These are the hottest neighbourhoods for real estate in the Greater Toronto Area

The hottest neighbourhoods for real estate across the GTA regularly see overbidding on homes.

It has been a sluggish year for the real estate market in southern Ontario. There are several examples of homes selling for a loss or well under the list price.

A home in Brampton just sold for a $520,000 loss in November and another Brampton home sold for a $487,000 loss in September. A home sold for $700,000 under the asking price in Mississauga in October.

But there are pockets where homes regularly sell for over the asking price.

A new report from digital real estate platform Wahi found five of the hottest neighbourhoods where overbidding on homes was the highest in 2024.

Toronto’s Danforth, Richmond Hill’s Rouge Woods, and a trio of Markham communities, Milliken Mills West, Raymerville, and Victoria Square, have appeared on Wahi’s top five most overbid neighbourhoods ranking for three separate months this year, the most of any of the approximately 400 neighbourhoods the platform tracks.

The monthly ranking is based on the differences between list and sold prices, and only includes neighbourhoods with at least five transactions, Wahi said.

Wahi spoke to real estate experts in each neighbourhood to find out why homes are selling for over asking.

The Danforth, Toronto

September was the third and final time this year that the Danforth was among Wahi’s monthly ranking of the most overbid neighbourhoods. At the time, homes sold for a median price of $1,110,000.

The primary driver of bidding competition in the Danforth was the location said Nadia Cawley, a realtor with Right at Home Realty.

“It’s really the convenience of the area,” Cawley told Wahi. “It’s close to DVP, it’s close to downtown, the subway stations are usually within walking distance of the properties, and, not only that, there are tonnes of restaurants and cafes — it’s a really diverse neighbourhood.”

Some buyers have capitalized on houses that are fixer-uppers, which can still be purchased for less than $1 million in the neighbourhood, Cawley said. After a proper renovation, these homes can sell for between $1.2 to $1.5 million, she said.

She also suggested some overbidding is the function of properties that were listed too low to begin with.

“It’s a strategy that most agents use to list low and then expecting multiple offers on an assigned presentation date,” Cawley said.

Milliken Mills West, Markham

Of the frequently overbid neighbourhoods in the GTA, Milliken Mills West is the most recent to appear in Wahi’s monthly top five. In November, the neighbourhood had a median sale price of $1,603,000 and a median overbid amount of just over $200,000.

Deven Chen, a realtor at Avion Realty Inc., said Milliken Mills West has fared better than many other neighbourhoods during the broader real estate downturn.

“From my point of view, it has to do with two things — one is location,” Chen said. The area, which borders northern Toronto, is loaded with nearby amenities, including Pacific Mall, restaurants, shops and it’s connected to public transit. “It’s super convenient for a lot of people.”

The other thing Milliken Mills has going for it is the price point. Single-family homes are available in the $1 to $1.5 million range, which is still attainable for a number of households even amid higher borrowing costs.

“In a slow real estate market you still have buyers… but these buyers generally come with restricted budgets,” said Chen.

Looking ahead, he expects these factors will help Milliken Mills continue to recover faster than many others.

Raymerville, Markham

Raymerville was one of Wahi’s top overbidding neighbourhoods for three months running, a streak that ended in October.

Christopher LaFace, a broker at HomeLife Excelsior Realty Inc., Brokerage, said bidding activity in Raymerville is largely influenced by listing strategies.

“More often than not, the original price point is undervalued,” LaFace said.

Listing a home below market value is one way sellers can try to attract more bids. In these cases, a home may sell above asking, but the final price is more reflective of its actual value rather than a situation where buyers are overpaying amid strong demand, he noted. The strategy is not unique to Raymerville or Markham in general, LeFace said.

Wahi analysts also note that the median price of homes that have recently sold in Raymerville is on the higher end for the GTA. This can result in a larger dollar-amount difference between list and sold prices even if on a percentage basis, Raymerville is no more overbid than lower-priced neighbourhoods.

Current demand in Raymerville is for turnkey properties, especially those with finished basements, LeFace said. With the number of listings on the market elevated, buyers are pickier, and higher mortgage rates have some looking for help with the carrying costs, something a basement rental can provide.

Rouge Woods, Richmond Hill

As recently as August, Rouge Woods was a leading GTA neighbourhood for overbidding, when the median sale price was $1,606,944 and the median overbid amount reached a jaw-dropping $123,000.

“It’s because it’s cheaper than Toronto,” Gregory Stavropoulos, a realtor with Century 21 New Concept Brokerage. “Affordability is the key throughout the GTA.”

Stavropoulos noted townhomes are selling because of the price.

Rouge Woods is close to Highway 404, making it a convenient place for commuters to the city to put down roots.

A realtor of 40 years, Stavropoulos also suspects agents are listing homes in Rouge Woods at unrealistically low prices to try and drum up more bids. In the broader context, the market has been sluggish since interest rates began climbing in 2022, he says, and there certainly aren’t the bidding wars witnessed during the previous peak.

Nevertheless, he’s beginning to see positive signs of a turnaround.

“The higher-end homes in Rouge Woods… are starting to move,” he told Wahi. “Buyers are slowly starting to trickle back but we’ve got a long road to recovery.”

Victoria Square, Markham

Bidding activity peaked in Victoria Square this February, when the median overbid amount reached $255,100, the third-highest amount recorded in any neighbourhood this year. Percentage-wise, the overbid amount translated to a whopping 20 per cent difference between sold and list prices.

It also cracked the top five in March and May, respectively. Although it has been absent from the ranking since, Valerie Guo, sales person with Superstars Realty, said she’s seeing more signs of activity of late.

“The market is getting a little bit better than two or three months ago,” Guo said.

The quality of homes in Victoria Square has led to stiffer bidding competition in the neighbourhood compared to many other places.

A high number of listings on the market in the Greater Toronto Area has given buyers a lot of choice in general, putting pressure on sellers. But that’s less of an issue in Victoria Square, which has a high concentration of new builds — which happens to be what many of today’s buyers are looking for, she said.

“They want the property to be fully renovated… and they don’t need to put money to renew them,” she said. “That’s why the new properties are more attractive.”

See the full report from Wahi here.

Lead photo: Aakash Makwana