“For years, I’ve been on this journey of trying to find a cottage that would work for us,” she said.
But Evanoff and her husband didn’t want to incur the burden of constant cottage maintenance, spending vacation days fixing decks and pruning trees. They opted instead to rent over the years, still hoping to one day buy.
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Co-ownership is an option for cottage buyers
Then, it happened. They found a cottage not too far from home for a fraction of the price they thought they’d have to pay, thanks to fractional ownership.
Also called co-ownership, it allows people to buy a share of a property with others, whether it’s family, friends or even strangers.
Affordability sits at the heart of fractionally owned cottages. Many Canadians still find themselves priced out of the market, even as cottage prices have declined from peaks seen during the pandemic.
Re/Max brokers and agents anticipate a national average price increase of about 1.8% across the Canadian recreational market in 2025, a May report by the real estate firm, showed.
On their first visit to check out a prospective cottage last fall, Evanoff recalled walking into a lake-facing cottage with large windows at Frontenac Shores in Cloyne, Ont., about 300 kilometres northeast of Toronto, and was sold.
“We sat in these Muskoka chairs on the beach and our feet are in the water, and I just felt the stress shredding off me,” she said. “This is the dream that I’ve been dreaming for all these years … and this is within reach.”
