Entries by Mahyar Rezapour

Home builders are tackling Canada’s housing supply shortage

Canada’s housing supply fell short of demand even before COVID struck, a situation the pandemic brought into sharp relief. It’s not that home builders have been sitting idle. Housing starts over the past 12 months were the strongest since the mid-1970s, and the number of homes under construction is at an all-time high. The problem […]

What’s driving housing starts?

Supply shortages are hitting single family starts, despite an overall rise in the number of homes being built and homebuilder sentiment improving for the first time in three months, two reports show. Builder sentiment rose in September by one point, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, amid a drop […]

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Mortgage delinquency rates ease in Q2 – Equifax

Government support and payment deferrals played major roles in improving Canadians’ financial health, Equifax said Despite the end of payment deferral programs, Canadian mortgage delinquency rates declined from first-quarter highs in Q2, according to Equifax Canada. The 90+ day mortgage delinquency rate fell by 32.6% annually in Q2, while the rate for non-mortgage products dropped […]

Canada retail sales bounce back

Retail sales in Canada rebounded after falling earlier in the summer months, a reassuring sign that consumers continue to spend. The value of receipts rose 2.1% in August, according to preliminary results provided by Statistics Canada on Thursday in Ottawa. That more than offset a 0.6% decline in July. Retail sales are still below the […]

Trudeau vows ban on foreign buyers

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to introduce a two-year ban on foreign home buyers and make the home purchasing process more transparent if re-elected. The Liberal Party leader told a crowd in Hamilton, Ontario that a Liberal-led government would “crack down on predatory speculators that stack the deck against you,” if returned to power […]

Competition for low-rise rentals in GTA sparks bidding wars

Parsimonious rental data in the GTA makes tracking hotspots difficult, but stories about leasing bidding wars are commonplace and, according to the president of the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON), that’s a direct consequence of developments completing at a snail’s pace. “I’ve been hearing about bidding wars on rentals. You’ve got bidding wars on […]

House prices shot up more than 40% in these three GTA cities

The GTA real estate market has reached historic highs over the past year, with house prices in outer-lying cities seeing unprecedented surges in interest. As homebuyers searched for larger spaces in more suburban areas of the GTA during the pandemic, it drove demand and, consequently, home prices through the roof. A new report from RE/MAX […]

Why real estate investors shouldn’t worry about inflation

Rising inflation is a growing concern, but real estate investors can rest assured that their investments are, at least for the time being, inflation-proof. “Real estate has been protected from inflation since the 1970s but it won’t work if there’s anything extreme, if we go back to a 15% benchmark interest rate,” said Patrice Groleau, […]

Prime prices exceed mainstream for first time since pandemic

Prime prices across 46 cities increased at an average rate of 8.2% in the year to June 2021, up from 4.6% in March. What’s happened? Until now, the pandemic-fuelled house prime boom was most evident in the mainstream market but the prime sector has now surged ahead. The mainstream market now lags behind with prices […]

Toronto neighbourhood could be totally transformed over the next decades

A Toronto neighbourhood could see massive changes over the next few decades. More than 500 acres around Downsview Airport and Downsview Park are part of a planning process to develop residential and non-residential property called id8 Downsview. Just as neighbourhoods around #Downsview were built over time, this plan will likely take 30+ years to fully […]

Are condos a good investment in Toronto?

Condo prices in the Greater Toronto Area are on an upsurge, rising 44% since the 2017 housing peak, driven by the segment’s relative accessibility compared to other property types, recent data from tech-enabled brokerage Properly has revealed. “This past year, condo sales were hit the hardest by the pandemic,” said Anshul Ruparell, co-founder and chief […]

Resubmission Proposes Residential Additions to East Harbour Plan

Recent documents submitted to the City of Toronto have revealed the latest plans for East Harbour, a massive development on the site of the former Unilever Soap Factory where the Don River meets Lake Shore Boulevard. The most striking change from previous versions is the addition of nine residential towers to the mix, which would […]

Value of GTA condos nearly doubles in four years

Condos in the Greater Toronto Area appreciated by 44% between their April 2017 peak and June 2021, says realty brokerage Properly. Interestingly, condos in the GTA struggled through most of 2020, save for before the COVID-19 pandemic and the very end of the year, but they nevertheless managed to subsequently surge in value again. “This […]

74% of Ontarians 18-34 don’t think they can buy home: survey

A survey of Ontarians revealed that three-quarters of respondents aged 18-34 don’t believe they will be able to afford a home in their city or town. “Having worked in this industry for 35 years now, I have seen one group [among the aforementioned cohort] able to get into the market, and that’s thanks to assistance […]

Hamilton’s ‘hidden gem’ properties

To say COVID-19 has been bad for small businesses would be an understatement, but mixed-use properties that will invariably hit the market because of the economically calamitous nature of the pandemic could help boost housing supply. “There’s a hidden gem: mixed-use commercial properties in downtown Hamilton that might be able to be converted into residential […]

Home sales fell again in May, but don’t get used to this

Sales in the Greater Toronto Area moderated for a second straight month in May, indicating that a semblance of normalcy is beginning to return to the housing market. However, it could be short-lived. There were 11,951 sales in the GTA last month, according to the latest data from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), […]