Two hot button topics in the world of real estate recently intersected in British Columbia’s Small Claims court, as the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) made its decision on a case where the use of virtual staging and edited photos in real estate listings came into conflict with BC’s Home Buyer Rescission Period Regulation (HBRPR).

The case was centered around a buyer named Braden Messenger and a seller named Mary Jonina Margaret Bell, who entered into a contract of purchase and sale (CPS) on May 18, 2023 for the purchase price of $490,000. Both parties do not dispute that Messenger did not view the property in-person before entering into the agreement.

The Greater Toronto Area real estate market is in turmoil with a glut of homes on the market and houses across the region selling at shocking losses.

The math here is grim: Our population went up by nearly 200,000, yet we started less than 38,000 homes, with the most common type being a one-bedroom or studio apartment. 

In June, Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) reported more than an 80% year-over-year increase in active condo listings. This month, the market continued in its lopsided fashion with July seeing a nearly 64% increase in active condo listings compared to the same month last year.

Active condo listings totalled 8,979 in July, reported TRREB, up from 5,416 in July 2023. On a broader scale, just last week, quarterly numbers showed that listings in Q2 2024 jumped a staggering 83.6% from the same six-month period in 2023.

At the same time, sales have been on the slump for months while condo prices have remained “sticky,” experts say. The result is that there is a surplus of inventory that isn’t becoming more appealing to would-be buyers anytime soon.

An increasing number of Quebec apartment listings ask potential tenants to disclose whether they have a file with the Tribunal administratif du logement, the provincial body created to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants.

Tenants’ rights advocates say landlords openly using records from Quebec’s housing tribunal against prospective renters is cause for concern.

CBC News has reviewed dozens of postings specifically spelling out that having any record with the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL) will influence your shot at getting the place.

Some landlords are considering any interaction with the TAL as a potential red flag. The TAL enforces housing law and protects both tenants and landlords’ rights.

For example, tenants often take landlords to the TAL if necessary maintenance isn’t done or to contest abusive rent hikes. Landlords can open a file at the TAL to evict a tenant.

All these records are available publicly.

Checking records is completely legal, but Lyn O’Donnell, a community organizer with the Verdun Housing Committee, says it can lead to a form of discrimination.

Real estate investment is a way of life in Vancouver, with investors – people who don’t reside in the homes they own – representing close to half of the condo market.

In recent years, Toronto has pretty much caught up, with a 28 per cent increase in all investor-owned condos from 2019 to 2022. Vancouver held steady, with a 10 per cent increase in the same time frame, according to new data from the Canadian Housing Statistics Program. In 2019, the CHSP began releasing data on properties that were “not owner occupied.” According to the new release, 43 per cent of Toronto condos are investor-owned. In Vancouver, it’s 46 per cent.

In raw numbers, Toronto’s investor-owned properties outnumber those of Vancouver. In 2022, Toronto investor condos numbered 140,435. In the city of Vancouver, the number was 47,585.

The extreme volatility experienced in global financial markets over the past week is having an immediate impact on Canadian interest rate forecasts—they’re falling like autumn leaves in a gusty wind.

TD, CIBC and BMO have led the way with their revised forecasts, with all now expecting the Bank of Canada to cut interest rates faster and deeper over the next 16 months.

Just a couple of weeks ago we reported on CIBC and TD’s interest rate forecasts, which predicted an additional 175 basis points (1.75 percentage points) worth of Bank of Canada rate cuts by the end of 2025.

Well, both banks have updated those forecasts and are now predicting 200 bps (two percentage points) worth of easing by the end of 2025. This would bring the overnight target rate down to 2.50%, a level last seen in the fall of 2022.

Updated forecasts from RBC, NBC and Scotia in light of last week’s market volatility have not yet been released but are expected to include downward revisions to the Bank of Canada’s overnight target rate.

The consumer price index rose 2.8% last month from a year ago, following a 2.9% increase in January, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday in Ottawa. That’s the slowest pace since June and below the median estimate of 3.1% in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Traders boosted their bets on a June rate cut, pricing in around a three-quarters chance of one. The odds were about 50/50 on Monday.

The Canadian dollar weakened and bonds surged, pushing the yield on two-year Canadian government debt to 4.16%, down about 14 basis points on the day. That’s the biggest intraday drop since Feb. 20.

On a monthly basis, the CPI climbed 0.3%, versus expectations for a 0.6% increase, and rose 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The Bank of Canada’s two preferred core inflation measures also slowed, averaging a 3.15% yearly pace from 3.35% a month earlier, slower than the 3.35% expected. A three-month moving average of the rate fell to an annualized pace of 2.23%, from 3.12% in January. Other key core measures also showed disinflation.

The new data bolsters the case for policymakers to soon take their foot off the monetary brake. Bank of Canada officials have said they’re waiting for enough data to convince them that inflation is on a sustained march to the 2% inflation target before they begin cutting interest rates.

This is the only inflation report before the next rate decision on April 10, when the central bank will also update its economic projections. Economists widely expect the bank to hold policy rates at 5% for a sixth straight meeting, with the easing cycle to begin around midyear.

Toronto agents say first-time buyers are flooding into open houses and dominating offer nights, which is something they haven’t seen happen since the Bank of Canada began to turn up the heat on interest rates.

If the past few months have taught us anything, it’s that Toronto’s housing market doesn’t stay downcast for long. Sales activity began to ramp up in the latter few months of last year, and as of last month, transactions were up a hair shy of 18% on a year-over-year basis.

“Things have definitely picked up, but what’s interesting is the segment of the market that’s picked up, and that’s kind of the under $1.5M price point,” says Toronto realtor Lisa Bednarski. “And I’m talking more about Toronto than the broader GTA, but that tends to be first-time buyers.”

Bednarski, who is an agent with the BREL team, tells STOREYS that first-time buyers are flooding into open houses and dominating offer nights, which is something she hasn’t seen happen since the Bank of Canada began to turn up the heat on interest rates in the middle of 2022.

She recently had a listing on Symington Avenue, which she priced at a million dollars. It got some 6,000 views on Realtor.ca (which Bednarski notes is “off the charts”) and had over 100 showings. Ninety-three people attended the open house.

“All were first-time buyers. And we got 23 offers on offer night,” she says. “Buyers are gambling that interest rates are going to go down in the summer, which is not a bad gamble. So they want to, you know, date the rate and marry the house.”