REDISCOVER REAL ESTATE

Property virgins: Most 2015 Toronto home sales were to first-time buyers

It was a year of firsts for the Greater Toronto Area’s housing market. A majority of the area’s residential real estate transactions in 2015 involved first-time buyers, a recent poll of homeowners suggests.

To support its forecast for the 2016 GTA housing market and 2015 review, the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) brought on Ipsos Reid, the pollster perhaps most known for its Canadian political surveys.

The resulting Ipsos Home Owners Survey, which included 1,000 GTA residents aged 18 and up who said they bought a home in the last 12 months as of November, found 53 per cent of these recent buyers had never purchased a dwelling before.

“These results bolster the argument that people in Toronto and the surrounding regions continue to view home ownership as a solid long-term investment,” says Sean Simpson, Ipsos Reid’s vice president, in a statement.

“This includes young people aged 18 to 34, who made up the majority of intending first-time buyers,” he added.

Over the last year, the share of first-timers among homebuyers in Toronto was higher than what was observed in the rest of the GTA, the findings suggest.

Some 60 per cent of recent homebuyers in Toronto were property virgins before their purchase.

“The fact that the first-time buyer percentage was higher in the City of Toronto likely speaks to the prevalence of condominium apartments, which generally sell at a lower price per square foot than low-rise home types and thus represent a popular entry point into home ownership,” TREB explained in its Market Year in Review & Outlook report.

Looking at the GTA excluding Toronto, newcomers to real estate took part in 47 per cent of transactions from November 2014 to the same month last year.

Ipsos carried out the survey, based on 2,500 online interviews with GTA homeowners, from November 3rd to the 20th.

By: Josh Sherman | JANUARY  22, 2016 BUZZBUZZ Home News

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Canada among top countries for stable real estate investment: survey

Canada remains a safe bet for investors in the global property game, the results of a new survey from the Association of Foreign Investment in Real Estate (AFIRE) suggest.

As part of its 2016 Foreign Investment Survey, AFIRE asked its 200 worldwide members — which include major real estate owner and developer Oxford Properties Group and a number of Canadian pension funds — what country offers the most stability and security when it comes to real estate investment.

Although just six per cent of respondents chose Canada, that was good enough to earn the country fourth on the list, a spot it has occupied the past three years.

“There were only six countries that even got votes,” James Fetgatter, AFIRE’s CEO, tells BuzzBuzzHome News. Fetgatter explains the question was “open-ended,” therefore respondents could have picked any country. “There’s clearly some interest in Canada because it is such a stable and secure market,” he adds.

The US was by far the most popular choice, however, commanding 60 per cent of all votes, followed by Germany at 19 per cent and the UK at nine per cent. Canada bested Australia’s four per cent and the Netherlands’ two per cent.

Though Canada managed to make the top five once again, its performance falls short of what Fetgatter calls “the significant number” from 2012, when it garnered 18 per cent of the vote and was ranked second. “I think you could probably attribute that to the price of oil, perhaps,” says Fetgatter.

The survey also asked respondents to name their leading cities for real estate investment. Canada was represented here, too, albeit at the bottom. Calgary and Toronto tied in the 27th spot.

Meanwhile, three stateside cities made the top five: New York led all cities, Los Angeles was third, and San Francisco equaled Paris’ fifth-place performance. As it did last year, London occupied the second slot while Berlin became the first German city to crack the top five by placing fourth.

By: Josh Sherman | JANUARY 4, 2016 BUZZBUZZ Home News

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MARKET UPDATE FOR THE WEEK ENDING JANUARY 1ST, 2015

It’s been a few weeks since we last reported and this being the beginning of a brand new year we wanted to get off to an early AND fresh start. Here’s a recap of what we are all about…Our market insights give you a quick snapshot of what’s happening in the core neighbourhoods of the city. We track listings and sales of homes and condos from the 401 to the lake and stretch as far east as the Beaches and as far west as Bloor West Village. 

 

To truly understand and gauge the temperature of the real estate market in Toronto we scour the data available to us and record key metrics such as the number of properties in various price ranges and how many are being traded at or above the list price. The research is extensive and time consuming but provides our agents and their clients with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions.  Today is the starting point on a year-long journey.

 

In the freehold sector, listings are currently at an all-time low. By comparison, in late May of 2015 we had nearly 500 new listings on the market. Last week we recorded an impossibly low 45. The lack of listings did not deter buyers however. In the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day we recorded 27 sales with just under half of them at or above the list price. In one situation we saw one mid-priced detached home property sell over $200k more than the list price.

 

Not surprisingly, the condominium market is also experiencing low listing activity. Just 153 properties were listed throughout the core of the city last week. A surprising 14% of the 68 condos that sold traded at or above the list price. We are well off the record number of listings that we will see at the height of the market but even with low levels of existing listings there are plenty of opportunities to find excellent end user or investment suites.

 

Looking to buy, sell or refinance? Know your options. I can help! Direct line: 416-219-6662

 

What will it take to rein in Toronto and Vancouver housing prices?

Before the recent federal election, the Liberal Party promised to “undertake a review of escalating home prices in high-priced markets – such as Vancouver and Toronto – to determine whether speculation is driving up the cost of housing and survey the policy tools that could keep home ownership within reach for more Canadians.”

But this may be one of the first promises to fall by the wayside under our new government, judging from Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s recent announcement that Ottawa has no further plans to cool the housing market, despite being concerned about the economic risks of high household debt.

Recent data from B.C.’s Macdonald Realty, one of the country’s largest brokers, shows that 33 per cent of Vancouver’s properties over all – and an astonishing 70 per cent of properties valued over $3-million – are sold to offshore buyers. Bidding wars for selective (mostly single-detached) properties, keep driving prices ever higher, at the expense of middle-class Canadians whose salaries make them unable to compete in the housing market. Today, the average Toronto house cost is 8.2 times the average median income, and it’s a staggering 11.2 times for Vancouver.

The overbuilt condo market seems poised for a nearly immediate correction. The monthly Toronto Condo News magazine recently reported on condo sales in the Yonge North Corridor – the affluent and most densely populated condo community in Canada. Their trending charts show price declines of about $40,000 per unit between the first and third quarters of 2015, with units now taking an average of 35 days to sell, compared with 21 days at the beginning of 2014. >>> read full article

Looking to buy, sell or refinance? Know your options. I can help! Direct line: 416-219-6662