It’s typically part of the real estate world that’s not seen by your average homebuyer. But the condominium assignment sales segment of the market has been turned on its head this year as interest rates rapidly jumped. And according to one expert, the plunge in assignment sales activity is not done yet.

“When I say it’s the tip of the iceberg, it’s because I know there’s further interest rate hikes coming. And I know that this is now unchartered territory from having to qualify for a mortgage perspective,” Simeon Papailias, managing partner at Toronto-based real estate sales and consulting firm REC Canada, told Yahoo Finance Canada  in a phone interview.

As historically low interest rates fuelled seemingly ever-climbing home prices, Papailias says, condo preconstruction sales were “on fire”, up until March of this year.

Every night before they go to bed, Mayor John Tory and members of Toronto council should say a little prayer for the municipal land transfer tax.

The tax — an extra municipal fee charged to the buyer on real estate transactions in Toronto — deserves an enormous amount of credit for keeping the city financially solvent over the last decade. It’s not a stretch to say it has been city hall’s salvation. 

Even as the mayor and council have struggled to find enough revenue to fund local services like transit and homeless shelters, the LTT has been a straight-up cash bonanza. When the tax was introduced in 2009 by former mayor David Miller, the city estimated it could bring in about $150M a year.

Evan Dunfee won an Olympic bronze medal in the 50-kilometre racewalk last summer in Tokyo. This fall, the 32-year-old is running for city council in his hometown of Richmond, the fourth largest municipality in Metro Vancouver.

A top election priority is getting more housing built in a city that, like much of Canada, is a sea of low-density, detached homes. With housing a hot political issue, there’s been a tendency for politicians to promise the easy and vague – which usually involves pledging to get lots of new homes built, without specifying how.

Mr. Dunfee is getting more specific, as are some other candidates in municipal elections this month in British Columbia and Ontario. He’s talking about the mechanics of how. Among his specific ideas are loosening rules around minimum lot sizes to allow more homes on less land, ditching parking minimums and allowing townhomes to be built in older neighbourhoods.

What is currently an underutilized parking lot could soon be the site of over 250 new homes, just steps from many of Toronto’s marquee downtown attractions.

An application for a Site Plan Approval and Zoning Bylaw has been put forth to the city for a new mixed-use development at 237 Victoria Street. Developed by Spire Properties and designed by IBI Group, the 24-storey tower will include a total of 256 residential units, as well as 416 sq. m of at-grade retail. 

Sitting atop a six-storey podium, it’ll reach an overall height of 79 m including the mechanical penthouse, on a relatively slender floorplate of 741 sq. m, with an overall combined Gross Floor Area of 17,826 m, 17,410 sq. m of which will be residential. 

Real estate developers have resumed promoting high-end properties to investors and homebuyers in the US, UAE, the UK and Southeast Asia as they start witnessing traction in these markets, partly driven by a depreciating rupee.

According to a recent industry report, NRI investments in Indian real estate may rise to $14.9 billion in FY22.

The housing supply situation in Canada, Ontario, and the GTA has hit a new low. Inventory levels in many major markets are dwindling and home ownership appears to be on the decline.

Figures in a couple of reports released recently paint a relatively gloomy picture for those seeking a home. The findings also suggest that many have given up on owning a home and are moving to rentals.

A report by Re/Max which was based on Canadian Real Estate Association data looked at listings in eight Canadian centres between 2013 and 2022 and found that seven of them fell short of the 10-year average. In the GTA, the housing inventory was down almost seven per cent from the 10-year average.

The situation is only expected to get worse due to projected demographics and population growth.

Calgary property sales cooled in September by nearly 12 per cent when compared with last year, but the market for more affordable housing options is making gains, the Calgary Real Estate Board said Monday.

Demand for detached housing slowed for the sixth month in a row, CREB said in a report on September’s sales, and the decline is being attributed to a narrowing segment of the market: homes priced around $500,000.

A “significant” reduction in supply has left few options for potential purchasers, while condos and row houses have seen increased sales activity, CREB said.

Calgary presents an interesting case in the world of Canadian real estate, as the market in the city has seemed to follow its own course for many years. Now, as the rest of Canada corrects heavily amid rising interest rates, Calgary is holding much better than other markets, and the city that already presents great appeal to investors is starting to look even more appealing, especially in the multifamily sector.

To find out more about new opportunities in Calgary multifamily real estate, we spoke to Natasha Phipps, an investor, agent and founder of  Phipps Real Estate Group at CIR Realty. Phipps is also one of CREW’s top investor agents for the city of Calgary.

According to Phipps, the market in the downtown core of Calgary was previously suppressed, first by the recession the city experienced in 2015, and later by the COVID pandemic that caused many to move towards the suburbs. Despite this, downtown Calgary is now making its comeback, and savvy investors may find great opportunities here.

Ontario’s astronomical cost of living has residents fleeing by the tens of thousands. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) data shows interprovincial migration soar in Q2 2022. Ontario’s talent is fleeing to more affordable regions like Alberta and Nova Scotia. It’s so bad, a Big Six bank warned investors that immigration is having a harder time filling the gap. Ontario has never seen people leave at this scale, as the province fails to compete for young adults.