Over a two-month span, agent Kamil Lalji escorted his clients through 15 houses in central Calgary neighbourhoods. Negotiations for this new, three-bedroom bungalow came to a standstill, so they moved on, tried their luck elsewhere, and lost out to another bidder. When they saw the price on this bungalow had been reduced to below $1.7-million, they came back with a second bid and sealed the deal at $1.64-million.
“We offered on another property, and this one lowered the price, so we came back and offered on it again,” Mr. Lalji said.
“[For Calgary properties] under $1.2-million, you’re still in a pretty strong seller’s market, but over that, you’re in a very strong buyer’s market.”
‘[The buyers] weren’t particularly looking for a bungalow, but when you walked in, it had such a nice feeling with high ceilings,’ said agent Kamil Lalji of CIR Realty.Handout
Floors are also heated downstairs in the two guest bedrooms and a recreation area that has a wet bar and a glass-enclosed wine cellar.
The agent’s take
“[The buyers] weren’t particularly looking for a bungalow, but when you walked in, it had such a nice feeling with high ceilings. The basement had an additional 1,900 square feet, so it’s a ton of living space,” said Mr. Lalji.
“And the basement has nine- or 10-foot ceilings, so it feels very spacious.”
“It has a triple garage and it’s attached, which was important,” Mr. Lalji said.
“They didn’t want to walk outside in our minus 30 [degree] weather on occasion to get to a detached garage.”
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.
