TORONTO, Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) is applauding Minister Thompson and the provincial government for the successful passage of Bill 145, the Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2020. This significant effort will help enhance professional standards, create a more fair and efficient business environment, and better protect consumers dealing with those who trade in real estate in Ontario, including REALTORS®.
“The real estate sector continues to be one of the most important parts of Ontario’s economy, and real estate transactions represent the single biggest economic transactions that most people make in their life. It’s important that we make sure the real estate sector is regulated in an efficient and modern way that allows Realtors and their clients; and the general public, namely home buyers and sellers, renters and business clients, to continue contributing to the growth of our economy and communities,” said Michael Collins, TRREB President.
The proposed changes introduced by the provincial government through the Trust in Real Estate Services Act include:
regulatory changes to enhance consumer choice in the real estate transaction process;
enhancements to ethical requirements for real estate professionals;
updates to the Real Estate Council of Ontario’s regulatory and enforcement powers and changes to factors for eligibility for registration; and
changes to treat real estate professionals fairly and allow them to operate more efficiently by incorporating.
The changes have been called for by TRREB for many years, after extensive consultations with the current and former provincial governments. TRESA is the culmination of many years of review and consultation by real estate boards and associations across Ontario, and collaboration with the provincial government. TREB has worked diligently on this issue and initiated proposals on many of the changes set out in the Act.
“As Canada’s largest real estate board, TREB is consistently striving to be at the forefront of the real estate industry to benefit our Realtor members and their clients. We believe that the Trust in Real Estate Services Bill is an important milestone in this regard, and we are proud of our efforts that helped to bring it forward. In recent years, TREB has worked diligently to consult with thousands of our members via surveys and focus groups to form the basis of new Act, and we worked jointly with the Ontario Real Estate Association in communicating these to the provincial government,” added Collins.
“We always made sure that preserving consumer choice and consent, along with enhanced industry professionalism, remained central when proposing and discussing legislative improvements with the government. Furthermore, we are pleased to see business fairness being addressed by allowing all Realtors to run their businesses more efficiently by forming personal real estate corporations, if they so choose—a tool that’s available to Realtors in six other provinces and many industries in Ontario,” said John DiMichele, TRREB Chief Executive Officer.
“TRREB’s Board of Directors started to formally tackle the ability to form personal corporations as a business fairness issue dating back to 2005, and is pleased to see our efforts come to fruition with the help of OREA. We thank Minister Thompson for her hard work on this file, and look forward to continuing to work closely with the Minister and her Ministry as regulations are developed for the new Act,” added DiMichele.
The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board is Canada’s largest real estate board with more than 56,000 residential and commercial professionals connecting people, property and communities.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.