Tag Archives: condos for sale
Quebec realtors dispute figures showing more condos on sale in Montreal than Toronto
Allison Lampert – The Gazette
Whenever there’s a big national story on the spectre of a tidal wave of plunging resale prices, empty condos and foreclosures turning major Canadian housing markets into ghost towns, the epicentre of the impending collapse always seems to be in either Toronto or Vancouver.
Comment: Which is funny, since Toronto is not collapsing and Vancouver has been for years.
So when recent opinion pieces warned of “signs of another bust in the making” – that the number of homes for sale in Greater Montreal on the Multiple Listing Service now surpassed active listings in Vancouver and Toronto combined, the figures were startling.
Equally surprising were figures showing double the number of condos for sale on the MLS (or on the Centris listing system in Quebec) in Greater Montreal as in Greater Toronto — the largest real estate market in the country, which has more condos under construction than anywhere else in North America.
“Montreal is actually where the greatest supply-demand imbalance currently exists,” analyst Ben Rabidoux wrote Wednesday in The Globe and Mail.
Comment: Which is coming from someone almost as negative as Garth Turner!
While active listings in the Montreal condo market, direct comparisons between the number of homes for sale in the two cities have come under fire.
Comment: You cannot compare them, two different cities. And you cannot compare either to Vancouver.
In a response Wednesday, the Quebec Federation of Real Estate Boards challenged the argument that there were more condos for sale in Montreal than in Toronto, citing the disparity in housing starts between the two cities.
There are now 51,000 condos under construction in Greater Toronto, compared to 12,600 in Greater Montreal, the federation said, citing Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. data. As of January, 20,800 of those condos in Toronto have yet to be sold, compared to 5,800 units in Montreal, wrote Paul Cardinal, the federation’s director for market analysis citing data from research firms in both cities.
Comment: There are actually 61,000 condos under construction in Toronto right now.
“Right there, that’s about four times less than in Toronto,” Cardinal wrote.
Comment: And with about 3.3x as many people in Toronto, for Montreal to have 1/4 the condos makes a lot of sense. The scale is right.
“It’s clear that there are far more condos for sale in Greater Toronto than in Greater Montreal. So we cannot confirm that supply is more problematic in (Montreal) than in Toronto.”
What’s more, the Toronto Real Estate Board tracts data separately for condo apartments and condo townhouses, while in Montreal, those numbers are compiled in one category for all types of condos. Yet most of the comparisons between the cities include all 12,623 condos for sale in Montreal last month, but only cite the 6,123 condo apartments in Toronto, which make up the majority of the active listings in that category.
In March, there were about 1,000 condo townhouses for sale in Toronto, data from TREB show.
But while the comparison may not be two to one, there is still a gap in the active listings between the two cities.
Either way, it’s clear that supply is rising in Greater Montreal, where the condo market now favours buyers for the first time in 15 years with March inventory up 25% to 12,623 units, compared to the same month in 2012.
Comment: Same as Toronto, sellers have ruled the roost for a long time.
While certain Montreal condo projects have already sold out, some developers are now giving away cars, raising brokers’ commissions and running special promotions to sell units. And on Saturday, the downtown Montreal condo tower Avenue is holding a sale where buyers can get higher-floor apartments for the same price as units on lower levels.
For Montreal buyers, it doesn’t take a comparison with Toronto to know that choices abound these days in the city’s condo market.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416−388−1960
Laurin & Natalie Jeffrey are Toronto Realtors with Century 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these articles, they just reproduce them here for people
who are interested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
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Toronto home sellers are in a January state of mind
Carolyn Ireland – Globe and Mail
Why do people list their houses and condos for sale in the depths of January?
One good reason is that they’re trying to sell on a busy street. Canny agents will advise listing such a property during the coldest time of the year because buyers are less likely to open the windows and hear the streetcar rumbling by or noise from cars whizzing along the highway.
Comment: Why the hell would you say something like that? Why is the immediate assumption that all realtors are crooked? I could certainly make the point that most reporters spin and twist and make the story suit their needs, without regard to the actual truth. Happens all the time in real estate reporting.
Other catalysts include death and divorce, but if sellers have the option of waiting for better spring weather, they usually do. For the past several years, agents have been lamenting that more sellers don’t list in February when house hunters feel rejuvenated after the traditional market break during the holidays and can’t wait to get out and look again.
This year, there are early signs that sellers are listening to the agents who are pressing them to just yank the small appliances off the counter and get a “for sale” sign in the lawn. New properties began to trickle onto the market this week – and they’re not all on busy streets.
And sellers may have more reasons to listen this year: The latest numbers from the Canadian Real Estate Association show that the run-up in sales and prices is losing steam in Toronto. The Bank of Canada stood pat on its trend-setting interest rate this week.
Comment: No, the numbers do not show that the run-up in sales and prices is losing steam in Toronto. NOT AT ALL. Real estate sales were 4% higher last year than 2010 and prices were up 8%. That is not a market slowing down, to say the least. It was the 2nd best year ever! Like I said about twisting the truth… Please go to the Toronto Real Estate Board site and read the actual stats for yourself.
Meanwhile, some banks dropped their mortgage rates to historic new lows last week and that action is likely to galvanize some potential buyers who will decide to grab the low rate while they can.
Comment: So low rates are going to goose the market, are they? Doesn’t that contradict what you said about about the market slowing down?
Risks to the Toronto housing market include an uncertain outlook for the U.S. and Canadian economies, a dwindling number of buyers who can afford the current lofty prices, and high consumer debt loads that could push a horde of homeowners to sell.
Comment: On the contrary, there is a huge number of buyers, that is why we set the 2nd best sales record last year. And that was with listings down by 4%. If listings shot up 10%, that might barely begin to satisfy the pent up demand. And consumer debt is only an issue when disaster strikes, if someone loses their job. If they can pay, they pay. If not, that is when the problems start. But that is so remote for most as to be not worth mentioning. The only real concern is what happens in Europe and what effect that might have here.
Are more sellers heeding the advice of agents and listing early this year? It’s too soon to know for sure, but it will be interesting to see if the trickle turns into a torrent over the next few weeks.
Join the discussion: How do you think the real estate market will play out in Toronto this year?
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416-388-1960
Laurin & Natalie Jeffrey are Toronto Realtors with Century 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these articles, they just reproduce them here for people
who are interested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
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