TORONTO — The Ontario Real Estate Association says it is asking agents to halt plans for open houses, as the province reported a record high of 939 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday.
Open houses resumed in mid-July as part of the province’s Stage 3 reopening plan, which at the time allowed gatherings of 50 people, or 30-per-cent capacity, with physical distancing enforced.
On Friday, the province announced a modified return to Stage 2 COVID-19 restrictions, which would limit open houses to 10 people. The government is also asking people in those areas to leave their homes only for essential purposes.
Ontario real estate association president Sean Morrison said that notwithstanding the 10-person limit, he is encouraging members to shift open showings virtually, instead of a Sunday afternoon slot allowing anyone to touch the surfaces of a home.
“OREA is pleased that the government is again listening to our advice on restricting open houses and we are hopeful that they will go a step further and ban them province-wide,” Morrison said.
Morrison says agents and brokers could still follow safety precautions for private showings.
Ontario real estate agents do have a disciplinary body, the Real Estate Council of Ontario, which can issue punishments to rulebreakers. In September, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board took down an agent’s listing after he hosted an open house while a COVID-infected tenant was home.
But Morrison says the government would be a better first line of enforcement in terms of making sure open houses stay under control.
“Open houses in smaller properties like condominium units can be very difficult to conduct with social distancing. A province-wide ban would set a clear rule,” said Morrison.
Quebec’s real estate regulator, The Organisme d’autoreglementation du courtage immobilier du Quebec, said that while no formal restriction, clarification or ban regarding open houses has been issued by local government authorities, “the organization of open houses in the current context is neither desirable nor recommended.”
The new restrictions in Ontario come after months of record-high sales in many Ontario real estate markets, as pent-up demand to buy homes has outpaced supply of single-family homes and lifted prices. In March and April, transactions plunged as agents were encouraged to avoid any in-person transactions that weren’t urgent. Morrison said he isn’t recommending that level of shutdown at this point, and that he doesn’t think limiting open houses will slow down the hot market or limit sellers’ willingness to list.
“We are calling for our members to do the right thing,” said Morrison.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2020.
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.
