Greater Toronto Area (GTA) new condominium sales reached their highest Q1 on record with 8,253 units sold, rising 55% year-over-year and exceeding the 10-year average (5,154 sales) by 60%. A record high 94% share of total new condos in development were pre-sold as of Q1-2022, pushing unsold inventory down to an 18-quarter low of 8,726 units.  New condominium demand has been far outweighing supply during the past two quarters, as total sales exceeded the total number of units launched for presale by 4,417 units, resulting in a six-month plunge of 34% for unsold inventory. The 3.1 months of supply on the market in Q1-2022 represented a record low for the GTA new condo market, which coincided with a 16% year-over-year increase in average unsold prices to a new high of $1,381 psf.

Read More: https://www.urbanation.ca/news/344-gta-new-condo-sales-reach-record-high-q1

Just how big is Canada’s real estate bubble? Canadians, especially in the real estate industry, are already warning rate hikes are damaging the economy. While large price drops sound scary, no one had realized how scary large price gains had become. A typical home can drop the equivalent of a median household’s income, and only roll back to last December — wiping out just 3 months of gains.

If Canadian Home Prices Drop $91k, They’ll Only Wipe Out Q1 Gains

Canadian home prices would need to make a nearly six-digit drop to reverse just the gains made this year. The composite benchmark for a home across the country reached $887,100 in March, up $91,600 from December 2021. Not a mistake. That’s the increase over just the first 3-months of the year — an average of $30k/month, according to CREA.

Read More: https://betterdwelling.com/canadas-real-estate-bubble-is-so-big-a-91k-price-drop-only-wipes-out-3-months/

Canadian future building construction intentions tapered as interest rates climbed, shows permit data. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) data shows the value of building permits, a leading indicator, made a small dive in March. Future building plans remain elevated compared to pre-2020. However, residential plans slowed as expected after record building activity.

Canadian Building Permit Values Fell 9% In March

Canadian building permits took a dip in the latest numbers. The value of building permits reached $11.7 billion in March, down 9.3% from a month before. While down, future building intentions remain 5.2% higher than last year — at least in dollar terms. The non-residential sector was behind the monthly drop. Annual growth was slowed by reduced plans for residential building.

Read More: https://betterdwelling.com/canadian-building-permit-values-fell-as-housing-demand-softens-from-peak/

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/