RE C RE AT I O N RE P O RT
LIVE LARGE Extended families find ways to house multi generations, whether it’s large parcels of land and multiple lots or reconfiguring home layouts. By Katherine Laidlaw
KING, ON MLS N5439318
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hen Megan McLeod was looking for a farm to buy in the Muskoka region where she lives and works, she knew she wasn’t the only one searching for a large property. She was part of a broader uptick in buyers seeking properties that would accommodate multi-generational families. For McLeod, a Senior Vice-President of Sales at Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, the sprawling 10-acre farm she bought is perfect. It will allow her to keep her aging parents close by, and because the acreage is large enough — and zoned accordingly — a second, smaller home can be built on it. “My mother would be on the same property and she’d have her independence
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and space, but I’d be just steps away,” says McLeod, who is a certified home stager. For the last year and a half, she reports, there has been a trend back to bigger spaces that would house multiple generations under one roof. However, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada real estate broker® Herbie Ratsch in Quebec forewarns those on the lookout for large parcels of land with multiple dwellings on-site. According to Ratsch, they’re likely to encounter an “incredibly low supply” of such properties. But that’s not a reason to be deterred, he assures them. “Is there the perfect design right now? No. Can you build it? Yes, you can — by having multiple lots or larger parcels of land.” For example, instead of having a single
five-bedroom home, his own property in Mont-Tremblant, in the Laurentians, has a three-bedroom main house and a twobedroom antique log cabin that he restored to its former glory. Over the past two years, the rustic hideaway — replete with a stone fireplace and an elk-antler chandelier — has functioned, in turns, as guesthouse, home office and Covid-bubble accommodations,
THIS PAGE: Ideal for multi-generational households, this residence in King Township, north of Toronto, offers ample space and privacy. OPPOSITE PAGE: The open-concept layout of this home in Mont-Tremblant is geared to extended families.
