Why buy a house in Canada when you can buy a castle in Europe for the same price – best2daynews

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Housing affordability has been a concern for many Canadians hoping to purchase homes amid increasing prices. Though the average price of a home has fallen year-over-year, prices in most major cities have increased for four months in a row, according to data released from The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) on Monday.

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The average price of a house in Canada was $716,083 in April, CREA data showed, which is an increase of over $100,000 since the beginning of the year.

For the same price, one can purchase “literal European castles” and private islands, a TikToker by the username Millennial Moron noted in a series of viral videos.

In one video garnering over 3.2 million views, he compares a two-bedroom property in Toronto’s Kensington neighbourhood costing $2,850,000 to a $2,852,340 20-bedroom castle situated on five acres of land in Scotland.

The Orchardton Castle houses 45 rooms, a cinema, library, more than 30 fireplaces spread out over four floors, and contains three full self-contained flats. The massive property also has botanic gardens and woodland, a large pond and paddock, a stable block and a private beach.

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For the price of a two-bedroom house in Kitchener listed at $1,800,000 — or as an assembly with three other lots on 25,000 square feet of land at $10,200,000 — buyers can purchase a $1,850,000 lake-facing Swedish castle on nearly four acres of land.

“Here is your opportunity to get involved and break ground in one of Ontario’s fastest growing, and certainly one of the most ‘hip’ communities in the region,” the listing said.

TikTok user Millennial Moron joked that “even the listing agent put hip in quotation marks.”

In another video amassing over 700,000 views on TikTok, he makes the comparison between a three-bedroom house listed at $4,600,000 in Vancouver’s Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood and “if you want to save a little money,” a $4.4 million castle in Otterbun, England.

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Should a buyer be interested in purchasing the property in Grandview-Woodland to rebuild on the land, the owner would still only be allowed to construct a duplex, as per the zoning laws.

“The only way you can build a higher density on this type of property is if you do 100 per cent social housing,” he clarifies. “What do you think the odds of that are.”

Contrarily, the Otterbun Castle sits on 32 acres of land and has 22,000 square feet of living space, including 17 en-suite bedrooms. A fresh water spring can also be found on the property with fishing rights for more than three miles on the River Rede.

“We are, at the end of the day, in an affordability crisis and we have to wake up,” CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal told The Financial Post.