The pandemic is driving some curious real estate trends as a combination of working from home and restrictions on travel is driving people to look at more rural areas. The demand for locations off the beaten path has led to bidding wars in cottage country that many agents have rarely seen.

Billy Wilson and Rachel Carl live in Delhi, about an hour’s drive east of London. Like many, the couple have been looking for a cottage to get in touch with nature. The trouble is, they are not alone.

“There’s a lot of people interested in the same idea that we have,” said Wilson, noting the couple had looked at close to a dozen cottages, only to find bidding wars on each one.

They put in an offer on one location, only to lose it by being outbid by just $1,500.

“I was heartbroken,” said Wilson.

Wilson and Carl were finally successful in their search for a cottage, buying on a lake outside of Bancroft. While that cottage was also the subject of a bidding war, they were successful without the highest bid. Their secret? Developing a relationship with the cottage’s original owner.

“She really wanted someone to carry on what her and her husband had with the place,” said Wilson.

While the circumstances with their successful sale may be unique, Wilson and Carl’s experience with a frustrating search isn’t in the age of COVID-19.

A local agent, covering a region spanning from the Kawarthas to Bancroft, said when the pandemic began, there were major concerns about the market, as things slowed down. When northern regions were reopened sooner than Toronto, things quickly changed.

“They all started coming up here,” she said. “What I’m noticing is retirees actually taking retirement early and moving up here full-time.”

She is also noticing an influx of younger couples in their early 30s who are working from home, choosing to make their home office next to a lake.

She said that in 2017, there was a similar boom in cottage real estate, but “it’s crazier now than it ever has been.” Most cottages, she said, are selling with between five and 10 offers - they are selling about $50,000 to $100,000 over the asking price.

The cottages themselves are already listed on the market for about $500,000 she said, with the bidding wars adding about a 10 per cent increase. And that, Price noted, is what gets the average buyer a rustic, traditional cottage. She said the starting price point was around $350,000, but those locations don’t have year-round road and water access, or the best swimming features.

While there has been a large influx of urban buyers as a result of the pandemic, she thinks the trend could just as easily reverse in time.

“Some of these people might get bored and we might see them migrate back to the city in a couple of years,” she said.