For years the Toronto Real Estate Board has raised awareness about the crisis of housing and shortage of housing supply in Ontario, in terms of freehold homes, as well as condos and apartments. Despite media reports that there "are too many condos being built", the reality is that more people move to Toronto and Ontario each year in search of its prosperous job market, manufacturing facilities in automotive, agricultural, energy and green tech, as well as fintech markets.

Foreign Buyers Tax is set to rise in Ontario effective October 25, 2022.
 

The Foreign Buyer's Tax or also called the Non-Resident Speculation Tax (or NRST for short) rate rises to 25 per cent.

The NRST applies on the purchase or acquisition of an interest in residential property located anywhere in Ontario by foreign nationals (meaning those who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada) or by foreign corporations or taxable trustees.

In 1996 the average price of a residential property in the Greater Toronto Area was less than $200,000. Fast forward 25 years and more than 2 million properties sold and it is now well over $1,000,000.  Certainly GTA home price increases have easily outpaced the rate of inflation. They have also shown resilience in the face of the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis and Stock market crashes.

Competition for Toronto condo and apartment rentals has increased and rents for 1 bedrooms have gone up by over 20% in the 3rd quarter of 2022 compared to last year in the same time period. The average one-bedroom condominium apartment rent in Toronto in Q3 2022 was up by 20.4 per cent year-over-year to $2,481. The average two-bedroom apartment rent, at 3,184 was up by 14.5 per cent compared to the same period in 2021.

TRREB Releases 2022 Q3 Condo Market Statistics:

Despite economic challenges and the war in Ukraine, the average selling price for condo apartments was up year-over-year. The average selling price for condominium apartments in Q3 2022 was $720,132 – up 4.5 per cent compared to $689,230 reported for Q3 2021. In the City of Toronto, the average selling price was $749,375 – up 3.3 per cent compared to the same time period last year.

The market outlook for 2022 is calling for a new price record in Greater Toronto Area (GTA)

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has made for a slow start to the year! However, now that we are into Stage 1 of re-opening the economy in Ontario, most cleaning services are able to operate. It’s time to think about whether you need a duct cleaning service. Many homeowners or condo owners are not sure about whether air duct cleaning would be of any help or not.

Property prices are still looking strong in Toronto

Property prices are still strong for the month of April in Toronto. What this shows us is that for sellers the pandemic is not causing them to panic and drop prices. There is a lot of faith in the local market and the general feeling is that the economy will bounce back when it comes to real estate (not all sectors of the economy will be so lucky for example restaurants and entertainment businesses).

In Ontario, we are starting to get a sense that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is slowly being brought under control, as more businesses and parks starts to reopen, gas prices stabilize, and we see more property coming back on the market. Yes the number of cases per day is still significant and people are still dying from this terrible virus, however the key indicator is that the epidemiological curve is starting to flatten.  The government has declared we are now entering “Stage 1” for “reopening the Ontario Economy”. There are 3 stages in this process.