If you have been watching Clarence-Rockland listings and comparing them to Orleans or the rest of Ottawa, you have probably landed on the same number everyone else finds: a median resale price of $605,000 as of July 2026, with detached homes running a median of $655,950 and townhouses at $495,000. That number gets repeated as proof Clarence-Rockland is the value play east of the city.
Here is what that median does not tell you. A few kilometres north of downtown Rockland, a builder just opened sales on new townhomes starting at $442,389, single detached homes from $610,531, and bungalows from $613,186. Every one of those starting prices sits below the resale median for its category. New construction here is not carrying the usual premium over resale. It is undercutting it.
What "affordable alternative" actually measures
The resale median is a snapshot of homes already built, and in Clarence-Rockland that stock skews older than people assume. Roughly 40 percent of residential properties in the city were built after 2000, while a large share date back to pre-1960 and the 1960s. That mix is exactly why the median moves the way it does. It reflects decades of housing that was never designed with today's buyer in mind, priced against a much smaller pool of newer inventory.
That median also has no way to account for supply that has not closed yet. And a significant amount of new supply is on its way.
Nine villages, one very long build-out
The story starts in 2012, when Regional Group acquired roughly 400 acres on the south shore of the Ottawa River, land once known internally as the Bridgewater Lands. Clarence-Rockland Council approved the master plan in 2014, and the first phase, Clarence Crossing, launched in 2015 on the west side of Clarence Creek. That phase brought more than 200 homes, a park, and multi-use pathways, and it is effectively sold out.
The harder problem was the 350-acre parcel on the east side of the creek. Getting water and sewer service across it required two sanitary siphon sewers running 155 metres beneath the creek bed, a project that took over a decade to plan and execute. Regional Group, engineering firm Novatech, and contractor Robert Excavating completed that infrastructure in September 2025, in a milestone marked alongside Clarence-Rockland Mayor Mario Zanth. That completion is what made the next phase possible.
That next phase is The Villages at Clarence Crossing, built by eQ Homes on behalf of Regional Group. The plan calls for roughly 2,400 homes across nine distinct villages on 320 acres, organized around a 15,000-square-foot lodge that eQ's vice president of strategic growth, Tobin Kardish, has described as a resort at home. Presales for the first village, Creekside Village, opened April 25, 2026.
Kardish has also been candid that this will not happen quickly. He has said the full community is expected to build out over at least two decades, depending on demand, which means Clarence-Rockland's supply picture is going to keep shifting well past this year and next.
What the numbers actually show, side by side
| Home type | Clarence-Rockland resale median, July 2026 | The Villages starting price |
|---|---|---|
| Townhouse | $495,000 | $442,389 |
| Single detached | $655,950 (all detached) | $610,531 |
| Bungalow | $655,950 (all detached) | $613,186 |
| Multi-generational (Duo) | no direct resale equivalent | $708,761 |
For context, the Ottawa-wide benchmark price for single-family homes was $725,000 in July 2026, according to CREA's Ottawa Real Estate Board statistics. Clarence-Rockland resale already runs below that citywide figure, and new construction here runs below the local resale figure too. That is two layers of discount stacked on top of each other, which is not the typical pattern in a market where new-build premiums are the norm.
The rebate that only counts on one side of this table
Part of what makes those new-construction numbers competitive right now is a temporary policy change. The Ottawa Real Estate Board has publicly welcomed the removal of the full 13 percent HST on qualifying new home purchases, delivered through a combined federal and provincial rebate that took effect April 1. That rebate applies to new construction. It does not apply to resale.
The builder's own site is careful to note that rebate eligibility is determined solely by the Canada Revenue Agency and the Ontario Ministry of Finance, and that it may only apply to qualifying buyers. It is not automatic for every purchase, and the final numbers depend on your specific transaction. If a new-build price at The Villages looks especially attractive, confirm your own eligibility before treating that number as fixed.
Who this is actually built for
Kardish has said the range of potential buyers for The Villages is all over the map, spanning first-time buyers to move-up buyers to downsizers. Two examples he gave are worth sitting with if you are weighing Clarence-Rockland against a neighborhood closer to the city. One is a townhome owner in Orleans who wants a bigger home and can get more buying power by moving into Clarence-Rockland. The other is an owner of a two-storey home who is ready to downsize into something like a bungalow.
Both examples point to the same underlying math this post has been building toward. If your reference point for "what a home costs" is an Orleans townhouse, the entry price at The Villages is not a stretch. It may be a step down from what you already expected to pay.
The part that doesn't show up in the price list
None of this means new construction is simply the better deal with no tradeoff. The tradeoff is time. Construction on Creekside Village, the first of the nine planned villages, is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2027, with homes ready for move-in by the end of 2027. The Village Lodge itself, the amenity space anchoring the whole community, is not expected to be finished until early 2028.
A resale home on the market today closes in weeks. A new home at The Villages, purchased now, means waiting well over a year for keys and closer to two years before the amenities that are part of the pitch are actually built. If your timeline is short, that gap matters as much as the sticker price.
There is also the reality that this is a two-decade project. The starting prices available in this first village are not guaranteed to hold as later villages release. Prices, floor plans, and incentives can shift phase to phase, which is normal for a project of this scale but worth factoring into any long-range plan built around today's numbers.
What this means if you're comparing right now
If you are a first-time buyer whose ceiling is set by what a townhouse costs, it is worth looking at both the current resale inventory and the new-construction entry point before assuming resale is automatically the cheaper path. It may not be, once you account for the HST rebate on the new-build side.
If you are a move-up buyer coming from Orleans or elsewhere in Ottawa, the buying-power argument Kardish described is grounded in real numbers, not just marketing language. A detached resale home in Clarence-Rockland already carries a lower median than the Ottawa-wide benchmark, and a new single or bungalow here can land lower still.
If you are weighing whether to buy resale now or wait for a later village, the honest answer is that it depends on how much you value moving sooner versus paying less. Resale gets you in the market today. New construction asks you to wait into 2027 or later for a price that may or may not still be available once you're ready to sign.
A few questions worth asking before you decide
Does the new-home HST rebate apply if I buy resale in Clarence-Rockland? No. The combined federal and provincial rebate applies only to qualifying new construction purchases. Resale transactions are not eligible. Confirm your specific eligibility with the CRA or Ontario Ministry of Finance guidance before using it in your budget.
When can I actually move into a new home at The Villages? Construction on the first phase, Creekside Village, is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2027, with homes ready for move-in by the end of that year. The central lodge and amenities are targeted for early 2028.
Will 2,400 new homes push resale prices down in Clarence-Rockland? There is no data yet to support that conclusion. The first phase of Clarence Crossing sold out without any visible drag on resale values nearby, and this next phase is expected to build out over two decades rather than all at once. It is a trend worth watching over the coming years, not something to price in today.
Numbers like these only tell you so much without someone who watches this market week to week and knows how a specific street, phase, or floor plan actually compares to what just sold two doors down. If you are trying to figure out whether resale or new construction makes more sense for your timeline and budget in Clarence-Rockland, Steve Brunet can walk through the current listings and the new-build pipeline with you side by side. Let's Connect.
