Realosophy Team in Media Roundup, Toronto Real Estate News
All you need to know regarding the housing market in Toronto, Canada and abroad.
This week in Toronto: Ontario urged to act as housing crisis continues, Ottawa seeks a high-level meeting to discuss soaring prices and developers say high density rules are fueling red-hot market.
Elsewhere: Hot housing markets could drag down Canada's economy, is Vancouver lonelier than other cities and fears about U.K. leaseholds.
Toronto
Ontario urged to act on housing as Toronto-area home prices hit record (The Globe and Mail)
Pressure is growing on the Ontario government to announce measures to cool the Toronto region’s overheated housing sector as detached home prices climbed 33 per cent in March to a record high, and as Toronto Mayor John Tory called on policy makers to ensure speculators are not driving up the market.
Ottawa seeks high-level meeting to discuss Toronto’s soaring house prices (Toronto Star)
Morneau wrote Sousa and Tory separately Wednesday asking to meet soon to “consider how we can collectively make progress to ensure that housing in the GTA is both affordable and accessible for the long term.
Developers tell province high density rules fuelling GTA red-hot market (CBC)
Developers are trying to persuade Premier Kathleen Wynne and her government that easing restrictions on building new homes will help rein in skyrocketing house prices in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
Increase in GTA real estate listings does little to ease overheated market, report says (The Star)
Time, not government intervention, will bring the gravity-defying market back to Earth, said Dianne Usher, senior vice-president of Johnston and Daniel, a division of Royal Lepage.
A ‘vacant homes’ tax won’t have much effect: Editorial (The Star)
If Toronto does go ahead with a tax on vacant homes in an effort to slow the vertiginous rise in property prices, it will be an example of this unfortunate habit. It will allow the city and province to claim they are doing something, while almost certainly having next to no effect on the housing market.
Canada
Hot housing markets could drag down Canada’s economy if unchecked, RBC chief warns (Financial Post)
“And while we remain confident in the strength of our mortgage book, we believe that if this issue goes unchecked, it could drag on consumer spending, locking up too much capital unproductively, and potentially becoming an inhibitor to Canada’s future economic growth,” McKay told shareholders.
P.E.I. has 2nd most affordable housing market in Canada: report (CBC)
Prince Edward Islanders work less than half the time of other Canadians to pay for their homes, according to a new report from Generation Squeeze, an advocacy group for young Canadians.
Vancouver housing market sees signs of stabilization with March sales (BNN)
“While demand in March was below the record high of last year, we saw demand increase month-to-month for condos and townhomes,” Jill Oudil, the Board’s president said. “Sellers still seem reluctant to put their homes on the market, making for stiff competition among home buyers.”
Is Vancouver lonelier than most cities or just better about addressing it? (The Guardian)
Amid polls suggesting one in four Vancouver residents have grappled with social isolation, the city has launched a range of initiatives aimed to combat the problem.
USA
In Ohio County That Backed Trump, Word of Housing Cuts Stirs Fear (New York Times)
Mosque NIMBYism: The Neighborhood Muslim Ban (City Lab)
The supporters, mostly Muslims and residents of color, tried to assuage their neighbors’ concerns about traffic congestion and noise. Some affirmed that they, too, belonged in the Bayonne community—and deserved a place to pray. “I was captain of the swim team for the Bayonne high school, I won a county championship,” Ali Hassan, a Bayonne native, said in his testimony. “I probably swam with some of your kids—they’re my friends.”
Chile a steady, growing factor in Miami real estate (Miami Herald)
Over the past decade, as South American investment in Miami real estate has flowed and ebbed dramatically, Chile’s impact has been comparable to the Miami Dolphins in the NFL: good enough to be mentioned, but not enough to outshine the influence of neighbors like Brazil, Argentina or Venezuela.
The HomeOwners Alliance said that of the 5m leasehold properties in England and Wales, 1.58m are “owner occupied”. “But in the eyes of the law, they are in fact owned by their freeholder. The UK’s official rate of home ownership was 64.6% in 2014, but this includes the leaseholders who are not their legal owners – subtract them, and the rate falls to just 58.9%,” the alliance said in its Homes Held Hostage report.
The property billboards that reveal the truth about Britain’s luxury housing market (The Guardian)
