The reason is financing. Lenders look at the property as much as at the borrower, and older converted houses in the core with deferred maintenance, unpermitted units or weak documentation attract lower loan to value ratios, higher rates or an outright decline. A property only a cash buyer can purchase has a smaller market, and a smaller market means a lower price regardless of what the rent roll claims.
Pleasant Hill is a west side core neighbourhood with mostly early to mid twentieth century housing, close to downtown and along transit, with St. Mary's and the Pleasant Hill Community School and park at its centre. Tenant demand is consistent and rents are modest, so gross yields can look attractive on paper. What decides the real return is turnover, arrears and maintenance, all governed in practice by how tenancies are handled under The Residential Tenancies Act, 2006.
Verify before you value. Confirm the permitted unit count with the City of Saskatoon, read the leases, check deposits against claimed rent, and budget $400 to $600 for an inspection plus $800 to $1,500 in legal fees. Joel Dyck's hand-reviewed valuation counts the conversion and upgrade work that never entered a permit file, which is precisely what every automated estimate on this housing stock gets wrong.