Alberta is restructuring its real estate regulator, eight months after the government fired the previous board on the grounds it was irredeemably dysfunctional.
“Bill 20 … is the next step in the process to reform the governance of [the board] and to restore the faith of Albertans and the real estate industry in the real estate regulator,” Service Alberta Minister Nate Glubish said Wednesday prior to introducing the legislation in the house.
“The end result will be a new governance structure that will increase transparency, improve accountability and ultimately restore good governance to the real estate regulator.”
The Real Estate Council of Alberta licenses and regulates residential and commercial real estate agents and brokers, mortgage brokers, and property managers.
Lack of oversight, poor dealings
Last October, Glubish fired the existing board and appointed an interim administrator.
The move followed a third-party audit that reported the previous board had broken down, foundering under fractious interpersonal relationships and poor dealings with those in the industry.
The report outlined poor relations with the industry associations represented by the council and a tendency for members to spend 80 per cent of their time discussing governance issues, instead of considering the strategic and regulatory matters that are the reason for the council’s existence.
The KPMG report also found key committees were left empty, meetings were not held and there was a lack of oversight on spending.
‘Common sense regulation’
The bill would restructure the council overseen by a board of directors, with four new industry councils: residential real estate agents and brokers; commercial real estate agents and brokers and commercial property managers; mortgage brokers; and residential property managers and condominium managers.
These new industry councils would identify and address issues related to their parts of the real estate sector, setting standards and rules and determining licensing requirements.
There would also be a new dispute resolution process and board members and industry council members would not be allowed to sit on disciplinary hearings. Those hearings would be staffed by industry people or members of the public at large.
The council would also have to make public staff salaries and meeting minutes.
Greater openness and transparency standards will help rebuild eroded trust,”– Kristie Kruger
Condominium managers would be added to the groups overseen by the regulator while real estate appraisers would be removed, given they are self-regulated through their own industry association.
The Alberta Real Estate Association called the bill a critical first step towards reform.
“Refocusing the real estate regulator on common sense regulation will better protect the public and improve the real estate industry, while greater openness and transparency standards will help rebuild eroded trust,” Kristie Kruger, chairwoman of the association, said in a statement.
The association represents more than 10,000 realtors and 10 real estate boards.
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.
