Real Estate Update

Globe and Mail 
A data access deal between the Toronto Real Estate Board and a neighbouring board will for the first time expand the geographic reach of new competition rules that have allowed Canadian house hunters more access to such critical data as sold prices, expired listings and agent performance. In August, the Supreme Court ruled that TREB must comply with a 2016 Competition Tribunal ruling that ordered the real estate board to end a practice of blocking members from publishing online such disputed data as sold prices. The order only applied to TREB and its 52,000 members, but the data restrictions the tribunal banned are common across other local real estate boards around the country, with the exception of the Maritimes.  READ MORE

Toronto Star 
Mississauga could house nearly half a million more people in the next 30 years without having to spread out into the countryside or up into skyscrapers, according to a new report from the Ryerson City Building Institute. Using Mississauga as a case study, the report, titled “Finding the Missing Middle in the GTHA,” says building in the “missing middle” — multi-unit housing with access to schools, services and work — could bridge the gap between central but small downtown condos and suburban homes that come with long commutes.  READ MORE

Insauga 
It looks like things are getting exciting — or concerning, depending on your perspective and general anxiety level — for Mississauga’s real estate market. Heavily tied to Toronto’s housing market due to proximity, Mississauga and the GTA could be in some hot water when it comes to housing prices.  READ MORE

Bidding wars: Win or walk?

REM 
In an ideal world, your buyer is the only bidder on their dream home. However, unless all the planets are impeccably aligned and you’re in the midst of a balanced or buyers’ market, you and your buyer may find yourselves in the unenviable position of having to compete with another anxious buyer (or several) who shares your client’s ideal of what constitutes a dream home. When should you encourage your buyer to walk away from a war? Does the procedure involve a logical strategy for buyer or seller, or does it all boil down to gut feeling? How can a seller maximize the benefit of a multiple bid?  READ MORE

Financial Post 
Sotheby’s International Realty Canada has released its latest luxury real estate report. Sotheby’s CEO Brad Henderson sits down with the Financial Post’s Larysa Harapyn to break down what’s happening in the market across Canada.  READ MORE

Better Dwelling 
Swiss mega-bank UBS updated their Bubble Index, with Toronto and Vancouver making the list. Actually, they didn’t just make the list — they were in the top 5. Toronto ranked third, and Vancouver was right behind in fourth. The bank further added that rising rates and decreased affordability limit further upside in the medium and long-run.  READ MORE

REM 
We’ve all been faced with an overpriced listing at some point in our real estate journey. How do you deal with that? How do you get your client to list the house at the fair market price?  READ MORE 
 

REM 
Real estate brokerages in Ontario that work with consumers to arrange short-term accommodations are being told they must become licensed as travel agents. The Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO) has begun a campaign targeting real estate brokerages with threats of legal action because they work with consumers arranging short-term accommodations, says the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA). TICO is sending “compliance letters” to Realtors demanding that they become registered as travel agents.  READ MORE

Better Dwelling 
Canadian real estate prices are seeing slowing growth, but still printed a new record. The Teranet-National Bank House Price Index (Teranet HPI) shows a major slowdown in August. Canada’s largest markets saw the slowest price growth they’ve seen since 2009.  READ MORE

Financial Post 
The Toronto Real Estate Board says it is still reviewing a handful of issues associated with releasing Greater Toronto Area sales data, but it will make a password-protected feed with the numbers available to realtors. In an email to members obtained by The Canadian Press, the board says the feed can only be used to engage with residential real estate brokerage services and any other uses are not permitted under TREB agreements.  READ MORE

Global News 
The Ontario Real Estate Association is calling on the province to intervene in an alleged push from the Travel Industry Council of Ontario to force realtors to register as travel agents if they want to arrange short-term rentals for Ontario clients. In a letter to Minister of Government and Consumer Services Todd Smith, OREA chief executive Tim Hudak asks Smith to have his staff sit down with all of the sides and come to an agreement that doesn’t force realtors to register with their own regulatory body and TICO.  READ MORE

REM 
A lead comes in. You call. No answer. You email. No response. Crickets. Sound familiar? In my previous post, I talked about why not all leads are created equal. Another common challenge I hear when talking to Realtors centres around conversion and the frustration of not being able to turn leads into clients.  READ MORE

Globe and Mail 
The Toronto Real Estate Board has issued a stern warning to agents not to enter “inaccurate sold prices” of a real estate transaction into the multiple listing system, even if their clients are concerned about privacy. The warning came one day after a number of Toronto real estate professionals began circulating a screenshot on Twitter that showed an MLS listing that claimed a house priced at $3.1 million had been sold for $1.  READ MORE 
 

REM 
Starting a new career as a real estate professional requires a lot of planning and investment of both time and finances. Based on interviews with Realtors, some new to the field and some with years of experience who are at the top of their game, REM was able to develop some guidelines for people who are thinking of becoming Realtors or are new to the business. Here are a few best practices recommendations that stood out as a common thread.  READ MORE 

Mortgage Broker News 
Sales of new homes in the Greater Toronto Area fell by 44 per cent on a year-over-year basis in July, per the latest data from the Altus Group. "New home sales in the GTA typically take a breather in the summer months compared to the spring," Altus Group executive VP Patricia Arsenault said. "This July was no exception, although minimal new project launches in July, along with declining affordability of new condominium apartments due to recent price escalation, amplified the June-to-July decline in sales somewhat this year."  READ MORE

CBC News 
John Pasalis, president of Realosophy Realty Inc., said he believes lower house prices have led to more vacant homes on the market in the Greater Toronto Area, likely due to "stubborn sellers" holding out for a return to 2017 prices. Pasalis went through the data and found that 28 per cent of GTA properties listed for sale are advertised on the MLS as being vacant. That number is up 17 per cent from last year, he said, adding that the actual number of vacant properties is likely higher.  READ MORE

The Globe and Mail 
After a Supreme Court ruling, the war for control of Toronto real estate data should be over. But the victorious Competition Bureau, the defeated Toronto Real Estate Board and even many of the board's own members remain at odds on a number of legal and technical details. The most pressing dispute seems to be over timing.  READ MORE

REM 
It's one thing to say, "I'm going to have a social media strategy," or "I'm going totally online for all my marketing." It's another thing to actually have a strategy for how much you're going to spend, who you're going to target as your audience and what support you're going to provide to this strategy.  READ MORE

HuffPost Canada (opinion) 
A little over a week since the Supreme Court's decision not to hear an appeal from the Toronto Real Estate Board on the release of home sales data, it's clear that this opening up of data about home listings will be slow going, if it goes at all. While some websites have popped up offering the enhanced housing data on the Toronto market, real estate boards around the country aren't exactly jumping to follow suit.  READ MORE 
 

Financial Post
The Supreme Court of Canada has refused to hear an appeal from the Toronto Real Estate Board in a dispute over access to real estate data, a decision that is expected to open new opportunities to make home sales histories and other market information widely available online. Immediately following the decision, real estate websites including Zoocasa and HouseSigma began publishing sold prices next to the property listings on their websites. That's likely just the beginning, provided no further challenges emerge, said John Andrews, a real estate professor at Queen's University.  READ MORE

Canadian Mortgage Trends
The MLS® Home Price Index released by the Canadian Real Estate Association was up 2.1 percent to $634,300 this July from July 2017. July is the first month since April 2017 that these benchmark prices have grown year-over-year. The gains are likely due to the Greater Toronto Area rebounding from the psychological effect of the Ontario Fair Housing Plan announced in April 2017, which included 16 measures designed to cool the market.  READ MORE

Better Dwelling
Canada saw less new buyers last year. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation numbers show mortgages to new owners saw a huge decline last year. Despite the huge decline, the average balance of these new mortgages inflated. New homebuyers are taking out less mortgages, but much larger ones — especially in the suburbs.  READ MORE

REM
You know how to market your homes for sale, but many agents feel at a loss when it comes to getting themselves some exposure. Here are some ideas you can use over and over again that anyone can easily follow for a successful online marketing campaign.  READ MORE

Brampton Guardian
According to a report from Point2 Homes, a Saskatoon-based real estate search portal, 71 per cent of millennials in Mississauga and 70 per cent in Brampton are planning on buying a home within the following year. Only problem is, most prospective homebuyers between the ages of 25 and 38 in those two cities have nowhere near the kind of savings required to do so.  READ MORE

Real Estate Professional
Canadian residential real estate is the third-most overvalued worldwide, according to a new global price analysis by The Economist. Trailing just behind New Zealand and Australia, Canada's homes are estimated to be 56 per cent more expensive than they should be.  READ MORE

REM
Do you feel like you're spending way too much time marketing and not enough time on other aspects of your business? (Or your life?) One of the many benefits of using marketing tools like email and social media is the ability to automate. Once the systems are set up, they work in the background and help nurture prospects through the sales funnel, leaving you more time to do more important things.  READ MORE
 

REM
Closing a real estate transaction generally ushers in feelings of excitement and relief. The funds have officially made their way into the seller’s account, and all parties can rest easy after a month or more in limbo. But not so fast! Before the keys are handed over, the buyer has to shell out for the most reviled of closing costs: land transfer tax (LTT).  READ MORE

Toronto Star
If a lawyer receives an incentive from a title insurance company for arranging a client’s policy, who should get the benefit: the lawyer or the client? This question is at the core of an investigation now underway by a working group of directors (also known as benchers) of the Law Society of Ontario. This group has been considering practices involving the payment of fees and the offer of benefits by title insurers to real estate lawyers, or their staff.  READ MORE

Better Dwelling
Canadian real estate debt is at epic levels, but who are these people borrowing? The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and Equifax provided us with a breakdown of debt, shedding a little light on homeownership at the end of 2017. Despite elevated home prices across Canada, there’s over a million millennial homeowners. Even more surprising is there’s even more older Canadians with a lot of debt attached to their home.  READ MORE

Financial Post
Canada is not just running out of residential real estate in its key markets — the country’s commercial and industrial real estate is also filling up fast. Availability of industrial property across the country fell to a historically low level of 3.9 per cent in 2018, while supply tightened in eight of the 10 major commercial real estate markets, according to CBRE Group, the real estate services and investment firm.  READ MORE

REM
Being great at sales and giving exceptional service to customers doesn’t necessarily translate into someone being a great leader and manager. I recently worked with a Realtor for seven months to hire an office manager for her team. Let me say that again: SEVEN MONTHS! I presented her with some of the industry’s best office managers, both licensed and unlicensed. What I experienced in that time and what the candidates were put through during this period was completely unprofessional and I was shocked that this was coming from someone who is renowned in her industry.  READ MORE

Better Dwelling
Peak Canadian real estate investment is behind us, according to another indicator. Statistics Canada (StatCan) numbers show residential investment as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is moving lower. Taking a dive through unadjusted data, we can see this trend is primed to head much lower soon.  READ MORE
 

Mississauga News via Mississauga.com
A recent report from the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) showed a huge spike in the monthly cost to rent a townhouse or condo in Canada’s sixth largest city. In its most recent quarterly analysis of townhouse and apartment-style condominium listings and rentals, TREB reported the average monthly cost to rent a one-bedroom unit in Mississauga between April and June at $1,890. That was up 5.3 per cent from an average of $1,794 in first three months of the year.  READ MORE

Better Dwelling
Canadian real estate sales are slowing in the country’s biggest markets. Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) numbers show June 2018 saw large declines compared to last year. Most of Canada’s major markets faced declines, but British Columbia bared the brunt of them.  READ MORE

Quicken Loans
Real estate agent safety isn’t a new or uncommon topic in industry conversation, but it’s definitely one that bears repeating. On a regular basis, real estate agents interact with new clients, oftentimes in unfamiliar environments. Therefore, they need to be constantly aware of their surroundings and client intentions.  READ MORE

REM
During the last 20 years the real estate landscape has changed dramatically as technology stepped into our lives and in some cases took over. Technology has sped up communication, has allowed us to be more productive with paperwork and has allowed us a different level of exposure in our business. What was real estate like 20 years ago?  READ MORE

Forbes
The 2017 Commercial Real Estate Lending Trends Survey by the National Association of Realtors® confirmed that only 30 per cent of all commercial real estate transactions are all-cash. That is why for the vast majority of transactions, the prospective seller and their agent will always defer to the buyer with proven financing in place versus the offer that only has empty promises as proof they will get the money to close the deal.  READ MORE

Mortgage Broker News
While the Toronto residential market has seen the median cost of its housing shrink in Q2 2018, price growth accelerated in other major Ontario locales such as Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, according to the latest Royal LePage House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast. The average price of a standard 2-storey home increased by 8.9 per cent annually across the region (up to $515,733) in the second quarter of the year.  READ MORE

Insauga
The GTA’s new home market is facing some challenges according to announcements made on Wednesday May 23. The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) announced that through the month of April, the new home market had lower sales than usual, which resulted in an increase in remaining inventory.  READ MORE

Insauga
While the real estate market in Mississauga and beyond has become known for its costliness, it's actually remained somewhat steady in terms of price fluctuations over the past few months. And although prices are high (albeit not as high as they were in the chaotic winter months of 2017), some prospective homeowners are taking comfort in the fact that they aren't rising significantly month-over-month  READ MORE

Forbes
This year has been one of twists and turns for the real estate market. As with every real estate year, the market can shift in an instant. For this reason, real estate professionals need to keep their eyes open for the next up-and-coming trend to hit the market and cause a stir.  READ MORE

REM
Blockchain technology is popping up everywhere and rightfully so. From start-up venture to public blue-chip companies, vast resources are being channeled toward implementing a blockchain strategy. You can spend days or weeks researching how blockchain is going to change business modeling, in particular commerce. There is a lot of deja-vu, going back to the late 1990s when entrepreneurs and businesses were chasing how to embrace the new internet. The race is on and we’re still in the very early days.  READ MORE

Cision
Price appreciation in the second quarter of 2018 showed a marked improvement over Q1 figures, with the average price of a single-detached home in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) on par or climbing in 75 per cent of Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) districts, according to a report released today by RE/MAX INTEGRA Ontario-Atlantic Region. The RE/MAX Hot Pocket Report examined sales and average prices of detached homes in 65 TREB districts for the first and second quarters of 2018. The quarterly comparison found that second-quarter sales were up almost across the board (63 out of 65 districts) with average prices on par or rising in three-quarters of GTA markets (49 of 65 districts).  READ MORE

CBC News
Home sales in the Greater Toronto Area rose 2.4 per cent in June compared to the same month a year ago, and were 17.6 per cent higher compared to May, according to the latest data released by the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB). The slight year-over-year increase followed a steep sales drop of 22.2 per cent in May across the GTA compared to May 2017, reflecting what TREB says is a continuing trend of volatile buyer reaction to various policy changes impacting the market.  READ MORE

REM
Canadian real estate is always the topic du jour: daily media coverage closely tracks every fluctuation in hopes the data will divulge an imminent boom or bust. However, focusing only on the number of sales and average price tells just part of the story.  READ MORE

Forbes
No matter how much technology is available to automate and streamline certain business processes, every industry, at its core, must focus on satisfying human beings. This is especially true in a field like real estate, where customer relationships can make or break a sale — and ultimately, a career.  READ MORE

CanIndia
Many speculators who bought homes with the intention of making a quick buck in Mississauga are worried as the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) data revealed a 22.6 per cent decline in total sales over the past year. Over the first five months of the year, Mississauga’s real estate market saw 3,279 total sales. That represented a 29.3 per cent drop compared to 4,641 through the first five months of 2017, and the lowest total in more than six years.  READ MORE

REM
Salespeople always ask me what they should say when prospecting. I tell them the key is not what to say but what you ask. Figure out the clients’ needs and wants and find them a solution for their real estate problems. Asking questions also helps to qualify them as potential business opportunities.  READ MORE

Toronto Star
Condominiums are buoying the GTA’s new-home market, with prices ahead by 25 per cent, year over year in May, to $758,370 despite a drop in sales, says the association that represents homebuilders. The price of new single-family homes, meanwhile, continued to slide amid higher interest rates and government measures aimed at cooling what had been a frenzied and overheated market. The price of single-family homes in the GTA was down 6.4 per cent in May over the same period in 2017 to $1,144,191 and dropped by just less than one per cent from the previous month.  READ MORE

Mississauga.com
Foreign buyers might make up a small sliver of Canada's biggest real estate markets, but homebuyers in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal still believe they are heavily influencing housing activity. A study from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation released recently found that 68 per cent of Vancouver respondents, 48 per cent of Toronto respondents and 42 per cent of Montreal respondents believe foreign buyers are having "a lot of influence" on their markets and are driving up home prices.  READ MORE

InHalton
The housing market has been a hot topic for a while now. And things still don't look too bright. Recently, The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) updated its forecast for home sale activity using the Multiple Listing Services (MLS) Systems of Canadian real estate Boards and Associations in 2018 and 2019.  READ MORE

REM
I don’t show homes to just anyone. In fact, I avoid showing to one particular kind of buyer. They are the buyers who have not taken the step of becoming preapproved to buy a home.  READ MORE

Houston Agent Magazine
Review the process: It is not at all uncommon for seniors to have been living in their home for 30 or more years. For this reason, the legal and logistics issues associated with selling their home are probably unfamiliar and somewhat daunting. Be sure to review the process in detail and provide plenty of time to address questions that are sure to arise.  READ MORE

REM
The Mississauga Real Estate Board now has its own MLS system after joining Ontario Regional Technology and Information Systems (ORTIS), a regional MLS listing service shared by 11 other local real estate boards. This means their members’ listings have the potential to be viewed by an additional 10,000 Realtors from Niagara to Barrie, says the board. Mississauga Realtors have access to the MLS systems of the other ORTIS members.  READ MORE

Realty Biz News
It’s 2018 — have you got social media all figured out yet? If not, don’t panic. Social media still eludes even top content marketers who have been learning the ropes ever since businesses were allowed to enter the game. In fact, there may never be a perfect formula for social media success. Things change fast in the digital world. A strategy that works today may be replaced by something better in a few months or years.  READ MORE

Toronto Star
Are you a parent with a millennial son or daughter who is living with you? Or are you a millennial living with your parents — or with roommates? In the next decade, you are likely to be part of a significant shift in our region as a large wave of millennials starts looking for homes of their own. We will all need to work together to make sure those housing options are available, at prices buyers can afford.  READ MORE

REM
Most real estate agents understand how important photographs are in showcasing and selling properties. It’s no secret they have an impact on how the sale will go. But, how much should you do, and how far should you go to make sure your property photos are top-notch?  READ MORE

Toronto Star
U.S. online real estate giant Zillow has announced it will post Canadian homes on its site through a direct listing feed from Century 21 Canada. That means Canadian real estate listings will be exposed to millions of consumers who visit Zillow every month, the company said in a Wednesday release.  READ MORE

REM
A client asked me how often they should call their clients, and what they should say. Here’s my answer, in a one-minute video.  READ MORE

CBC News
The start of construction for a $1.5 billion condo complex is being hailed as a major step in Mississauga's ongoing evolution into a full-fledged urban centre. "I think it's going to transform Mississauga," said Mark Reeve, a partner at Urban Capital Property Group, one of the developers behind the project.  READ MORE

Urban Toronto
A lot on Hurontario north of Eglinton in central Mississauga will soon sprout a 33-storey condo tower, as preliminary work begins for Plaza's Mississauga Square. Site clearance recently signalled the first step in preparing for construction of the Turner Fleischer Architects-designed condominium and townhome development.  READ MORE

Better Dwelling
Last year’s hottest real estate markets, are this year’s fastest cooling ones. Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) numbers show the majority of markets saw the sales-to-new listings ratio (SNLR) decline significantly in April. There were a few markets that are seeing the ratio rise, almost all located East of Toronto. The fastest cooling markets were around the Greater Toronto region.  READ MORE

REM
More than $43.7 million in penalties have been assessed by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) during the last three years for evading taxes in real estate transactions. The agency says that audits have identified $592.6 million in additional taxes related to the real estate sector during that time. CRA auditors reviewed more than 30,000 files in Ontario and B.C.  READ MORE

Financial Post
Canada’s impending legalization of marijuana is spurring demand for commercial real estate, particularly for retail shops in Alberta, where the government is selecting private operators to conduct over-the-counter sales, industry players said Tuesday. Real estate consultancy JLL said its phone has been “ringing off the hook” as cannabis companies look to secure space to cultivate the plant and seek retail space to sell the final product.  READ MORE

Better Dwelling
The average sale price of Canadian real estate is falling, and fast. Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) numbers show the average price of a home is down 11.3 per cent in April 2018. Most of the declines are being attributed to the country’s largest and fastest falling real estate market — Toronto. Yeah, I haven’t heard of it either.  READ MORE

REM
The way to persist and win in life and business is to commit and be consistent without any excuses. Reasons are the same thing as excuses and cause us to follow a path that appears to be easy. However, what seems to be the easy way is the hardest way because there isn’t any growth. It leads to a self-imposed caged life.  READ MORE

Mississauga.com via Mississauga News
It's been a rough year so far in 2018 for Canada's sixth largest real estate market. The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) released its monthly market data and analysis on May 3, showing year-over-year declines in both home sales and average price for a fourth straight month.  READ MORE

REM
There are a lot of weird things about the real estate profession. Like working side by side with your direct competitors under the same unified banner. You’re on a team, but you’re also not.  READ MORE

Brampton Guardian
The Canadian Rental Housing Index released its latest list and assessment of Canada’s housing rental markets this week, and things aren’t looking so good in Peel Region for renters. Not only did the index rate the region’s rental supply and affordability as “critical,” it ranked Peel as the third most critical region in Canada.  READ MORE

Realtor.com
One of the hardest parts of selling your home is all the unknowns: Who will buy your place, and for how much? How long will it take? That uncertainty might make you particularly eager to soak up advice from just about anyone who's willing to share. Problem is, just because your sister or co-worker swear by certain rules that worked for them, it doesn't mean they'll be a magic solution for you, too.  READ MORE

Mississauga.com
Buyers in Canada's most overheated real estate markets paid an average of $229,000 extra per home between 2007 and 2016 because of regulations making it difficult for builders to construct more single-family houses, said a new study. Research from the C.D. Howe Institute revealed zoning regulations, development charges and housing limits in and around southern Ontario's Greenbelt have added around $168,000 to single-family houses in the Greater Toronto Area and about $644,000 to the cost of others in Vancouver — a number the non-profit research organization says draws comparisons with Manhattan and U.K. housing.  READ MORE

REM
What’s really being asked here is, can a property be sold without it being staged? And the truth is, yes it can. There’s a buyer out there for every property if they deem that the price they’re willing to pay equals the value they will get. What this means is that your listing can be sold without it being professionally staged, but it may take longer, and your client may not be able to get the price they are after.  READ MORE

Financial Post
The president of Toronto’s real estate board warned leaders of the Ontario Real Estate Association, headed by a former Progressive Conservative leader, to “stay in their lane” in an emphatic letter that relays his concerns that the provincial group is stoking fears about the housing market and becoming too political.  READ MORE

Toronto Star
Government numbers recently showed that the province's foreign buyer's tax on real estate has curbed offshore investment and hosed down a feverish Toronto region housing market. But a year after its launch last April, industry observers remain unconvinced that Ontario's 15 per cent non-resident speculation tax had the right target in its crosshairs and, home buyers and sellers — caught mid-transaction by the ensuing plunge in home values — say the government hasn't even acknowledged the casualties caused by its manipulation of the market.  READ MORE

Mississauga.comvia The Canadian Press
Canada's real estate industry organization is calling for a moratorium on growing recreational marijuana at home until the government sets out nationwide regulations for the practice. Ottawa's proposed marijuana legalization regulations allow Canadians to grow up to four marijuana plants at their residences. Medical users are already allowed to grow at home after a federal court ruled in 2016 that the government cannot ban patients from growing their own cannabis.  READ MORE

Insauga
While the housing market has come back into balance following a wild few months in 2017, the fact remains that houses are still expensive (even condos can cost close to half a million) and sellers have a bit of an advantage over buyers.  READ MORE

REM
In a lot of jobs, when someone makes a glaring mistake it is covered up, the person is moved along and everybody forgets about it, except the people who were damaged by it. Real estate isn't like that. It is a lot simpler. This is the only career that I know of where the spotlight goes full on if a blatant mistake is made.  READ MORE

Globe and Mail
Amid signs that condominium developers in the Greater Toronto Area may be walking away from projects in the face of rising costs, some municipalities are moving ahead with plans that could add millions more in tax charges for high-rise buildings. The City of Vaughan and the City of Toronto are among the municipalities considering large increases in their local development charges, which are the taxes that cities collect on newly constructed homes. Brampton, too, is mulling significant fee hikes.  READ MORE

Better Dwelling
Canadian real estate markets are at a high degree of vulnerability, according to a Crown agency. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the government agency in charge of assisting with mortgage liquidity, finished its first quarter assessment. The assessment notes a "high" degree of vulnerability for the country's major markets. The reasons cited varied by region, ranging from overvaluation to overbuilding.  READ MORE

CTV News
About a year ago, when Caswell Allen decided it was time to leave Toronto, he first thought about moving north of the city. He checked out homes in communities like Alliston, but found that house prices were still higher than he was hoping for. Traffic was a problem too. Eventually, Allen turned his gaze in another direction. Instead of looking north of the Greater Toronto Area, he looked west. That's when he found Brantford.  READ MORE

REM
The modern-day discount broker is different from discount real estate models that were used in the past. In this video, Michael Krisa talks about why this wave of discount brokers may be here to stay. Here's how to compete.  READ MORE

Mississauga News
The cost to rent an apartment in Canada’s sixth-largest city was up significantly in the first quarter of 2018 compared to the same period last year. According to the Toronto Real Estate Board's (TREB) quarterly rental report, between January and March 2017, a one-bedroom apartment in Mississauga could be had for an average of $1,649 per month. That increased 8.7 per cent to $1,794 in Q1 of 2018.  READ MORE

Insauga
Mississauga already boasts a healthy population of well over 700,000 people, but it's still working to redevelop underused swaths of land in order to not only welcome more (a natural byproduct of development), but also give current and future residents more destination neighbourhoods.  READ MORE

REM
Staging properties is often thought of as a service for sellers. But there is another aspect to consider, and that is how staging helps real estate agents — their career, reputation and income.  READ MORE

Business Insider
Canadian real estate prices are acting a little skittish. The Teranet-National Bank House Price Index, shows real estate prices stalled across the country. In addition, the index is making moves we haven't seen outside of a recession.  READ MORE

Toronto Star
"Sizzling" might be overstating the warming property market. But the real estate industry is finally predicting a return to a traditionally brisk spring — the kind of season that was virtually lost last year when, after months of bully bids and frenzied buying, sales soared in March and then stopped almost overnight.  READ MORE

Change.org
On April 9th, 2018, the National Association of Realtors proudly announced that the classic, two-dimensional Realtor logo that has been in use for 45 years would be changed. NAR announced, "After 45 years, the iconic REALTOR® brand is evolving to reflect our dynamic, multi-faceted, future focused organization and members. We are proud to debut our new multi-dimensional brand here." Groups of Realtors across the Internet erupted in anger at the horrible new design.  READ MORE

REM
We aren't Realtors (that's why we've hired you), so we don't always understand the process of buying or selling a home. We need you to explain what's going on, so we can make better decisions and keep perspective in this stressful process. We want you to tell us how things work including commission and what real estate contracts really mean... not just "sign here."  READ MORE

Toronto Star
The Lakeview lands in Mississauga have officially been sold to developers for $275 million in the latest step toward the transformation of the city's waterfront. The 177-acre site, formerly a provincial coal-fired generating station, will be transformed into a sustainable, mixed-use residential community by Lakeview Community Partners, a consortium that includes Argo Development, TACC Construction, Branthaven Homes, Greenpark Group and CCI Development Group, according to a press release from provincial agency, Ontario Power Generation (OPG). Sixty-seven acres of land will be remediated and transferred to the city of Mississauga as part of the deal.  READ MORE

Mississauga.com
Coun. Nando Iannicca's vision to build Mississauga's own version of "Central Park" in Cooksville is inching closer to reality. The City of Mississauga has purchased three properties in the targeted area, east of Hurontario Street, between Dundas and the Queensway. Acquisition of the properties is the start of a lengthy process that will allow the city to create an additional 25 acres of green space in the densely populated core.  READ MORE

Mortgage Broker News
Housing policies can, and will, affect the economy – TREB The impact of housing policies on sales activity will make itself felt upon the economy, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board Earlier this week, TREB announced the results of its latest study that culled consumer polling data from Ipsos Public Affairs and findings from a recent economic impact analysis completed by Altus Group. The release of the study came in the wake of a successful Toronto Summit and release of TREB's third annual "Market Year in Review & Outlook Report" at the end of January.  READ MORE

Globe and Mail
Toronto's high-rise condo developers are increasingly realizing they can play a role in meeting the needs of buyers looking for "missing middle" housing – and are starting to plan buildings that are no longer dominated by one-bedroom or studio units. In recent decades, city planners have urged developers to set aside only 10 per cent of a building's units for multibedroom uses and it wasn't uncommon to see buildings sprout up in the core consisting almost entirely of studio or one-bedroom units. A 2017 study by Ryerson University and Urbanation Inc. found only 41 per cent of 105,000 condos in the planning-construction pipeline were two-bedrooms or larger.  READ MORE

Urban Toronto
Since December, excavation has been ongoing at the construction site of Wesley Tower at Daniels City Centre, a new 19 and 43-storey, Rafael Bigauskas Architects-designed condominium complex coming to the City Centre Drive and Confederation Parkway intersection to the west of Square One in Mississauga. The two towers will share an underground garage and podium, with the taller tower being built as the first phase, and marketing yet to begin for phase two.  READ MORE

Insauga.com
Home sales via Canadian MLS systems were down 6.5 per cent in February. It marks the second consecutive monthly decline following the record set in December 2017 and the lowest reading in nearly five years. February sales were down from the previous month in almost three-quarters of all local housing markets, with large monthly declines in and around Greater Vancouver (GVA) and Greater Toronto (GTA).  READ MORE

Toronto Star
When Jess and Adam Lee brought their newborn daughter, Olivia — six pounds, seven ounces — home this month from the new Milton District Hospital, they were thrilled with the calibre of care they received in their adopted community. Jess was relieved to find she liked the obstetrician who worked out of the hospital, where 89 babies were born in December and another 79 delivered in January. The number of births has been steadily increasing over the past decade as Milton’s population has grown, according to Halton Healthcare.  READ MORE

Globe and Mail
Sales of properties fetching at least $1-million in the Greater Toronto Area have plunged while the Vancouver housing market girds for a slowdown following last month's B.C. budget. The number of GTA residential properties that sold for $1-million or more in the first two months of this year – mostly detached houses, but also including condos and townhomes – fell to 1,498, down 55 per cent from the same period in 2017, according to Sotheby's International Realty Canada.  READ MORE
 

Forbes
In 2017, venture investors deployed over $5 billion in real estate technology, more than 150 times the $33 million invested in 2010. Once a sector seemingly ignored by the venture industry, real estate tech has come front and center, notably producing two of the three most valuable startups in the United States, WeWork and Airbnb.  READ MORE

Insauga
We all know that Mississauga real estate doesn't come cheap and that affordable homes are, for the most part, few and far between. All that said, it's often interesting — and enlightening — to see how local accommodations stack up against national ones.  READ MORE

REM
Condominiums that in their previous lives were used as warehouses, other types of industrial structures, churches, jails or orphanages have been given a new lease on life in recent years when they were converted into condominiums. In the construction industry they are referred to as residential condominium conversion projects or RCCPs.  READ MORE

Better Dwelling
Toronto real estate finally stops hemorrhaging... kind of. The Teranet — National Bank of Canada (NBC) home price index update shows Toronto prices have stopped declining. Great, the Home Price Index (HPI) declines are over! Not exactly. Toronto's HPI saw an increase due solely to soaring condo prices, while other segments continued to drop.  READ MORE

REM
Real estate agents, like other professional service providers, understand that the recipe for success depends on the three Rs: Reputation, Referrals and Relevance. Your reputation is critical and leads to strong referrals if your service and approach are relevant to what the client needs. But are reputation, referrals and relevance enough?  READ MORE

Insauga
Mississauga's real estate market, heavily tied to Toronto's due to proximity, has been a fascinating one to watch over the past year — and it doesn't look like things are getting any less exciting (or concerning, depending on your perspective and general anxiety level). Although government-initiated policies (the province's Fair Housing Plan and the OSFI stress test) have cooled the market and helped bring it back into balance, a recent Visual Capitalist report indicates that Toronto — and presumably by extension, Mississauga and other GTA cities — is still considered at risk of a housing bubble.  READ MORE

CBC News
Toronto and Vancouver's real estate markets have responded to surging prices and a growing demand for homes with a supply of new housing that is "significantly weaker than other Canadian metropolitan areas." The disparity between supply and demand has been largest in the two cities, but "we do not fully know why this is the case," said the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, in a report it released recently on escalating house prices in the country's large metropolitan centres between 2010 and 2016.  READ MORE

Financial Post
A half a million dollars bought half as much space in Toronto's condominium market as in other Canadian cities in 2017. And in Vancouver, it bought nothing at all, with analysts unable to find any new condominiums at or below the $500,000 mark, according to a study of 2017 sales data by the Altus Group.  READ MORE