The Canadian Real Estate Association expects the average price of a home to end the year 4.8 per cent lower than 2022, but says prices will rise by roughly the same amount in 2024.
The association’s prediction revealed Friday amounts to an average price of $670,389 this year and $702,214 next year, when prices are expected to increase by 4.7 per cent.
The board also foresees home sales falling 1.1 per cent to 492,674 this year and then rising 13.9 per cent to 561,090 in 2024.
The forecast accounts for little change in month-over-month sales seen since summer 2022 and the modest monthly gains recorded in February and March, as buyers edged closer to make purchases.
“As the spring market heats up and it looks as though some buyers are coming off the sidelines, it’s important to remember that the intense market conditions of recent years have not gone anywhere, they’ve just been on pause,” said Jill Oudil, CREA’s chair, in a press release.
The market Canadians are re-entering has seen months of falling sales, lower listings and dampened buyer sentiment as eight successive interest rate hikes weighed on the cost of borrowing.
But in recent months, the rate has been held twice in a row, prompting some to eye purchases once more, while prices are still low.
These trends left March home sales down 34.4 per cent to 41,636 from the year before.
On a seasonally-adjusted basis, sales reached 33,833, about one per cent higher than they had been in February.
March marks the second consecutive month of higher sales, Rishi Sondhi of TD Economics pointed out.
Sondhi attributed much of the boost to interest rates stabilizing, which helped “buyer psychology” and a solid job market.
“Our forecast assumes further sales gains are in the cards this year, although an important downside risk stems from looming regulatory changes that will make it harder to qualify for mortgage,” he said, in a note to investors.
As month-over-month sales ticked up new listings remain at 20-year lows, said CREA.
On a seasonally-adjusted basis, new listings totalled 53,298 in March, down 5.8 per cent from February. Actual new listings hit 68,597, a 27.4 per cent drop from a year ago.
With supply at historic lows, Oudil said homes are not only selling but selling faster, but it has not been enough to entice some sellers to list their properties.
“Sellers will likely need to see more evidence of a sustained pickup in activity and prices before listings turn meaningfully higher,” Sondhi said.
People don’t sell during a down market for several reasons, said Robert Kavcic, a senior economist with BMO Capital Markets.
Some don’t have to sell because the job market is strong and there are fewer mortgage delinquencies because the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions has stress-tested most buyers and investors have a strong rental market to fall back on.
“Potential sellers don’t want to sell into a down market, and expectations are building that the worst of the correction is over,” he added, in a note to investors.
“The Bank of Canada’s guidance has helped establish this improved market psychology.”
As that shift in thinking took shape, CREA found the average home price was $686,371 in March, down 13.7 per cent from the year prior.
Excluding the Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver Areas, which tend to be the country’s hottest markets, from the calculation cuts more than $136,000 from the national average price.
On a seasonally-adjusted basis, the average home price ticked up two per cent from February to $648,088.
CREA also said the average price was up almost $75,000 from its January 2023 level.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2023.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
