A new incentive program designed to add as many as 20,000 new purpose-built rental housing units to the City of Toronto — including 7,000 through a municipally-funded first phase — is being scrutinized by development sector stakeholders, many of whom are wary that it doesn’t have the legs to make a meaningful impact.

Made public at the end of October and approved at Wednesday’s City Council meeting in a 23-1 vote, the program is called the Purpose-built Rental Homes Incentives Stream and, at a high level, it pairs qualifying projects with certain perks, including “an indefinite deferral” of development charges (so long as they remain rental in tenure), a “recommended” property tax reduction of 15% for 35 years, and foregone taxes and fees for affordable rental units.

After Toronto and Vancouver real estate boards posted striking year-over-year increases in home sales for October — 44% and over 30%, respectively — it appears they’re not alone, as the Canadian Real Estate Organization (CREA) reported Friday that nationwide sales in October were the highest they’ve been since April 2022.

All in all, sales rose 7.7% on a month-over-month basis and a grew a substantial 30% from October 2023, on a not-seasonally-adjusted basis. In comparison, sales only rose 1.9% month-over-month in September and 1.3% in August, representing a potential breaking of the ‘holding pattern’ that has characterized the last several months, despite consecutive rate cuts.

When Mehrdad Khayeri bought his dream house in the Greater Toronto Area earlier this year, he scored a big bonus: nearly $35,000 back. It was a perk he negotiated through a cashback agreement with his real estate agent.

“My wife and I did the bulk of the heavy lifting,” Khayeri said, describing how they found most of the listings that interested them. “With so many online tools nowadays, like House Sigma and MLS … the [agents] are actually doing maybe less work.”

His agent still earned 2.5 per cent commission on the sale price for helping him buy the home but gave about three-quarters of the fee to Khayeri. It’s a practice that could become more common as homebuyers push back on commissions that have soared alongside housing prices over the past few years.

Canadian real estate prices continued its downtrend last month, printing even larger losses. Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) data shows the price of a benchmark (typical) home fell in October, despite a surge in sales. Prices continued to grind lower and are now similar to where they were 3 years ago. Surging home sales are an encouraging sign of a return to market normalization, but several issues make it unclear if this trend will stick around. 

CREA’s benchmark price shows a typical home made an even sharper drop last month. The composite fell 0.8% (-$5,500 ) lower to $707,700 in October, following a 0.6% (-$4,600) drop in September. This marks the sixth consecutive monthly drop, with prices 2.7% (-$19,800) lower than last year. Home prices remain where they were roughly 3 years ago, even with backward-looking revisions to the index. 

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board showed increases in sales and prices in many areas in October. In Mississauga, the average home price increased 3.2 per cent to $1,081,951 and sales were up 27 per cent.

Monthly home sales climbed in the GTA on a month-over-month basis in both September and October for the first time since 2020, when the market was in overdrive during the pandemic, according to digital real estate platform Wahi.

Experts believe Bank of Canada rate cuts are behind the increased sales activity. “The real test will be next year’s spring market,” says Wahi CEO Benjy Katchen. “It’s still too early to tell what the cumulative effects of the Bank of Canada’s rate cuts will be on the GTA’s real estate market.”

The number of homes sold in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) rose substantially in October, leading industry analysts to suggest that the Bank of Canada‘s interest rate cuts had improved affordability and encouraged buyers to re-enter the market.

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) reported 6,658 homes were sold through its MLS system last month, a 44.4 per cent increase from October 2023. “It’s a really nice number to say, but we have to look at how low sales were a year ago,” said Toronto realtor Cailey Heaps, adding that “things are definitely tracking in the right direction,” though the market has yet to return to peak levels.

Graywood Developments and KingSett Capital have made changes to their plan for The Notable, a proposed 50-storey condo located a block southeast of the intersection of Yonge and St Clair in Toronto’s Deer Park neighbourhood. While maintaining the height and storey-count, the Turner Fleischer Architects design decreases the total number of units while proving more large units, shifting away somewhat from smaller investor-oriented units.

The site is an assembly of 29, 31, 33, and 39 Pleasant Boulevard, spanning approximately 1,490m² on the south side of the street. Currently, the western portion of the site remains vacant, while the eastern portion houses a two-storey residential building and a four-storey office building. It is in a well-connected neighbourhood rich with transit options, local amenities, and green spaces.

American interest in Canadian real estate has risen significantly this election year, according to online data from real estate franchiser, Royal LePage. A report released by the company today shows that visits to its website, royallepage.ca, from U.S. users more than doubled at the start of the election season, increasing by 104 per cent week-over-week in mid-June.

The jump in traffic, which rose an additional four per cent following the first presidential debate, continued through the summer and reached a single-day high on July 15 — the day Donald Trump officially secured the Republican nomination.

“Canada’s relative political and social stability, high quality of life, and access to education and universal healthcare, make it a highly attractive country for newcomers,” Phil Soper, chief executive of Royal LePage, said in the report, adding that, for Americans, proximity and minimal language barriers further enhance Canada’s appeal.