This week’s top real estate news in Ontario and how your real estate business could be affected.
Toronto Real Estate Saw Condo Inventory Decline By 56% In December
The price of a condo dropped slightly in December. The average price across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) dropped to $440,669, a 0.65% decline from the month prior. This is still a 16.5% increase from the year prior, so I wouldn’t read too much into it…yet. Condos across the GTA had pretty close rates of appreciation across the GTA. In Toronto proper, aka the 416, the average price was $466,592. In the 905, the average price in December was $375,572. This represents an increase of 16.6% in the 416, and an increase of 15.5% in the 905 when compared to the same time last year.
How a foreign-buyer tax could make it even harder to find that elusive Toronto rental
Low vacancies are already fueling bidding wars over Toronto apartments, and a foreign-buyer tax could make rentals in the city even scarcer — and pricier. Shaun Hildebrand, vice president of Toronto-based condo analytics firm Urbanation, recently described how on BuzzTV. “If there is a foreign-buyer tax implemented in Toronto, it’s going to impact confidence,” said Hildebrand via Facebook Live this week. “If condo investors and foreign buyers hold back on buying new units, inevitably, yes, it’s going to restrict the inflow of new rental units into the marketplace.”
What would a Toronto real estate correction mean for other Ontario markets?
The shockwaves would be tied to what the CMHC housing agency calls “price spillover,” which occurs when high home prices in a certain market send buyers packing for cheaper municipalities. This has been most obvious in the pricey single-detached segment, which includes detached and semi-detached homes, CMHC says in its latest Housing Market Insight report.
TTC’s newest subway extension taking shape
At a media tour of the new Downsview Park station on Monday, TTC CEO Andy Byford emphasized that the Toronto York Spadina Subway Extension, a six-stop addition to Line 1 that is scheduled to open in December, will be state of the art.
Vaughan Metropolitan Centre transit terminal breaks ground
An inter-regional transit terminal has broken ground at Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, the largest urban mixed-use development in Canada. The terminal, designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects, will serve York Region Rapid Transit’s bus network and have a pedestrian connection to the Viva Bus Rapid Transit line and the new terminal station on the Toronto Transit Commission’s extended Spadina subway line. Both the bus terminal and subway station are expected to open at the end of 2017.
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