Now that we’re pretty much in the same position we were just a little over a month ago, we wanted to take a look at what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals have promised in terms of the housing market. 

The housing market is something that all the parties want to tackle, and the Liberals have made a few promises on how they plan to tackle it. Liberals want to make housing more affordable by increasing the supply of homes, introducing a tax-free First Home Savings Account, double home buyer tax credit, invest $1 billion into a rent to own program, ban blind bidding, and reduce the price charged by the CMHC on mortgage insurance by 25%. 

Now let’s compare the conservatives platform in terms of the housing market, because they will likely try to push their agenda. The main differences between the Liberals and the Conservatives platform is that the Conservatives want to ban foreign investors from buying houses, remove the mortgage stress test for mortgage renewals, and they want to extend mortgage terms up to 7-10 years. 

Will these changes for first time home buyers allow people to make larger bids? Or will it push the prices further? 

Will banning blind bidding really make a difference?

Honestly we don’t feel that banning blind bidding will truly help fix the pricing issue. Until we have enough supply, the demand will always be high, so the bids will be high regardless if blind bidding is banned or not. When you take a look at Australia and their open auction system when purchasing/selling a home, their housing market is very similar to Canada and their prices are just as high as ours. So would enforcing another system of bidding really make a difference in how much homes end up going for in Canada? 

Same Story, Different Month 

I know you all came here for the market stats, but it’s pretty much the same story and very similar to what we’ve been seeing all summer. Sales are low but so is inventory, by about 40%, which is what is keeping prices at the level they are at. Although we are pretty surprised with how low the inventory remains, it’s reminiscent of 2016, which was prior to the market first taking off in winter of 2017. So are we going to see another boost in the market relatively soon? 

Our Predictions Were Right! 

As we predicted the rental market is tightening up, and we’re seeing a lot of pre-construction sales, which shows that those purchasing are looking at a long term timeline, and do believe in the condo market and believe that it will continue to appreciate. 

So I guess now we will have to wait and see what the Liberals will end up implementing, and if the Conservatives will be able to push their agenda.

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Have any questions about what this means for you, or just want to talk real estate? Reach out today. We’d love to hear from you.