Alongside a new program that will reward municipalities for reaching and exceeding their housing targets, Ford announced an extension of strong mayor powers to 21 additional municipalities.

As blowback for the Greenbelt land swap rages on, Premier Doug Ford announced a new $1.2B incentive program to get municipalities to build more homes.

Ford announced the new program, dubbed the Building Faster Fund, during his speech at the Association of Municipalities Conference in London on Monday, noting that it will “reward municipalities for reaching annual housing targets.”

“These targets will be ambitious, but realistic,” Ford said.

The Ontario Government has repeatedly asserted its intention to ensure the construction of 1.5 million new homes in the province by 2031, and has already doled out targets to municipalities. But with limited construction capacity, the ability to actually reach 1.5 million homes has been put into question.

On Monday, Ford said that, in the first year of the program, they are looking to achieve at least 110,000 new housing starts across the province. This is notably lower than the more than 150,000 housing starts experts estimate will be needed to reach the province’s goal.

Municipalities that reach 80% of their respective part of each year’s target will become eligible for funding “based on their share of the overall goal.”

“Think of it like this: if you get an ‘A,’ you become eligible for funding. If you do worse than an ‘A,’ you don’t,” Ford said.

Condo sales in Calgary were up a staggering 50% year over year in July, cementing the property type as the clear top product in the city.

While many large real estate markets in Canada have seen tempered activity this summer, Calgary just wrapped up a record July, according to statistics published by the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) this week.

In July, the City of Calgary recorded a grand total of 2,649 home sales, which is a decrease compared to the 3,144 sold in June, but a strong showing when factoring in seasonable trends. Last month showed an 18% increase compared to July 2022 and had the strongest July sales total on record.

By residential property type, single-detached homes still led the way, with 1,197 units sold, followed by condominiums at 772, rowhouses at 467, and semi-attached homes at 211.

The number of new listings added also decreased from 3,939 in June to 3,247 in July, but total inventory nonetheless increased, up from 3,461 in June to 3,488 in July.

“Continued migration to the province, along with our relative affordability, has supported the stronger demand for housing despite higher lending rates,” said CREB Chief Economist Ann-Marie Lurie. “At the same time, we continue to struggle with supply in the resale, new home, and rental markets resulting in further upward pressure on home prices.”

A swath of low-rise red-brick buildings in Regent Park will be demolished to make way for hundreds of new affordable housing units.

A swath of low-rise red-brick buildings in Toronto’s east end will soon be demolished to make way for hundreds of new affordable housing units and a public library.

The buildings, already Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) sites themselves, will be replaced with 633 rent-geared-to-income units and 637 net new affordable homes of as part of Phase 4 and 5 of the Regent Park revitalization.

Rezoning applications for the final phases of the years-long redevelopment project were approved by Toronto City Council last week. Bordered by Gerrard Street East, River Street, Oak Street, and Dreamers Way, the Phase 4 and 5 lands are the last 16 acres on the 69-acre Regent Park site to be redeveloped.

As part of the approval, 527 social housing units at 325 Gerrard Street East will be demolished this fall.

The aforementioned rent-geared-to-income replacement units will be comprised of 58 one-bedrooms, 223 two-bedrooms, 276 three-bedrooms, 50 four-bedrooms, and 26 five-bedrooms. The homes cannot be turned into condos or converted into non-rental housing for at least 40 years following occupation.

City Council has also authorized phased preliminary approval for the demolition of 189 social housing units at 274 Sackville, 355 Gerrard Street East, and 325 Gerrard Street East, and for the demolition of 338 units at 38 addresses on Sackville Street, Gerrard Street East, River Street, and Sumach Street.

This summer, the hottest commodity in town isn’t the perfect pair of cowboy boots or a well-broken-in Stetson — it’s a detached home on a nice lot or a perfect downtown condo with a view.

As the curtain rises on the 10-day extravaganza that is the famed Calgary Stampede, homebuyers are also stampeding to snap up real estate in Alberta’s largest city.
“It started taking off around February, and it’s been like this all year,” said Calgary real estate agent Matt Halladay, who has been helping buyers navigate what has become Canada’s hottest real estate market in 2023.

That means homes selling often the day they’re listed, he said, for well over the asking price — and occasionally sight unseen, as sellers accept a bid before the scheduled viewings even start.

“It’s common to see anywhere from four to 17 offers (on one listing),” Halladay said.

“The most I’ve heard of, on one that we lost out on, was 26 offers.”

The frenzy in Calgary — the city set an all-time record for home sales in June, up 11 per cent year-over-year, with apartment sales alone up an eye-popping 48 per cent — flies in the face of what’s happening nationally.

The real estate story across the country for most of the year thus far has been a decrease in activity due to the impact of higher interest rates.

While home sales in major markets like Toronto and Vancouver started picking up steam again this spring, home sales nationwide in May — the most recent month for which national statistics are available — were up just 1.4 per cent year-over-year, compared with Calgary’s 11 per cent. 

And while prices have fallen nationwide — the Canadian Real Estate Association’s (CREA) aggregate composite home price index for the month of May sat 8.6 per cent below 2022 levels — they are sizzling in Calgary. 
The average selling price of a home in Calgary last month increased by almost seven per cent from a year earlier to $552,273, according to the Calgary Real Estate Board.

“I think we’ve been a bit surprised at how strong it’s been,” said Ann-Marie Lurie, chief economist for the Calgary Real Estate Board.