Last week, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) launched its Property Pulse Dashboard, a new free tool to help homeowners make informed decisions about their property and understand market trends over time.

“We are enhancing the information we provide property owners, allowing them to gain a better understanding of the residential market,” says Greg Martino, vice president and chief valuation and standards officer for MPAC.

“This new tool, along with our recent release of housing inventory data, has been designed with property owners in mind so they can learn more about the changes to the residential property market in communities across Ontario and therefore facilitate more informed decision-making.”

Features of the tool

Using Teranet Inc.’s sales data, the tool is updated monthly and includes the latest residential sales data by municipality and property type. It also offers a “compare” feature to analyze sales information across up to five municipalities simultaneously. Searches can be customized based on sales year/month, the year the property was built and its square footage.

How to access the new dashboard

Property owners can access the dashboard via AboutMyProperty under the Browse My Neighbourhood section. To log in or register, they will need their roll number and access code from their Property Assessment Notice.

While in attendance at the Wildfire Resiliency and Training Summit in Prince George, British Columbia, I learned a lot about the incredible people who protect our communities from wildfire risk and the barriers to wildfire protection of homes in at-risk areas.

By all academic, government and media accounts, 2024 is poised to be a record-breaking year for community impacts from wildfire.

The direct impact of property damage, the displacement of people, the government expenditure to respond and the impacts on the quality of life of people in our communities are stacking up to impact the availability of housing in all marketplaces affected by wildfire. 

Homeowner investment in risk reduction — including your advice — matters more as wildfire risk increases

Nova Scotia was not perceived to be a location of considerable risk prior to 2023. Last year’s distribution of catastrophic wildfire losses there is as shocking as the intensity of the losses to Fort McMurray in 2017.

Managing wildfire risk in Canada has shifted from the responsibility of governments to the shared responsibility of all of society. As the risk increases, the role of homeowner investment in risk reduction becomes increasingly important. And how you advise your clients is an important component of that!

Impacts on realtor business conduct

For the realtor community, there are some very real impacts on business conduct.

One example is how insurability precedes lending — in other words, getting a mortgage is generally conditional on getting insurance. When an active wildfire is present in a location (within a 100 km radius), finding an insurer can be very difficult or impossible, as new policies aren’t typically issued while an active wildfire is in proximity to a property.

So, if you have a looming closing date and an active wildfire near the property, your deal and your client could be in trouble.

Protect your clients with wildfire clause in APS

The BCFSA has created a resource for B.C. realtors to follow to protect their clients from risk. Critical recommendations include writing offers (and signbacks) with a wildfire clause in the Agreement of Purchase and Sale (APS) for properties in proximity of potential wildfire.  

In conversation with British Columbia Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) a/director of policy, Emily Shaw, about resources B.C. realtors can use to protect their clients (both buying and selling) from risk, she shares, “Licensees are experts, and part of (sharing) that expertise is to talk to clients, colleagues and insurers about these issues.

Buyer agents should be talking to their clients about the wildfire clause for use in transactions in wildfire-at-risk areas. This conversation can lead to additional conversations that are important. Wildfires are a reality in our marketplace.”

Recommended clause from BCFSA 

If, as a result of a wildfire and despite the Buyer’s best efforts, the Buyer is unable to obtain fire insurance on the Property that is binding and effective as of the original Completion Date, on terms and at rates that are commercially reasonable, then the Buyer may, at their sole discretion, extend each of the Completion Date, the Adjustment Date and the Possession Date to a date that is the first day, other than a Saturday, Sunday or statutory holiday in British Columbia (“Business Day”) that is [30] calendar days after the original respective dates by providing written notice (the “Extension Notice”) to the Seller or the Seller’s agent at least [5] Business Days before the original Completion Date. 

If during the period between the delivery of the Extension Notice and [5] Business Days before the extended Completion Date the Buyer obtains fire insurance on the Property that would allow the Buyer to complete the purchase and sale of the Property before the extended Completion Date, the Buyer will immediately provide written notice of same to the Seller or the Seller’s agent (the “Insurance Notice”) and the Seller may, by providing written notice to the Buyer or the Buyer’s agent within [2] Business Days after the Insurance Notice is provided, elect to accelerate the Completion Date to a date that is [5] Business Days after the Insurance Notice is provided, and the Adjustment Date and the Possession Date will be adjusted so that they will occur with the same relativity to the new extended Completion Date as they had to the original Completion Date.

The parties agree that time will remain of the essence.

Shaw notes that a licensee should recommend their client obtain legal advice regarding how triggering this clause may affect any related transactions that are closing on their original completion dates. She advises licensees to consider using this clause together with the Fire/Property Insurance condition precedent.

Other suggestions to help protect your clients

“Licensees who are in areas affected by wildfire should advise clients to have conversations with their insurer and to acquire a binding insurance commitment as soon as possible. If a home in transaction is damaged by wildfire, it’s important for licensees to advise their clients to seek legal advice at the earliest opportunity. These are very complex issues that are beyond the expertise of licensees to handle,” explains Shaw.

She insists that the most important action is to have active dialogue in your community, encouraging licensees to become acquainted with FireSmart recommendations for property risk reduction: “It’s important for registrants and homeowners to be informed. FireSmart BC has some excellent resources that licensees can share with clients.”

Encouraging fire-smart practices is an important, proactive opportunity for practitioners to help clients keep their families safe and their assets protected. There are plenty of videos and other content ideal for client communication from FireSmart Canada and other organizations. Use them to inform yourself of the risks to you and your clients.

This is an important and emergent issue that is affecting the industry and the businesses within it. We need to stay on top of it.

As an active back-country canoeist, I’m seeing the changes in the forest. Everywhere in Canada is changing. Seasonally, I personally observe the changes in the ecosystem. Coastal rainforests are being recategorized by geologists. The ferns in Ontario’s forests are getting crispy with drought in July. As the ecosystem evolves, the advice we give to clients also evolves. Wildfire will continue to impact the business of real estate in Canada, in all regions. It’s an important reputational knowledge category and a relevant errors and omissions discussion that realtors can have a very positive influence on.

It’s my strong suggestion that you explore these conversations in your in-office mastermind discussions and find a strategy that works in your marketplace and for your business.

Many factors contribute to what homeowners can afford month to month, including condominium fees.

These fees tend to vary quite widely. To explore this further, Wahi analyzed the 10 Greater Toronto Area (GTA) condominium buildings with the highest and lowest median monthly condominium fee (of sold one-bedroom units).

Condominium fees cover things like building insurance, common area maintenance, amenities and reserve fund contributions. They’re typically based on a unit’s size and its proportionate share of the condominium corporation’s expenses.

“For homebuyers who are considering buying a condo, maintenance fees are an important factor to consider when figuring out their budgets,” says Wahi CEO Benjy Katchen. “Wahi’s latest study provides a ballpark estimate of what condo owners can expect to pay at different price points in the GTA market,” he adds. 

What impacts condominium fees?

The age of a building and its amenities can impact maintenance fees. For example, older buildings often have larger floor plans and heat and hydro included, which can skew fees higher. Luxury buildings with upscale amenities cost more to maintain.

Highest fees found in GTA’s older luxury buildings

Wahi found that 13 GTA condominium buildings had a median monthly maintenance fee of over $1,000 per month, with the 10 most expensive buildings for fees predominantly being older luxury buildings in downtown Toronto (just one is located outside of the city’s limits, in Oakville).

Lowest fees found in recently completed suburban buildings

Condominium buildings in the GTA with the lowest maintenance fees were mostly built between 2018 and 2022 and found to be beyond the city’s core, in areas like Oakville, Milton and Toronto suburbs like North York and Scarborough.

Where condominium fees landed across the GTA last year

Milton was found to have the lowest median local maintenance fee for 2023, while Newmarket had the highest.

Review the full analysis here.

We’ve reached that dreaded time of year when homeowners are slapped with property tax hikes. It’s hitting particularly hard in this economy when many Canadians are struggling to make ends meet.

Post-pandemic, with communities across the country battling high interest rates and disintegrating infrastructure while seeking to improve services and offset the financial deficits of recent years, soaring property tax increases way beyond the inflation rate are being seen Canada-wide.

Is this necessary? Or are homeowners being bled dry?

Changing Canadian city centre landscapes thanks to eroding affordability and shifting migration

According to a recent analysis by Re/Max Canada, although land transfer taxes and higher property tax assessments in key markets “appear to have little effect on the surface,” the reality is that they’re eroding affordability levels and slowly shifting migration patterns, changing the landscape in Canadian city centres. 

Examining six of the country’s leading housing markets — Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax — Re/Max’s Taxes & Canadian Real Estate report notes that “governments at all levels are collecting billions” through levies and development fees on new construction and land transfer and property taxes on residential properties.

Tax rate increases, along with record-high housing values and mortgage rates, are sparking “a post-pandemic exodus from the country’s most expensive markets,” the report maintains.

“For many, the dream of home ownership is fading,” says Re/Max Canada president Christopher Alexander. 

Affordability and opportunity are keys to a healthy market and economy, Alexander asserts. “The goal should be to make homeownership more affordable, not less … Clearly, public policy is contributing to a myriad of issues, with affordability front and centre. And there’s no relief in sight.”

“You can’t tax your way to affordability”

Alexander says that government over-reliance on the housing sector as a means of funding is making access to housing increasingly problematic. “New and proposed property tax assessments are creating confusion in markets across the country.” 

As Tim Hudak, CEO of the Ontario Real Estate Association bluntly puts it: “You can’t tax your way to affordability.”

Nearly 40% property tax increase proposed in Osoyoos, B.C.

Count yourself lucky you don’t live in Osoyoos, on the southernmost fringe of British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. Residents of this scenic little town — nearly half of whom are seniors — were shocked to learn that an astronomical property tax leap of almost 40 per cent was slated to be adopted this year, largely due to the need for upgrading aging and foul-smelling sewer and water infrastructure, to the tune of over $60 million over the next five years. 

There was a huge outcry from the town, with many people questioning why the hike couldn’t at least be spread out over several years. Mayor Sue McKortoff warned that that would just delay increases down the road. But as she explained to REM, council rescinded the unpopular budget and “agreed to conduct a review” in a special meeting. The revised final increase hasn’t yet been officially announced.

Come of that what may, there’s no getting around the fact that the community’s trust in its governance has eroded.    

Significant hikes throughout the country

To varying degrees, this is a widespread issue.

In Halifax, property tax assessments this year have jumped by more than 20 per cent, prompting a hike to tax bills of almost 6 per cent. This “adds to the already significant number of hurdles for first-time buyers,” leaving residents wondering when something will be done, reports local Re/Max broker Ryan Hartlen. He believes a good place to start would be incentivizing first-time buyers through property tax subsidies.

In Montreal, reassessments are higher than recent sales prices in some cases. The almost 5 per cent property tax increase (the biggest chunk of which is for public security, mainly police) is the city’s highest jump in 13 years. Montreal’s mayor has stated that Canadian cities are facing “unprecedented challenges” around inflation, housing and climate change. 

Meanwhile, both Vancouver (up by 7.5 per cent) and Calgary (up 7.8 per cent) are seeing significant property tax markups this year as well. And although Winnipeg’s 3.5 per cent rise is more modest, the city has raised and added fees for other services. 

Toronto sees historic 9.5% jump in property taxes — “one of the worst types” of levies

Torontonians are facing a whopping 9.5 per cent property tax jump, reportedly needed to shore up services, combat a $1.8 billion budget deficit and help get the city “back on track,” according to Toronto mayor Olivia Chow. 

City councillor Brad Bradford is among those opposed. 

Yes, there will now be “hundreds of millions in new spending,” Bradford acknowledges, but it comes at a time when homeowners can least afford it. 

“I’ve heard loud and clear from many in my community that they think this historic tax hike is too much … Deciding to spend money is the easy part of budgeting. It’s finding savings that requires hard work.” 

Bradford recommends that those looking to buy or sell property make sure they’re factoring in the cost of the tax hike. 

On the plus side, the Ontario provincial government has agreed to bail the city out of some significant capital costs, including those for two major Toronto highways (the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway). 

The city and other levels of government will need to continue to explore new, efficient measures to raise revenue besides property tax, states Toronto-based Re/Max Realtron general manager Cameron Forbes. He notes that examples could include road tolls and taxes on gasoline and parking. 

“Property tax is one of the worst types” of levy in his opinion, as it’s a regressive tax applied uniformly regardless of income.

Not easy: Fort St. John, B.C. worked hard to raise taxes by less than 5%

British Columbia realtor Trevor Bolin, former leader of B.C.’s Conservative Party, is well versed in budgets, having sat on the local city council of his hometown of Fort St. John for the past 16 years.

“If you can imagine what your home and personal costs have looked like the past year — forced up due to skyrocketing costs — now imagine providing those same services to swimming pools, hockey rinks, city-wide fleets of vehicles, staffing wage increases, etc.,” Bolin says. “That’s what’s happening with your property taxes right now.”

He explains that the Fort St. John council worked hard to ensure a less than 5 per cent increase this year, which wasn’t easy. He adds, “Sadly, as municipalities continue to cover expenses for provincial and federal governments, you’ll have a tax increase next year as well.” 

Lastly, “I can tell you that politicians really don’t like being sworn at while grocery shopping,” he advises, laughing.

Like many people, Paul Brooks fled the city for greener pastures during the pandemic. He jokes that now he has a nice rural view to admire while agonizing over why on earth he made the move in the first place. Living amid the forested hills of Hockley Valley north of Toronto, Brooks, a contractor, often finds himself confined in his car for close to four hours on weekdays, battling traffic commuting to and from the city for work.

A rising tide of opinion contends that challenges like this have steered large numbers of those who bolted from cities back into them, now that there’s momentum around returning to the workplace and regular life. 

There are also plenty who hold the opposite view, though, believing that the flood of people expected back in the cities post-Covid hasn’t materialized and that young families in particular are now leaving major centres in higher numbers than usual.

Priced out of urban areas as immigration continues

“Inflation stretched the delta of unaffordability much farther, such that many of those who traded their urban homes for suburban or rural dwellings are now finding themselves priced out of the urban neighbourhoods they came from,” says Re/Max Canada president Christopher Alexander. This means that many will have no choice except to stay put “until inventory rises and affordability returns to the market.” 

Statistics Canada has no definitive data on this yet for 2023 and was only able to tell REM that immigration remains the main driver for growth in large urban centres like Toronto and Vancouver. As such, “it’s fair to expect them to continue to grow as a whole, though whether this growth is still stronger in peripheral areas than their core in 2023 we cannot say yet,” the organization states.

Even in the past couple of years with Canadians moving around the country within and between provinces in unusually high numbers, “internal migration” out of Canada’s largest municipal centres didn’t have a significant impact on their population, according to BMO Capital Markets. 

Urban exit trend starting to reverse

All things considered, it’s fair to say that the exodus from Toronto and other big cities has “definitely slowed,” according to Jake Spelic, an area district vice president with U-Haul Canada.  “As things are shifting closer to normal, we are starting to see that trend reverse.”      

Leading Royal LePage agent from Vancouver, Adil Dinani, notes that the clients he’s seen return to the city tend to be those who’d moved so far off the grid that they’d run into a critical lack of amenities. Access to resources such as public transit, good schools, daycare and nightlife isn’t a given in rural areas.

Small-town life not meeting expectations

Re/Max Hallmark agent Jacqueline Pennington, located in a small rural community an hour east of Toronto near Cobourg, has seen a few key drivers of the trend back to the city, predominantly “the call to return to work in person.” 

Culture shock can hit hard in the country, observes Pennington. “Without anything other than a pizza joint open past 8:00 p.m., the quiet life of small towns can be sleepy. A common theme I’ve found is that the lifestyle is different from what people expected. They miss the entertainment, restaurants and ease of access to everything in the city.”

City dwellers buying a farm on a whim may have a particularly rude awakening.

“I recall eager millennial buyers asking me, ‘Who is responsible for maintaining all these trees?’” says Pennington. “They were shocked when I explained that it would be them.”

Affordability and extra space are what those moving away from cities are primarily seeking. But with the growing expense of living outside the city, they’re having to go further and further afield to find what they’re looking for. 

What happens when reality hits?

The gap between living in a city like Toronto and living outside of it, whether in a suburb or a small town, has closed, notes Toronto agent David Coffey, who’s with Bosley Real Estate. “The bargain you think you’ll find out of the city may not be worth it anymore.”

Families may choose to move deep into the country, or close to the ocean or mountains in another province. “People romanticize that life,” says Coffey. 

But he’s found that many eventually realize that both the weather and roads are bad and that they’ve wound up driving as much or more than when they lived in the city. “The commute is killing them,” Coffey maintains.

Or they get bored. A number of people living outside the city have told Vancouver realtor Tyler Burrows, of Oakwyn Realty, that they miss being able to walk to coffee shops and restaurants, and that the extra square footage they get having a suburban home isn’t worth having to endure the commute into Vancouver.   

“Sometimes, the head leads the heart,” maintains Steve Fisher, who moved back to Vancouver in 2022 with his wife and their two dogs after a year-and-a-half up the coast in Sechelt. “I loved living on the Sunshine Coast,” he says. But his wife “never managed to find the community she needed and missed the vibrancy of a larger city like Vancouver,” he explains.

Domenic Amatuzio, who left Toronto a year into the pandemic for the charming rural vibe of Prince Edward County, further east along Lake Ontario, took a job as a sous chef at a local brewery. So he’s avoided the dreaded long commute, the downfall of many who clear out of big urban centres. However, he’s found the nearby roads aren’t maintained anywhere near as reliably as in the city. 

“People looking to move here should come see it in January first,” Amatuzio laughs.     

He likes the area though and plans to stay put for now. But, he’s found that “being off the grid” can be isolating, with challenges running the gamut from unreliable internet to “wells running dry and stores either closing early or not being open at all in the off-season.”  

Amatuzio moved to the country because he thought it would be healthier and less expensive. In reality, the area is as pricey as anywhere else. “And since I have to drive everywhere, I’ve put on 10 pounds and my blood pressure has gone squirrelly.”

His appraisal of country living? “It ain’t Green Acres.”

The Fall 2023 Residential Mortgage Industry Housing Report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) shows data that indicates an “increasing share of Canadians are struggling with their debt payments”.

But that doesn’t mean Canadians are ready to talk about it.

Negative sentiments among Canadians

“I think it’s a mixture of a feeling of disappointment, a bit of shame and overall frustration,” says Daniel Vyner, principal broker at DV Capital Corporation in Toronto. “These are hard-working people doing the best they can. I think people are frustrated and stressed at the current situation.”

In the first half of 2023, more than 290,000 mortgage borrowers had to renew their mortgages at a significantly higher interest rate, resulting in higher debt-servicing costs.

The impact of rising interest rates is also felt among those within the real estate industry. In Toronto, realtors and mortgage brokers are seeing what some might call an “extreme buyer’s market”, where properties simply aren’t selling.

A tough market to navigate

“It’s definitely a buyer’s market. Typically, you’d see a price discovery, but we’re not seeing that right now. You would expect to see prices come down in a buyer’s market, but we’re not seeing that take place the same way it did back in the first quarter of 2022,” explains Daniel Foch, host of The Canadian Real Estate Investor Podcast.

This makes for a particularly difficult market to navigate. 

“The sales volume is so low that there’s not even enough sales to substantiate new comparables, and therefore values haven’t really started falling the way that they were in Q1 of 2022”, says Foch.

Borrowers and homeowners don’t just have mortgage payments to worry about — there are other living expenses, such as auto loans and credit card payments, that Canadians are trying to juggle.

“Homeowners are doing their best to ‘keep a roof over their head’ and are beginning to default on other financial obligations”, says Vyner. “This raises the question: how much longer can struggling homeowners sustain current pressure and to what degree will higher rates and payment increases add fuel to the fire?”

“The market in contraction” — be pragmatic, be realistic

As much as many would like for there to be a crystal ball that can predict the future of Canadian real estate, professionals are urging the public to be pragmatic and realistic looking ahead into 2024, 2025 and beyond.

“The writing’s on the wall”, says Foch. “The Canadian market is in contraction. GDP is falling, we’re in a recession. The consumer will continue to suffer. The Bank of Canada has stated they don’t expect rates to come down anytime soon.”

Cameron Cassidy, broker & branch manager at Right at Home Realty in Oshawa, further elaborates: “The renewals coming into 2024 and 2025 are what we’re trying to prepare our clients for. People going from 2 per cent to 5 per cent is a big payment shock.”

However, borrowers and homeowners still have alternative options to consider.

Educate clients on their options

 “A lot of the preparation is awareness: ‘Hey, this is coming. Don’t bank on rates coming down’,” continues Cassidy. “It’s making sure they understand they have options.”

Some options to consider include selling a property to gain access to equity, electing to rent, taking time to shop around to different lenders, making pre-payments on a mortgage when possible and starting long-term financial planning for the future.

Cassidy recalls one recent incident with a realtor at his brokerage: “They had a client call them saying that the bank sent them a letter forcing the sale of their property due to non-payment from job loss. The bank was calling for the entire loan due.”

The client ended up selling their home, despite wanting to keep it. The home was purchased at about $280,000 in 2008 and sold for over $800,000 in 2023. Cassidy feels “It’s not a bad option — even if it’s not the one they wanted.”

Industry lacks sensitivity training

It can also sometimes be easy for real estate professionals to overlook that behind all the data are real people’s lives being affected. Selling a home to access equity may sound practical to a licensee, but to homeowners who have lived in one place for most of their lives, it may feel like an impossible decision.

“Real estate education, such as my work with Humber College, in general, is a compliance course focused on RECO standards. It’s focused on the technical steps, understanding the laws and limitations required for realtors to promote their clients’ best interests. There’s no sensitivity training in that”, says Cassidy.

“It’s the brokerage’s job to focus on the training for their realtors, whether that be sales training or sensitivity training, to help them try to solve these complex problems.”