Victoria Preston thought her first step into the housing market would be a condo in Toronto, where she lives. Instead, her entry point into home ownership was a cottage in Kawartha Lakes, about 90 minutes outside of the city. She was then in her early 20s and trying to break into real estate, but a two-bedroom condo would have stretched her finances thin. "You just don't really get a lot of bang for your buck," said Ms. Preston, now 26.
After browsing listings, she found something unexpected: a waterfront property in cottage country that cost roughly the same as a two-bedroom unit in the city, but came with more land and rental potential. She bought the property in 2023 with her brother for about $700,000 and now rents it out most of the year. She has since purchased another cottage nearby that she also rents out, while setting aside time to use both properties personally. The income from those properties, combined with her job in finance, helped her afford a two-bedroom condo in Toronto earlier this year.
"Having the additional cash-flow income from the two rental properties makes a big difference," she said. "It just made me a lot more confident financially."
For many young Canadians, the traditional path to home ownership feels out of reach. While affordability pressures have forced some buyers out of major urban markets, the dream of ownership has not disappeared. Instead, some prospective buyers are turning to recreational properties. Some young Canadians see cottages, known mainly as summer homes, as a more affordable gateway to home ownership.
According to a recent survey from Remax Canada, nearly half of prospective Canadian buyers view recreational property as an entry point into the broader housing market. Among Canadians aged 18 to 34, more than half say recreational properties play a role in their long-term financial plans, compared with just 30 per cent of Canadians 35 and older. The survey was conducted in late March and polled about 1,700 Canadians aged 18 and up.
"There's been a lot of talk that affordability is going to kill the dream of ownership," Don Kottick, president of Remax Canada, said in an interview. The interest in recreational properties "highlights the creative ways that people will go to attain that dream of ownership in Canada."
Although home prices have eased in recent months as economic uncertainty sidelines some buyers, costs remain high in many major cities. The average home selling price in the Greater Toronto Area was down 4.9 per cent in April from the year prior but still stood at $1,051,969. In the southern Georgian Bay region, realtor Mike Kearns said he is seeing growing interest from younger buyers looking at recreational properties because they feel locked out of traditional city centres. "Many of them are priced out of the neighbourhoods where they either want to be or need to be, but they still want to get into the market," he said.
The cottage market itself has also changed since the pandemic-era boom, when bidding wars and soaring prices transformed many recreational regions. Many retirees are looking to sell their property or pass it on to their children, which could free up more cottage inventory that might, over time, improve affordability for younger buyers. And in the short term, an influx of listings has pushed many cottage markets into buyer's markets. In an analysis of 21 recreational markets across Canada, Remax found that more than half are expected to remain buyer's markets in 2026, while roughly one-third are expected to be balanced markets.
For some buyers, the appeal lies in flexibility. Many live in their cottages full-time, while others rent them out for most of the year and continue living in the city. Those living in their recreational properties typically work remote jobs, brokers said. But financial planners and brokers caution that recreational properties are not always the easy wealth-building strategy they may appear to be. The continuing costs of cottage ownership can catch buyers off guard, said Anita Latner, who operates a real estate brokerage in Muskoka. Maintenance, repairs and property management costs can add up quickly, particularly for owners trying to manage a property from afar. According to the Remax survey, 40 per cent of Canadians said they would struggle to afford the maintenance costs if they inherited a family recreational property.
Ms. Preston said she factored maintenance costs into her rental income structure and hired a local property manager and cleaning team to help oversee the cottages. Additionally, while being a first-time buyer doesn't prevent someone from purchasing an investment property, most government incentives and land transfer tax rebates are typically designed for homes that will be occupied as primary residences. Chris Poole, a certified financial planner at Sun Life, said buying a property, whether for rental income or to live in, needs to fit into a long-term financial plan. He said many of his younger clients remain interested in owning property but are first focusing on career growth and maximizing savings through vehicles such as tax-free savings accounts. "There's a number of places that you can still grow your money, or still generate income, that don't need to be exclusively real estate," he said.
