TrickyRicky
Senior Member
Personally, unless you are very comfortable with a local partner or you buy within an arranged structure I would not suggest investing in real estate far from where you live. I'm not saying that people don't make good money this way, but I personally think out of sight means out of pocket.
In my opinion if you are a new investor and want to try to generate capital gains in the next few years, forget it the party is over. End of story. Don't buy. Anywhere. Period.
If you are attempting to generate income returns you will always generate higher returns in smaller Ontario communities. Toronto commands the lowest income returns (although high by international standards) because of the volume of competition and the relative level of sophistication. Unfortunately with the higher rate of returns in smaller Ontario communities comes higher risk of economic hardship in their less diversified economies. Stick to college and university towns. Resort and manufacturing towns are the worst investments.
If you do buy, keep in mind the notion of redundancy. If your portfolio consists of one one bedroom condo unit, you have zero redundancy. A vacany in your unit represents loss of 100% of your income. If you buy a duplex house (house with two units) or a commercial building with residential units above, even if the rent is the same as the one bedroom condo unit, you afford yourself less risk because vacancy still leaves you with income.
In my opinion if you are a new investor and want to try to generate capital gains in the next few years, forget it the party is over. End of story. Don't buy. Anywhere. Period.
If you are attempting to generate income returns you will always generate higher returns in smaller Ontario communities. Toronto commands the lowest income returns (although high by international standards) because of the volume of competition and the relative level of sophistication. Unfortunately with the higher rate of returns in smaller Ontario communities comes higher risk of economic hardship in their less diversified economies. Stick to college and university towns. Resort and manufacturing towns are the worst investments.
If you do buy, keep in mind the notion of redundancy. If your portfolio consists of one one bedroom condo unit, you have zero redundancy. A vacany in your unit represents loss of 100% of your income. If you buy a duplex house (house with two units) or a commercial building with residential units above, even if the rent is the same as the one bedroom condo unit, you afford yourself less risk because vacancy still leaves you with income.