107
Winter 2014
Escarpment Magazine
When we invest in something, we expect a return.
Pretty basic right? In real estate,
there are 2 basic types of return. Return ON your money (how much does your money earn?), and return
OF your money (will the principle I have invested grow over time?). These returns are always expressed as
percentages or as dollar values, right? Wrong.
In ski country or “up north” as it is commonly described, a big part of our market is a discretionary one. In a
very good number of cases, people do not HAVE to buy…they WANT to buy. What bridges the divide be-
tween wanting to buy and actually buying? This is the all-important third rate of return...Lifestyle, and it can’t
be expressed as a percentage, nor can a monetary value be assigned to it. The irony is that, historically, peo-
ple who have invested in recreational property in Ontario have done very well indeed. The return OF their
money has been consistent, and profitable.
There are two significant and different parts of this discretionary real
estate market in the area of Collingwood, Blue Mountain, Meaford
and Beaver Valley. People who are buying strictly for the sake of
recreation, and those who are thinking about where they may want to
live right now, or when they hang it all up in a few years. The former
is what my parents were when they bought “The Farm” in the early
1980s, and the latter is what my parents later became.
There are a lot of places in our lovely province where one can recreate.
There are other places that you can ski, sail, golf, hike, bike, snowshoe,
wine and dine. The magic of our area is that you can do all of these
things and so much more in one place. Starting with visionaries like the
famous Jozo Weider, Gord Canning, and continued by Intrawest, the
Village at Blue has grown from a winter-oriented destination, to the
biggest 4-season resort area in the province. Certainly, the amenities of
the area are not confined to the escarpment. Smaller scale, community-
driven projects such as The Georgian Trail that runs from Collingwood
to Meaford draw a crowd in all 4 seasons. And golf! The proliferation
of golf in the area over the last 10 years has been stunning.
What is the net result of this massive investment in recreational pursuits
big and small? Lifestyle.
The investment in amenities, both public and private, indoor and out-
door, winter and summer, spring and fall has been going on for years.
Take the growth of skiing as an example. When I first started coming
up here in the winters of the early 1980s, our choices were skiing or
maybe cross country skiing. Now you can hardly fit all of the activities
into a day. Downhill skiing in the morning and a vigorous snowshoe
in the afternoon? Cross-country at Kolapore or Duntroon, followed
by lunch at The RavennaGeneral Store, or Mylar and Loretta’s? Shop-
ping in the Village at Blue followed by a shot down the Mountain
Coaster? But don’t forget the après ski with friends and dinner with
another group of friends. Maybe a family dinner at the Alphorn is
more your speed, but whatever it is, it is a decision you have made
with lifestyle at the front of your mind. For many, the occasional week-
end is enough, but for so many Buyers, a real estate investment is less
of a financial investment consideration, and more of an investment in
lifestyle. Though make no mistake…Today’s Buyer is a shrewd student
of the market.
*
escarpment
®
REAL ESTATE
MARKET
watch
by
Desmond von Teichman
Broker of Record,
Owner Royal Le Page
Locations North Realty, Brokerage
