Finance minister Charles Sousa explained how they plan 16 changes to current Ontario guidelines
By
Mark Schadenberg
The
province on Ontario is varied in its residential congestion as it ranges from
extremely crowded in Toronto to nothing but lakes and trees between Red Lake
and Pickle Lake in the north,
When
Premier Kathleen Wynne announced new proposed guidelines to control residential
real estate in Ontario I’m glad she concentrated on the geographical area of
the Golden Horseshoe. We all know that the population concentration of Canada
places about 90% of the inhabitants within a 90-minute drive of the U.S., but
if you place push pins on a map from Oshawa and around Lake Ontario to Hamilton
you will likely count about 6 million residents. Ontario’s population graph is
like a thick milk shake around Toronto and a vapor near the salt-water port of Moosonee
on James Bay.
Real
estate purchasing has become almost unattainable in the GTA, so those folks
have moved to Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge. People who would prefer
to live in or near one of those communities are now flocking to Woodstock,
Brantford and London.
This
trend will slow down as price increases in Toronto slow down. Everything is
relative, but the average increase of a home in Toronto at 33% over the past 12
months, is almost the same percentage increase in Woodstock. Basically, a home
worth $300,000 in the fall of 2015 in Woodstock would now sell (18 months
later) for close to 400,000. I can show you the comparables to prove this math.
Provincial
finance minister Charles Sousa introduced legislation which is wide ranging as
it covers the creation of a tax for non-residents purchasing in Ontario, and includes
new guidelines on rent increases. I find it hard to believe that apartment
structures built since 1991 were exempt from some of the rental increase rules
as that date should have been modified to about 2010. I can understand that you
may pay a premium to reside in a newer building, but a building which was created
in 1992 is not new.
Could
you imagine receiving notice from your landlord that your rent would be
increased exponentially just because the landlord was permitted to do so.
The
15% non-resident tax is interesting because it will be in effect retroactively
to April 21 when the legislation is passed at Queen’s Park, which means it
essentially is in place right now.
A
vacant homes tax is important as many speculators will purchase a home and
leave it empty and use it simply as an investment as prices skyrocket.
The
addition of a housing advisory group seems necessary as a source to collect and
analyse data, but any municipality which is calculating its need for low-income
housing and preparing reports for the folks at city hall and Queen’s Park can
tell you the real concrete story months before an advisory group pens an
opinion.
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Toronto
Star columnist write:
The province has acknowledged
that these steps alone won't solve the crisis of affordable housing in Toronto
and throughout the region.
A good next step would be to
deliver on two longstanding promises in next week's provincial budget. First,
the government should finally make good on its three-year-old vow to invest
nearly $900 million to address the crushing repair backlog at Toronto Community
Housing. Some 181,000 people are on waitlists for affordable housing while the
city is forced to close hundreds of units it can't afford to fix. That makes no
sense.
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As the ad above notes, you can still buy a new detached home in the Toronto area, but the cost is quite high.
Historically low interest rates are still the main reason why there are more buyers than sellers in real estate.
The
best part of the news this past week, is that the provincial government has
created a new and improved program to encourage the building of apartment
rental buildings versus more 700-square foot condo units in a high rise. Don’t
get me wrong, buying real estate is obviously a very solid long-term investment
and Woodstock (in my opinion) lacks condo apartments for an aging sector hoping
to maintain a foothold in the equity real estate world. However, in the GTA people
can not afford a down payment on a tiny condo apartment.
The
same proposal to developers from the provincial government includes convincing
builders to create larger dwelling units to accommodate larger families, such
as 3-bedroom rentals.
It’s
interesting to remind you that the CEO of the Ontario Real Estate Association
(OREA) is former Progressive Conservative party provincial leader Tim Hudak.
This is what he had to say about the Ontario Fair Housing Program.
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OREA
CEO Tim Hudak:
“Our goal as Realtors is to keep the dream of home
ownership within reach for millennials, first-time home buyers and young
families. We had over a dozen meetings with Premier Wynne, Finance Minister
Sousa, the Honourable Tracy MacCharles, Housing Minister Chris Ballard and
other senior staff to bring our ideas on home affordability forward. We’re
pleased to see that the government has listened. For one, increasing the supply
of homes is the best way to give buyers a better shot at home ownership and the
government has committed to working with municipalities to remove the barriers
to getting more new homes and listings on the market faster.
Secondly, since I became CEO of the Ontario Real Estate
Association, I’ve worked with my board and Ontario Realtors to call for an
overhaul of REBBA, the legislation that sets the rules for Realtors, to raise
the bar on professional standards. Since the Act was first implemented in 2002,
the real estate world has changed tremendously, therefore the legislation must
be updated to catch up with the times. We look forward to working with the
government to modernize the rules governing the profession, to help strengthen
the sector and make Ontario a leader in real estate transactions and
standards.
Education standards for Realtors must also be improved to
ensure that Ontarians are working with highly skilled professionals when buying
and selling their home, the biggest financial move most people will make in
their lives.”
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LINKS:
All entries on this blog site are compiled and written by:
Mark Schadenberg, sales rep
Royal LePage Triland Realty
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