys in Real Estate
By: Michael-Allan Marion, Brantford Expositor
The city has made a list of top 10 Ontario communities for real estate investors for the third year in a row.
Brantford made it onto the list of Top Ontario Investment Towns for the first time in 2007. It placed fifth in a ranking that included perennial favourites Ottawa, Hamilton, Barrie, Orillia, Brampton and Toronto. It held its position last year, sharing it with Hamilton.
This year, it slipped to seventh, possibly a reflection of the economic fallout of the native land claims dispute and battles over ownership during the past year, and an uncertain industrial base marked by plant closings.
Still, Mayor Mike Hancock said Friday he is pleased to see Brantford still on the list.
"It's nice to get that kind of recognition," he said. "Given the economy and the native protests, it's been a very difficult year.
"But the fact that we're still there and in some very company is just confirmation of what I've believed for a long time: Brantford is a community with the right attitude, the right skills, the drive, the vision. It has all of that and the right location between two U. S. borders, at Windsor and Niagara Falls."
But, just as Brantford has its economic woes, many places in Ontario are also suffering in the economic downturn, says Don Campbell, president of the Real Estate Investment Network, which produces the rankings.
"Despite today's continuing market turmoil, our research indicates that there are more buying opportunities now than in the last few years, meaning more investment options and better yields," he wrote in the report.
"With today's mixed market signals, it is critical that investors and homebuyers complete that extra level of due diligence," he said, noting a major change from the rising markets of a year ago where it was hard to lose money.
"Now we get back to market reality where economic fundamentals, not speculation, will once again play the key role in whether a property increases or drops in value."
Over the long term, the economic fundamentals of the "key" regions on the list will help their property values dramatically out-perform other regions of the province, he said.
The report's analysis deals in the long term. Brantford originally made the list because it was seen as a community transforming itself, with older manufacturing concerns closing but quickly being replaced by newer, more modern industry.
Other factors included the growth of post-secondary education campuses, the city's strategic location near other larger centres and more affordable housing.
All those factors were still part of the report's ranking for the city this year.
Top of the list was the "technology triangle" communities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge. Hamilton moved to second place from fifth last year. The Simcoe Shores cities of Barrie and Orillia came I third, while Brampton was a close fourth.
Below Brantford was Toronto in eight spot, while Vaughan and Whitchurch-Stouffville brought up the rear.
