What does a full renovation really do to a sale price? Instead of a survey, we measured it: every MLS sale that closed in Ontario over the past 12 months, split into homes described as fully renovated (top-to-bottom — kitchen, washrooms, flooring; a "renovated kitchen" alone doesn't count) versus everything else, compared within the same city, home type and bedroom count.
The headline finding: across Ontario, fully renovated homes typically close in line with comparable local homes — the renovation mostly brings an older property up to its market, rather than commanding a windfall above it. Where renovations clearly moved the price, it was market-specific — see the city list below. Keep in mind renovated listings are usually the older housing stock, so "sells at the local median" often means the renovation closed a gap that an un-renovated equivalent would have sold under.
The premium by home type and size
Every row compares renovated and non-renovated sales inside the same city (same type, same bedrooms), then takes the typical result across cities — so a renovated home in St. Catharines is never measured against a new build in downtown Toronto. Rows without enough comparable city groups are not shown.
| Home type | Bedrooms | Median sold — renovated | Median sold — not renovated | Premium | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detached house | 3 | $652,500 | $676,000 | -2.1% | 93 reno / 4,068 · 8 cities |
| Detached house | 4+ | $877,950 | $877,500 | -0.5% | 309 reno / 18,185 · 24 cities |
| Townhouse / semi | 3 | $768,000 | $741,500 | -0.2% | 69 reno / 3,377 · 6 cities |
| Townhouse / semi | 4+ | $950,050 | $900,000 | +2.1% | 46 reno / 2,283 · 3 cities |
Where renovations moved the price most
City premium = the median of within-group comparisons (same type, same bedrooms) inside that city — markets need enough renovated sales to qualify.