Economy news

(Photography by Nicolas Koff/Office Ou)
In 2008, David and Nadine Koff—both radiologists—were living in Toronto when David got a job offer from McMaster University. To avoid a long commute, they decided to move to Hamilton, where they purchased a small two-bedroom home. Then the couple discovered the Japanese concept of “shinrin-yoku,” or forest bathing, which is the practice of nature immersion. They read studies reporting certain health benefits, including boosted immun

(Photography by Nathan Cyprys)
Jim Turner and Craig Daniel first visited Prince Edward County together in the late 1990s, staying with friends who rented a farmhouse every year. In Toronto, Turner co-owned an events and communications firm, and Daniel worked in HR. Coming from their hectic lives, the couple fell in love with the County’s peaceful setting and eclectic population. In 2012, they decided to buy a place. They looked at some 90 properties in the area, finally settling on a small

(Photography by Adrien Williams)
The Montreal-based architect Maxime Frappier grew up on a 5,000-tree apple orchard near Franklin, Quebec, where he climbed branches and played with his siblings in apple crates. Even at a young age, he loved the neat rows of trees in the orchard and how they blossomed with flowers in the spring. Decades later, these memories came back to him when he set out to build a weekend home for his family in Saint-Donat, an hour and a half north of Montreal. For years, dur

(Photography by Ema Peter/Westbank)
Vancouver’s soaring skyline tells the story of Canada’s race to blanket the real estate market with residential units—no fewer than five new high-rises are expected to pop up in Metro Vancouver by 2027. Last June, a curvy newcomer emerged, proving that high density and high design can, in fact, mix. The Alberni is a 43-storey, gravity-defying build, home to 181 apartments, with studios starting at $1.2 million. When units went up for sale in

(Photography courtesy of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada)
In L’Assomption, a town of 23,000 people located 50 kilometres north of Montreal, stands a stone castle—known, unsurprisingly, as the Stone Castle. The place was only built about 50 years ago, but looks like a Romanesque structure from medieval Europe, with painted ceilings, a stately dining room surrounded by textured archways and a 30-foot-tall turret. All of it, she thought, was reminiscent of the Romanesque str

(Photography courtesy of Sotheby’s International Realty Québec)
Montreal entrepreneur Denis Dumas doesn’t tackle projects half-heartedly. He spent 18 years transforming a 2,800-square-foot, California-style house with 360-degree views into a mini beach resort. He calls it “Cuba in Quebec”: a vacationland with a karaoke stage, a full cabana and tiki bar, an indoor cocktail station and even palm trees.READ: This opulent Toronto home looks like a 17th-century Fr

(Photography by Nathan Cyprys)
Artist Eve Gordon will never forget the grandiose European designs she saw during her summer in France in the 1970s. Her parents had sent her to do a French course in Montpellier; while on a biking tour around the countryside, she was amazed by the hand-painted walls and carved wooden mouldings in local churches, homes and gardens. “I felt like I belonged there,” she says.
During university, Gordon began painting flowers. In 1976, she moved to Paris and

Hayley Shaughnessy standing in front of her “very Newfoundland-y” clapboard home St. John’s. (Photography by Johnny C. Y. Lam)
The buyer: Hayley Shaughnessy, a 32-year-old communications consultant
The budget: $325,000
The backstory: In October of 2019, the Toronto-based public relations agency where Shaughnessy was working decided to hold its next company retreat in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The city’s overwhelmingly friendly vibe impressed Shaughnessy right away.