Home of the Week, 20 Stuart St., Guelph, Ont.Chestnut Park Real Estate Ltd.
Here are The Globe and Mail’s top housing and real estate stories this week, with the lowest mortgage rates available in Canada today, commentary from our mortgage expert and one home worth a look.
Builders say HST removal is step one in many needed to tackle housing crisis
Rental housing builders are warning they may need still more financial incentives from government to help tackle the housing crisis even as provinces are joining Ottawa to remove sales taxes from new rental projects, Shane Dingman writes. They say the tax waivers set costs back to where they were a few years ago, but suggest other policies like tax abatements, loosening certain strict building requirements, or faster approvals could help tip the scales.
Opinion: The real estate crisis beyond housing: Canada’s economy lacks land for industrial use
The provincial government has been investing heavily in reindustrializing Ontario after decades of underinvestment. But for this policy to be successful, land has to be made available, writes Giles Gherson. Earlier this year, the Ontario government announced new policies to address the housing crisis. While the changes are primarily designed to increase housing supply, some significantly weaken protections for critical employment lands, Mr. Gherson notes, saying we must find the right balance between housing supply and land for industry, for the well-being of our communities and the health of our economy, because if the lands go, so will the jobs.
This week’s lowest available mortgage rates
Canadians are living longer than ever. But as they get older, an increasing number are having trouble holding on to their homes, writes Robert McLister in his weekly column. New research from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. indicates. most Canadians start selling their homes at 85. If you’re one of the many who want to hold onto your homes in your old age, applying for a reverse mortgage, a HELOC, or carving out some space for a renter could help boost your savings.
B.C. begins effort to protect existing rental supply
B.C.’s new strategy to acquire existing apartment buildings has begun, as the Rental Protection Fund already targeted multiple buildings to acquire by the end of 2023, writes Kerry Gold. The goal of the fund is to protect affordable housing units in the province – rent increases, conversions, and redevelopment are the leading causes for the growing loss in cheap rentals. The province contributed $500-million to grow the sector, as the fund builds their portfolio of properties and leverage them into more housing.
Home of the week: A historic Guelph home gracefully preserved
The almost-170-year-old home sparks local stories of the Reverend Arthur Palmer, an Anglican priest who lived in the house in the 1800s and was known to regularly walk around town. The house and surrounding property has changed a lot since those times, but it still retains a lot of its historic charm – in part thanks to its official designation as a heritage property in the ‘80s. The large wooden staircase in the main hall, the built-in mahogany bookshelf in the library, and nine-panel stained glass window are perfectly preserved. But the home still has some more modern elements, such as the renovated kitchen and bathrooms, that manage to cohabitate with the more classic designs.
What do you think is the asking price for the property?
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.
