Fewer Listings Fuel Condo Market + Luxury Home Sales Down

Toronto: Why the GTA condo market is still hot and high-end home sales hit by new rules. 

Elsewhere: Canada takes drastic steps to make housing more affordable, high prices in American cities are reviving the suburbs and will the UK's starter homes initiative ever get off the ground? 

Toronto

This is why the GTA condo market is still red hot, despite a dip in sales (Buzz Buzz News)

“One of the big reasons we’re not seeing a cool down in the condo market in spite of falling sales is because the number of new listings…has also been on the way down,” writes Realosophy president John Pasalis, in a recent report. “Not only are the number of condo listings down over last year, they have been trending down since 2015, and are currently at their lowest level since at least 2010.”

High-end home sales hit by new rules: Report (Toronto Star)

A shortage of supply and hot demand from downsizers is expected to boost the Toronto area’s luxury condo prices by 10 per cent in the next year, although high-end house prices won’t see the same lift, according to a luxury residential report by Royal LePage.

‘Crisis of affordability’ for Toronto renters, report says (The Star)

Nationwide, the index found 40 per cent of renters in Canada are spending over that threshold, with 18 per cent spending more than half their income on rent and utilities. In Toronto, 47 per cent of households are spending more than 30 per cent of their income on rent and utilities, and 23 per cent are spending more than 50 per cent.

Toronto council should stop delaying laneway housing (The Star)

Last week, the Toronto and East York Community Council voted to defer until early June the “Changing Lanes” report from the city’s planning department that proposes allowing construction by homeowners, on existing lots, of laneway suites to use or rent. The new structures would remain attached legally to the existing home and design guidelines would set such things as permissible height, angle of rooflines, window and balcony placement.

Canada

Canada’s mortgage test just got tougher (The Globe and Mail)

A rate used in mortgage stress tests – more formally known as the Bank of Canada’s conventional five-year mortgage rate – is now 5.34 per cent, up from 5.14 per cent. This is the fifth time since last summer the rate has climbed higher.

Canada’s rental housing growth outstrips home ownership (The Globe)

“For 50 years, we’ve been trending toward home ownership, but now that average and even upper-income workers are being priced out of home ownership, they are staying in rental housing for far longer,” said Jill Atkey, acting chief executive and managing director of the BC Non-Profit Housing Association.

As middle class gets priced out of housing market, Canada takes drastic steps to make it affordable (National Post)

Now, Canada is embarking on an ambitious plan to create more moderately priced rental units. With land handouts and tax incentives provided by the city and provinces, one group hopes to bring 50,000 affordable apartments to Toronto and Vancouver in just 10 years.