Toronto Regional Real Estate Board<\/a> (TRREB).<\/p>\nIn fact, prices have been going down year-over-year in the region for the past few months, with many condo projects being delivered in the city, but some buyers are still holding off from purchasing due to global economic uncertainty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Read More<\/p>\n
As outlined by TRREB, only 3,868 home sales were closed through the board\u2019s MLS System in February, which is a 6.3 per cent drop from last year at this time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the new HST cuts, Strachan says it\u2019s possible that the market will pick up the pace again, as the rebates offer an incentive for buyers to finally jump in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this will be well received by potential buyers. I think there\u2019s been a lot of people who have been contemplating buying and have been sitting on the fence or waiting. I think this signals a real opportunity for people to recognize significant savings to be able to qualify or afford a new home. That will definitely get some people moving off the fence and moving forward with buying a new home,\u201d the COO added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is now a good time to buy?<\/p>\n
For those who are ready to move ahead with their search, be it their first home, an upgrade, or another investment, Strachan says now might be a great time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Between prices being down and the government ramping up incentives, the market is now favourable to buyers, but Strachan says he believes the situation will change soon, so buyers should jump in to avoid missing deals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI do believe that we\u2019re about to take an upswing,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis should help people buy homes, which, in turn, helps construction \u2014 which is another thing in Toronto, that construction has really slowed down, which has resulted in a lot of job losses in the Toronto area and other markets as well. So, by picking up a new home activity, we\u2019ll also increase construction activity, which will ultimately help the overall economy as well,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In fact, Strachan says the budget will not only help buyers in the short term.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As part of the budget, Ford\u2019s government has also proposed a series of measures to accelerate new development across the province.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The province has announced a 10-year capital plan to support more than $210 billion in infrastructure investments, with $37 billion in investments coming this year. This money will be used to build highways, transit, hospitals, and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition, the province is also aiming to eliminate some fees and development standards to accelerate development, through the Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025 and the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some of the measures outlined in the legislation include eliminating \u201cred tape in the homebuilding process by simplifying planning and approval tools, including through municipal official plans, Ontario\u2019s Building Code and site plan control,\u201d and eliminating municipal development standard fees that go beyond health and safety requirements.<\/p>\n
According to Strachan, these measures could also accelerate development, bringing more options for buyers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cInfrastructure being built in existing cities and new growth areas will help people who are already living in those areas, whether it\u2019s roads, maybe a fire station, things like that, with the government directing money and investment towards infrastructure that will help existing neighbourhoods today,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although he welcomes the budget, Strachan says the province is yet to reveal important details about these measures, and how they will in practice help developers and buyers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome these announcements. I think it\u2019s the right thing to do for the government, great for Canadians. What we need is the details and the specifics of how it will be implemented. Because I know from buyers to builders are just trying to figure out, \u2018Okay, how is this going to be implemented?\u2019 What are the specifics so that we can get some early momentum going and people can take advantage of it,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What to know The province is removing the full 13 per cent HST on new homes from April…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,100596,216487,44,905,968,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-585343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-homebuyers","10":"tag-hst","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-ontario","13":"tag-real-estate","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}