r/OttawaRealEstate

It is a 3-bedroom, 4-bathroom freehold Minto Helmsley model with a finished basement, custom wooden electric sauna, extended interlock driveway, backyard patio, owned hot water tank, and furnace replaced 4 years ago.

Located near shopping, parks, schools, recreation, transit, and major routes.

Listing link: https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/29622142/322-foxridge-way-ottawa-7709-barrhaven-strandherd

I wonder if anyone is familiar with Sunter Homes as an organization.

Indeed just pushed a job notification for a junior PM role with them and I think I would be a very good fit. If I could get the higher range of the posted salary it would be more money and residential construction is what all my experience is in.

The fly in the ointment is that Indeed has pushed this notification multiple times over the last two years. Leads me to believe either a) they have some ridiculous high standards and have been trying to fill this position forever or b) they're just burning through junior PMs. Their whole team only seems to be like 8 people. Sunter Homes has a 5 rating on Google but obviously that would be for their builds. My experience is that it's hard to deliver a good product with a toxic team but...still, it's weird to me that this job posting is perpetually up.

Any insights?

Assignment Opportunity **BY OWNER**: Brand New Caivan Stacked Townhome, Orleans Village Ottawa, 2026 Occupancy

OAST1202 upper stacked townhome at 1469 Cerceau Private.
2 bed plus den, main bath plus powder room. No one above you, great light.

Over $8,500 in upgrades already selected and locked in:

Quartz counters throughout, laminate flooring (no carpet), upgraded kitchen backsplash and bathroom tile, extended vanity, matte black hardware, upgraded doors. Frigidaire kitchen appliances plus Electrolux washer and dryer included.

The deal:

Due to a change in personal circumstances I can no longer complete this purchase and need to transfer it before occupancy.

Purchase price $400,801 all in (HST included, incentive already applied). $34,657 in deposits are already paid into the builder's trust account and credited toward the price at closing, so you skip the deposit schedule entirely.

I am not looking to recover my deposit. I am asking $5,000 plus your own legal transfer fees to take over the agreement. My priority is a clean, quick assignment, not maximizing return.

Handled lawyer to lawyer through Caivan's counsel. Full agreement, upgrade list, and floor plans available on request.

Serious buyers, DM me (Anne) and I will send everything over.

Hello, we are looking at a new build in Ottawa and one of the lots we're considering has a northwest-facing backyard.

We've always heard that south-facing is ideal, so we're a bit unsure about the northwest exposure. For those of you who have lived in a house with a northwest-facing backyard, what has your experience been like? Would love to hear some real life experiences. Thanks!

I’m looking at buying a townhouse in Ottawa and trying to figure out what I should be paying attention to.

For anyone who bought one recently, what areas would you recommend? Are townhomes a good move right now, or would you look at something else?

I’m also looking for a realtor who knows the area and can point out red flags, not only send listings. Any advice or recommendations?

I am looking for Dual Key Homes. Minto have a very nice model but only will be delivered in 2028. Purpose is to rent the basement for investment.

I am more looking for a recent property. I believe Mattamy have options that I could convert the basement, adding a 2nd entry and add a Kitchen.

Any idea? Or another builder? How much could it cost to convert a basement?

Hi everyone, my spouse and I moved here four plus years ago and are considering buying sometime in Q1 2027. A peek into our circumstances:

I currently make a little over a 100k, while my spouse makes around $ 30k (taxable income based on tax) from freelance/gig work. (I know, ideally, we should wait until they find a permanent job, but the job market has been quite unkind to them despite their qualifications, though they are still applying and we are hoping for the best).

We currently rent at 2600 monthly, but our landlord has increased our rent by at least 250 annually in the last two years, and we suspect he'll do the same next year. (Home doesn't qualify for rent control)

We have about 70k in savings plus an additional 30k in RRSP. Haven't done much saving in 2025 because we had a baby and took parental leave, resulting in a significant income reduction.Outside of parental leave, monthly take-home for us usually comes to around 9k-ish. Our only debt is our monthly car payment of about 500 monthly.

With the new home rebate, buying a new place looks appealing, especially when we consider that our rent is likely to increase again next year. We love our neighborhood and have built a fairly decent village for ourselves here, plus our older kid is thriving in school and we found daycare in the neighborhood for our little one as well.

We know rent is the maximum you'll pay, and mortgage is the minimum, but the numbers look good for us when we run them. Also, seeing how much prices have dropped in the last two years makes it feel like now is the time to lock in, who knows how soon before prices go crazy again.

Curious to read thoughts, advice etc.

I’m looking at a house in Stittsville, Ontario. The main unit has 5 bedrooms and 3.5 baths across the first and second floor. The basement is a legal 2‑bed unit with its own living room, separate kitchen, washer/dryer, and a private side entry. The builder is finishing the basement as part of the purchase.

A few details:

• Basement size: 950 sq ft

• Main unit: 2840 sq ft

• Lot size: 35 ft

• Basement tenant would get their own mailbox

• I’d offer one parking spot on the driveway

• Purchase price: $1.07M

• Location: Westwood area (Stittsville)

My main question is whether this is a good investment overall, and what kind of rent I can realistically expect for the legal 2‑bed basement in this area.

Anyone familiar with Stittsville/Westwood rental demand or similar setups - would appreciate your thoughts.

Also, how difficult is it to get a house rented in this area?

Hello!

I am a first-time homebuyer interested in townhomes in central neighbourhoods (Hintonburg, Westboro).

With a maximum budget of $950K (and being most comfortable below $850K), the options with nice layouts in these areas often come up to be condo townhomes.

Sometimes the condo fees are $500-900 or above depending on the age. Does anyone have experience with these? Particularly the Minto developments off of Lanark and others off of Richmond road. What are some things to know or to avoid if I decide to go the condo townhome route?

Edit: I appreciate all of the comments. I am considering any feedback including negative (or positive) condo townhome experiences, and reasons to aim for freeholds :)

I’m about to book a house in Stittsville and I’m trying to understand one thing about the lot.

The house has a sidewalk in front and there’s a fire hydrant between my place and my neighbour’s, right in the small strip between the road and the sidewalk.

I’m curious if this setup affects resale value in any real way.

I know there are a couple of positives: lower insurance and no one can park in front of my house, which honestly is great because street parking can get annoying.

Just wondering if anyone has experience with this and whether buyers see hydrants + front sidewalks as a downside or if it doesn’t really matter.

Hi everyone,

Just wondering if anyone else here purchased a freehold townhouse in Richmond Fox Run and is dealing with repeated construction delays.

We signed our purchase agreement in January 2025, with an original closing date of January 2026. Since then, our closing has been delayed three times, and we’re now being told January 2027. That’s a full two-year wait, and we’re still not confident the home will actually be ready by then.

To make things more frustrating, our agreement apparently doesn’t allow us to terminate until May 2027, even if there are further delays.

Is anyone else in the same situation?

I’m thinking of putting my house for sale in Rockland later this year. I know it’s close to Ottawa, but it feels like the market can be a bit different out there compared to Orleans or the city. Mostly wondering if it matters to use someone who knows Rockland specifically, or if any Ottawa realtor with east-end experience is fine

Anyone sold there recently and had a good or bad experience?

Hello, I am looking to purchase a cottage, with electric and water, on a lake within 2 hours of Ottawa, in Ontario.

Any suggestions on the best lakes for my search?

We’re thinking about selling our place in Ottawa later this year and I’m starting to look into agents.

I’m more concerned about pricing it properly than getting a big sales pitch. Market feels slower than a couple years ago, so I’d rather work with someone who is straight about what needs fixing and what strategy makes sense.

Has anyone sold recently and had a good experience with a realtor?

I am a non-first time buyers, looking to purchase a pre-con that is around $1.1M. I am confused about the rebate, it says that rebate is $130k max for properties valuing up to 1M, then between 1.1-1.5M, they is a scale.

I was told by the builder’s assistant that the initial $24K tax rebate applied to first time homes would be added back and then the 13% would be applied. I am trying to budget and understand my financial obligations before I sign up, but I am getting confused.

Would my rebate calculation be:

Base home price $1.1M

Rebate calculation: 1.1M+$24K%1.13%? That’s $98,345 not $130K

What am I doing wrong? Thank you for helping me understand

Looking to get the townhome in Kanata with Mattamy. Looking to get the feedback from people having their recent move-ins the area. What you like/dislike about the community? Your experience with the builder and any other stuff.
P.S.: If anyone looking to buy in the same area feel free to ping me since they have a referral program where we both get $5k. Cheers!

I’m looking to buy property but I have no clue what to do anymore. As a single person (likely forever, no kids ever) in my late 30s F with a dog. I work from home. I would like to buy something small with a backyard. Ideally I would be located in a core neighbourhood - Westboro/hintonburg/glebe/OOS/OOE/New Edinburg/Britannia or at least close to the Ottawa river.

This is seeming to be impossible on a ~$600k budget. Yes there’s condos but the fees are a lot and the trade offs with a dog are big. I don’t want a lot of land for yard maintenance. I don’t want a fixer upper at all. I love a boutique condo building that’s easy to take my dog for a walk. The trade off for a backyard would be easy access to the outside. I’m loving the idea of a nice bungalow with a backyard.

Outside of these core areas, are there any other areas within or around Ottawa that are enjoyable for a single person? I’ve found some really nice, affordable bungalows but they’re in heavy suburban areas, far from the core, close to typically bad streets or just have zero walkability.

I don’t need to be in the “trendy” areas, but do other neighbourhoods that have nice walking areas, coffee shops, single people, a sense of community even exist?

Is Vanier still a write off? I’m guessing the closer to Beechwood the better. What about Bayshore area closer to the water? My big thing is walking my dog alone at night every day, and not being isolated in the suburbs when my friends and family are all in the core.

TL;DR - I was iffy on the kitchen in a new build and the sales rep talked me up about how I could upgrade it no problem. Only to be told at the design center that I could make absolutely no changes to my kitchen layout whatsoever.

Maybe this whole thing is fairly obvious to someone who has bought a home before, but as a first time homebuyer this took me by surprise. I was looking to purchase my first home from Minto, and their Avenue townhomes really appealed to me from a price perspective for a single guy looking to buy his first place. However the kitchen was quite small. Basically an apartment sized kitchen. An opening that only accommodates a 33" fridge, just one cabinet width of counter space on either side of the oven, and an island.

I don't need a massive kitchen and I know the limitations of my budget, but I did want a bit more. I mentioned the kitchen being a bit small to the saleswoman and she immediately put my worries to rest by telling me that this would be absolutely no problem to change. She even started laying out all the things I could do with the design center, like extending the kitchen into the dead space of the living area by adding more cabinets and counter space, and even talked about how I could get them to install a pantry cabinet and expand the fridge opening to have nicer appliances.

It all sounded great, and she talked to me for several minutes about the benefits of extending my counters and how all these things that I wanted could be handled by the design center, easy! Just an upgrade fee here or there.

Well to my surprise, when I went for my design appointment and mentioned to my design specialist that I wanted to expand my fridge opening from 33" to 36", she looked at me and said "we can't make any changes to your layout". I was pretty surprised, since it seems like a pretty easy change to make, but she reaffirmed no, absolutely no changes could be made to the kitchen layout in my home. I then asked about the counters, and she said no, those couldn't be expanded either under any circumstances.

Needless to say it was pretty disappointing. I'd been working under the assumption that I would be putting some extra money into the kitchen to make it a bit nicer for months, only to be told that under no circumstances could I make any changes when I finally showed up for my appointment.

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, after all I'm buying a "poor person home" from a corporate builder, but I figured the sales team wouldn't misinform me so much. It likely wouldn't have changed my buying decision if I knew the truth, but it remains disappointing, even if it's saving me thousands of dollars. Just thought I'd share here in case anyone else gets misled by a sales rep.

Looking for a realtor in Orleans

Starting to look at homes in Orleans and wondering if it’s better to use someone who really knows the area. Mostly concerned about neighbourhood knowledge and not feeling rushed into offers.

Anyone have good or bad experiences, or things you wish you knew before picking a realtor?