A Better Way Home: BC Real Estate Association, Boards Publish Sweeping Recommendations for Government to Address Challenges in BC's Housing Market - GlobeNewswire | Canada News Media
A Better Way Home: BC Real Estate Association, Boards Publish Sweeping Recommendations for Government to Address Challenges in BC's Housing Market – GlobeNewswire
Vancouver, BC, Feb. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA), with support from the province’s real estate boards, has published a white paper and series of sweeping recommendations for the BC government aimed at addressing current concerns with the province’s housing market, the real estate transaction process and consumer protection.
The white paper, called A Better Way Home: Strengthening Consumer Protection in Real Estate, offers more than 30 recommendations spanning four areas: addressing housing supply issues, enhancing consumer protection in real estate transactions, evolving the real estate sector and contributing to the creation of a world-leading regulatory structure. It incorporates findings from seven focus groups with consumers and REALTORS®, years of survey data, and a detailed analysis of economic and secondary literature, including the impacts of attempted housing market interventions worldwide.
“BCREA shares consumer and government concerns that current housing market conditions are untenable. Our recommendations include long-term measures to create more housing options for British Columbians, as well as immediate steps to give consumers in the market today more peace of mind,” says BCREA Chief Executive Officer Darlene K. Hyde. “As the voice of BC’s 24,000 Realtors, we want consumers to have full confidence in real estate transactions.”
BCREA’s recommendations to support consumer confidence in real estate transactions include:
Giving buyers time to research a property before making an offer by introducing a mandatory “pre-offer period” of a minimum of five business days from when a property is first listed. During this period, offers cannot be made.
Helping consumers make more informed decisions in multiple offer scenarios by collaborating with real estate sector stakeholders to establish a process that balances offer transparency for buyers with privacy concerns.
Ensuring prospective buyers have immediate access to relevant information by making property disclosure statements mandatory and available upon listing.
Mandating that all documents related to strata transactions are made available with the listing, including strata bylaws, depreciation reports, status of contingency funds, strata council correspondence and the Form B.
Raising entry qualification standards for new licensees to ensure consumers are supported by a profession that is evolving along with the changing market.
While A Better Way Home is based on years of feedback, data and market analysis collected by BCREA and regional real estate boards, we have published it in response to the government’s announced plans to introduce a mandatory “cooling off period” in real estate transactions as soon as this spring. We are deeply concerned that this decision was made without first conducting thorough public consultations with the real estate sector and consumers, a problem statement or supporting rationale.
BCREA supports measures to increase consumer protection in real estate transactions, but it must be done in a way that is evidence-based, regionally nuanced and considers buyers, sellers and changing market trends. Without these best practices, policies are likely to result in unintended negative consequences for consumers and the real estate market as a whole.
“A ‘cooling off period’ is not the answer to alleviating the stresses consumers are currently facing in real estate transactions,” adds Hyde. “It won’t stand the test of changing market conditions, regional market differences and doesn’t equally serve buyers and sellers. It also does nothing to address the root of BC’s housing affordability problem; namely, lack of supply.”
An analysis of “cooling off periods” in other global jurisdictions has shown the policy to be ineffectual at best. The provincial government announced plans for a “cooling off period” in real estate transactions on November 4, 2021, without broad consultation with the housing sector. BCREA strongly believes that consumer interests are best served when the government invites in-depth input from housing sector stakeholders before announcing potential policies.
“With access to extensive data and expert analysis on housing market conditions, on-the-ground insights into consumer experience, close working relationships with other housing sector stakeholders, and a commitment to enhancing consumer confidence in the Realtor profession, BCREA is uniquely positioned to support the government in identifying a ‘better way home’ for all British Columbians,” says Hyde.
To read BCREA’s whitepaper and view the full list of recommendations, visit bcrea.bc.ca/betterwayhome.
“We support measures that strengthen consumer protection and improve housing affordability and supply in our region. To find policy approaches that benefit current and hopeful home buyers as well as home sellers and owners requires a thorough understanding of how real estate transactions occur at every stage. Policymakers can only strike this delicate balance by consulting industry experts. This is why we urge our regulator and provincial government to deeply consider BCREA’s recommendations before implementing new requirements for home buyers and sellers in BC to follow.”
Taylor Biggar Chair, Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver
“The BC Government’s recently announced “cooling off period,” while well-intentioned, may result in unintended consequences. We’ve seen in the past that well-meaning proposals such as the vacancy tax, speculation tax, and foreign buyers’ tax have done little, if anything, to stem a burgeoning market. The issue is supply, plain and simple. The government has ambitious plans to increase housing inventory by 114,000 units over the next decade. To put this in perspective, to achieve a balanced market would require an inventory injection of 25,000 additional units today. This is a fundamental challenge and by an order of magnitude far greater than any stop-gap measure like a “cooling off period” could address.
“Today’s record housing market is driven not by any single element. It’s the result of a combination of factors: rock-bottom interest rates, major shifts in lifestyle and work habits due to a global pandemic and record low inventories. This is an issue of complex interdependencies in need of an equally well-formed strategy to resolve. If we are to achieve a long-term solution, we require a coordinated, collaborative approach, one that includes all stakeholders – regulators, Realtors, builders, and local governments – as equal partners.
“Fraser Valley Realtors have been an integral part of building communities for the past 100 years. We’ve been through numerous market peaks and troughs over the decades. We bring proficiency and insight into the mechanics and workings of real estate market transactions and a particular expertise in understanding what drives market trends, including the all-important intangible elements. This knowledge is critical if we are to establish a solution with staying power.”
Larry Anderson President, Fraser Valley Real Estate Board
“The BC Northern Real Estate Board supports BCREA’s recommendations to enhance consumer protection and improve housing affordability. The “cooling off period” recently announced by the BC Government was made without consultation from the real estate sector and appears to be a “one-size-fits-all” solution based on current market conditions in specific parts of the province.
“However, markets conditions vary across time and geography, especially in the north where there are currently buyer, seller and balanced markets. A poorly planned policy could undermine consumer protection in the face of a swiftly changing environment. We ask the government and regulator to review BCREA’s recommendations and to consider the protection of all consumers, both buyers and sellers, regardless of where they reside.”
Alex Goseltine Executive Officer, BC Northern Real Estate Board
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.
