Hong Kong’s roiling political shift and lackluster COVID-19 response has led to an influx of Hong Kong citizens flooding real-estate markets across the UK, Canada, and Australia.

The exodus has been several years in the making. In 2020, China implemented a restrictive national security law in the city-state, and many residents feared the loss of democratic freedom. Disdain towards their home city grew even stronger during the Covid-19 pandemic, as Hong Kong aligned itself with China’s strict zero-Covid strategy. Hong Kong’s 7.5 million residents faced mass testings, strict curfews, and chaotic lockdowns during its fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year. And up until recently, anyone traveling into Hong Kong was forced to endure — and pay for — a strict three-week quarantine. 

Read More: https://apple.news/ABboIHeFkRN24JjwYNIyPvQ

Johnny Chen, 33, received a promotion and sizeable salary bump in March, but it hasn’t helped his six-month search for a single-family home in Vancouver, Canada. Chen, a director of equity sales and trading at an investment bank who falls into Canada’s top income bracket, scrolls through online home listings every day. But the city’s low volume of homes for sale means there’s not much to see. A half-year into his hunt, he’s yet to make an offer on a place. “I’m a bit trigger shy… it’s hard to wrap my head around prices right now. Vancouver’s real estate market is a bit crazy,” Chen says.

Read More: https://fortune.com/2022/04/24/us-housing-market-home-prices-canada-2022-budget/

Royal LePage is raising its forecast for 2022, despite some signs suggesting that the real estate market might finally be moderating after a frenzied run up in prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The real estate brokerage had initially forecast Canadian home prices to rise by 10.5 per cent in 2022 but it now says that it expects prices to be up 15 per cent by the fourth quarter of 2022, driven by a continued acceleration in the Greater Toronto Area.

The adjustment is being partially attributed to a record breaking first quarter, in which the average price of a Canadian home rose 25.1 per cent year-over-year to $856,900.

Read More: https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/real-estate-firm-increases-house-price-forecast-for-greater-toronto-area-in-2022-1.5867004

n April 7, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland tabled “A Plan to Grow Our Economy and Make Life More Affordable”, the first budget of the 44th parliamentary session. As anticipated, this budget is heavily focused on addressing the housing crisis in Canada and acknowledges the importance of housing to both individual Canadians and the Canadian economy.

In her address to Parliament, the Deputy Prime Minister stated: “Housing is a basic human need, but it is also an economic imperative. Our economy is built by people, and people need homes in which to live. But Canada does not have enough homes. We need more of them, fast.”

Read More: https://news2me.crea.ca/2022/april-2022/housing-took-centre-stage-in-budget-2022/

Under these proposed DC rates, this would translate into charges of about $9.6mm for the one bedroom suites and $9.8mm for the two bedroom suites, totaling over $19.4mm in DCs alone. But keep in mind that there would be other charges on top of this for parkland dedication, community benefits, and a bunch of other things.

Read More: https://brandondonnelly.com/2022/04/13/toronto-proposes-at-49-increase-to-development-charges/

The federal government announced on Thursday that it is officially seeking to implement an anti-flipping tax on homeowners across Canada.

The proposed tax, included in the 2022 Federal Budget put forward by Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland on Thursday, would affect homeowners who sell a principal residence that they’ve held for less than 12 months. According to the budget, the profits from this type of sale would be taxed as business income — a change from current Canadian legislation which allowed a capital gains tax exemption on all principal residences.

Read More: https://storeys.com/canada-anti-flipping-tax/

Anyone hoping to purchase in cottage country this year can expect to face growing prices as buyer demand continues to outstrip available home supply.

New market projections released by Royal LePage forecast that the aggregate price of a single-family home in Canada’s recreational regions will rise 13 per cent in 2022 to $640,710 as demand outperforms supply.

However, prices aren’t expected to rise as much as they did last year. In 2021, the aggregate price of a recreational single-family home in Canada grew 26.6 per cent annually to $567,000. During the same time period, the aggregate price of a single-family waterfront property jumped 21.5 per cent from 2020 to $976,000, while prices for recreational condos were up 15.4 per cent yearly to $374,000.

Read More: https://www.livabl.com/2022/04/recreational-home-rise-2022.html

Walmart Inc. is making Toronto one of a pair of new global tech hubs, with plans to hire hundreds of workers at the two sites.

The retail giant says it chose Canada’s largest city and Atlanta, Ga. as hubs because of their growing tech sector presence and their broad and diverse local talent pools.

“We are excited to join the vibrant and diverse tech communities in Toronto and Atlanta,” said Suresh Kumar, chief technology officer and chief development officer at Walmart.

Read More: https://www.cp24.com/news/walmart-creating-global-tech-hub-in-toronto-part-of-3-5-billion-investment-1.5820571

We presently have a housing crisis in Ontario. Unfortunately, we also have a labour crunch.

More than 100,000 skilled trades workers in the province are expected to retire over the next decade. This will leave a gaping hole in the construction industry unless we get more people into the trades. In the residential sector, we are already short of some voluntary trades with specialized skill sets.

Shortages are expected in several trades in residential construction as domestic training and hiring alone will not be enough to keep up with the increasing demand for housing and infrastructure.

Read More: https://www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca/news/rescon-presses-feds-to-allow-more-skilled-trades-into-canada-335042.aspx

Fewer Canadians are signing up for new mortgages.

According to insights in Equifax Canada’s quarterly Market Pulse report, new mortgage growth fell 8.1 per cent between Q4-2020 and Q4-2021. The largest drops in new mortgages were detected in some of the country’s most expensive housing markets, according to a press release. In Toronto and Hamilton, for instance, new mortgages were down 16.1 per cent and 18.7 per cent year-over-year in Q4-2021.

“There’s no question that sky-rocketing house prices have decreased housing affordability across all segments,” said Rebecca Oakes, assistant vice-president of advanced analytics at Equifax Canada, in the release.

“In addition to high house prices, lenders have also started to move interest rates up in anticipation of rate rises from the Bank of Canada. This could also be limiting the purchasing capacity of many consumers,” she added.

Read More: https://www.livabl.com/2022/03/new-mortgages-dropped-equifax-canada.html