The Ottawa Real Estate Board (OREB) says the capital’s real estate market thawed in January, but the market is still relatively quiet.
Newly released statistics show 629 homes were sold in January, which is in increase of 16.5 per cent from January 2023. OREB notes that home sales were 10.7 per cent below the five-year average and 3.9 per cent below the 10-year average for the month of January.
“Ottawa’s market activity is seeing positive gains over last year but it’s still a relatively quiet market even by pre-pandemic standards,” Curtis Fillier, OREB president, said in a statement.
Fillier says realtors are reporting “lots of showing activity,” but it’s not translating into higher sales numbers.
“During the pandemic market, buyers had to move quickly and sometimes settle for a property that didn’t check all their boxes. Today, buyers are using the slower market to take the time needed to find their perfect place,” he said. “Sellers would be well-advised to adjust their expectations and thoughtfully consider their pricing and timing strategy.”
Meanwhile, Brandon Reay, OREB’s policy and external relations manager says the city’s “market conditions can fluctuate quickly,” given the limited supply when it comes to the number of available houses.
“Ottawa needs more suitable and affordable homes to address the housing crisis, and we need to increase density to meet population demands. We can’t restore and grow upon the market activity Ottawa saw five and ten years ago without more houses for people to buy. OREB recommends direct solutions for meaningful policy change, including streamlining the process at the Ontario Land Tribunal, eliminating exclusionary zoning, and permitting four units on residential lots,” said Reay.
“To meet the aggressive housing targets, we need to close the labour gap with investments in colleges and trade schools. We don’t need any more reactionary and distracting policy, like the federal government’s extension of the foreign buyers ban.”
Here’s how much it cost to buy in Ottawa:
While property prices vary from one neighbourhood to another, OREB says “the average sale price can be useful in establishing trends over time but should not be used as an indicator that specific properties have increased or decreased in value.”
In January 2024, the benchmark price for single-family homes was $703,500, which is an increase of 3.7 per cent on a year-over-year basis in January.
The average price for a townhouse/row unit was $462,200 last month, down 2.1 per cent from the year before.
Meanwhile, the average condominium price has grown by 3.7 per cent from last year to reach $418,500.
Here’s some data about inventory and new listings:
From January 2023, the number of new listings saw an increase of 7.3 per cent. In January 2024, there were 1,271 new residential listings. New listings were 17.5 per cent above the five-year average and 0.8 per cent above the 10-year average for the first month of the year.
At the end of January 2024, active residential listings numbered 1,961 units on the market — a gain of 4.5 per cent from the end of January 2023.
Active listings were 57.4 per cent above the five-year average and 16.6 per cent below the 10-year average for the month of January.
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.
