The real impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Metro Vancouver’s real estate market remains to be seen, but like every other sector of the economy, the industry is making immediate changes.
Major personal real estate brokerages in the region are curtailing their open houses, moving more of their business online over at least the interim. As of 2019, there were approximately 13,000 real estate agents operating in Metro Vancouver.
RE/MAX’s Vancouver office has urged its agents to limit contact with the general public, including the postponement of all open houses immediately until a future date when it is deemed to be safe. Agents should also isolate themselves and not interact with the public if they are feeling unwell.
Similarly, Sotheby’s International Realty in Canada is “strongly discouraging” open houses, but if these showings are still held, there should be hand sanitizers at the entryway, as well as soap and disposable paper towels in the bathrooms. They are also asking property owners to clean and disinfect their home after an open house, especially commonly contacted areas such as doorknobs and faucet handles.
Dan Scarrow, president of Macdonald Real Estate Group, has indicated his firm is taking a blanket ban policy approach on open houses for the foreseeable future given growing calls for social distancing.
“We are taking this issue extremely seriously and have instituted a No Open House policy for the duration of the pandemic,” Scarrow told Daily Hive in an emailed statement.
“The current policy of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) is that they currently allow agents and their clients to make that decision, but I have been in touch with representatives from REBGV and am hopeful that they will do the right thing and suspend Open Houses for the time being.”
He says his agents reported an extremely busy open house activity this past weekend, despite the worsening crisis. But they are now seeing the start of a significant drop off.
“I have been surprised at how laissez faire large segments of our population have been about the COVID-19 pandemic, but I believe the gravity of this moment will soon become apparent to everyone,” continued Scarrow.
Due to the challenging conditions, Scarrow expects significant financial decisions to slow considerably during the short term, however, there will be a strong rebound to the market as a result of record low interest rates, a flight to safety, and a recalibration of investors risk and reward calculations.
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.
