Alex Hakimi, Homelife Golconda Realty Inc

04/30/2025

Penthouse in North York

Just listed 1.3Mil

04/05/2025

North York

❌ Beautiful 3 bedrooms Townhouse ❌

Congratulations to my client 🤝

02/09/2024

06/11/2022

Bank of Canada rate hikes, including the 50-basis point hike on June 1, are impacting home buyers in the short term. There is now a psychological aspect where potential buyers are waiting for a bottom in price. This will likely continue through the summer. However, as home buyers adjust to higher borrowing costs, housing demand will be supported by extremely low unemployment, high job vacancies, rising incomes and record immigration,” said TRREB president Kevin Crigger.

02/17/2021

Despite COVID-19 lockdowns and much of the country blanketed by snow, Canadians still couldn’t be kept out of the real estate market in January.

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) says sales were up 35.2 per cent year-over-year nationally — a record for the month. And since there are so few homes available to satisfy the demand, prices as measured by the MLS Home Price Index rose 13.5 per cent.

The number of newly listed homes fell 13.3 per cent. Rising sales and falling supply meant the national sales-to-new listings ratio tightened to 90.7 per cent – the highest level on record. To put that in perspective, the previous record was 81.5 per cent set 19 years ago. The long-term average is 54.3 per cent.

Considering lockdowns and frigid weather, CREA doesn’t expect sellers to suddenly start putting their homes up for sale, but says that’s what it will likely take to start to put a lid on rapidly rising prices.

“The best case scenario would be if we see a lot of sellers who were gun-shy to engage in the market last year making a move this year,” said CREA's senior economist Shaun Cathcart, in a release.

“A big surge in supply is what so many markets really need this year to get people into the homes they want, and to keep prices from accelerating any more than they already are.”

Greater Toronto Area markets were particularly tight, with double-digit declines in sales-to-new listings in Hamilton-Burlington, London and St. Thomas, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec and Halifax Dartmouth.
Prices up across the map by varying degrees
Unlike previous boom periods, it’s not only a Toronto and Vancouver story. Prices are up in almost all major markets of the country. Regina is an outlier with a 3.1 per cent year-over-year decline.

The trend of more rapid price growth outside of the biggest urban markets like Toronto continued.

The largest price gains were in places that don’t typically see that type of appreciation. The Lakelands region of Ontario cottage country, Northumberland Hills, Quinte & District, Tillsonburg District and Woodstock-Ingersoll were up more than 30 per cent.

Barrie, Niagara, Grey-Bruce Owen Sound, Huron Perth, Kawartha Lakes, London & St. Thomas, North Bay, Simcoe & District and Southern Georgian Bay were up 25-30 per cent.

Toronto is up a more modest, but still strong 11.9 per cent.

To help understand the price growth discrepancy, BMO senior economist Robert Kavcic points out the Barrie benchmark price was only 60 per cent of Toronto’s prior to the pandemic.

“If a household sells a typical house in Toronto to buy one in Barrie, they could offer 10 per cent over asking and still only pay 66 per cent of what they’re selling for,” he said in a note.

“With very limited supply, it’s easy to see how a lot of new buyers entering a particular region can be insensitive to prices, and therefore push them up quickly. Of course, this becomes a more serious issue if speculators pile on.”

More evidence of an urban exodus can be seen in a far weaker 3.1 per cent increase in condo prices.

12/16/2020

Cottage country boom helps push Canadian home prices up 11.6 per cent, with room to run in 2021

Canada’s real estate market is on pace for its strongest year ever, led by a boom in cottage country regions, and rising prices could continue in 2021.

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) says new data for November show year over year prices are up in every major market it tracks and sales were the highest ever for the month, up 32.1 per cent from last year.

“If I had to sum up the Canadian housing story in 2020, I would say it’s gone from weakness because of COVID, to strength despite COVID,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s senior economist, in the report.

“It will be a photo finish, but it’s looking like 2020 will be a record year for home sales in Canada despite historically low supply.”

The 74.8 per cent sales-to-new-listings ratio is among the highest levels on record, and well above the long-term average of 54.2 per cent.

The aggregate composite MLS home price index is up 11.6 per cent for the biggest year over year gain since 2017.

The largest price gains were in Quinte & District, Tillsonburg District, Woodstock-Ingersoll and a number of Ontario cottage country areas up, between 25 and 30 per cent.

Barrie, Bancroft and Area, Brantford, Huron Perth, London & St. Thomas, North Bay, Simcoe & District, Southern Georgian Bay and Ottawa are up between 20 and 25 per cent.

Even economically hard-hit Calgary and Edmonton are up between 1 per cent and 2 per cent.
“Much like this virus, I don’t see it all turning into a pumpkin on New Year’s Eve, but at least vaccination is a light at the end of the tunnel.” said Cathcart.

“Immigration and population growth will ramp back up, mortgage rates are expected to continue to remain very low, and a place to call home is more important than ever. On top of that, the COVID-related shake-up to so much of daily life will likely continue to result in more people choosing to pull up stakes and move around.”

BMO senior economist Robert Kavcic says next year likely won’t be as hot as 2020, but conditions are in place for another strong year with a high-paying-job recovery, low rates, and shifting preferences.

“Markets outside the core of the major cities remain extremely tight, and price growth should carry into 2021,” he said in a note.

“It remains to be seen how the ravenous acquiring of rural/vacation properties plays out later in 2021 and into 2022, assuming the vaccine is effective. It would be reasonable to expect those markets to plateau or even give back some (but not nearly all) of the recent price gains.”

12/09/2020

Wed., December 9, 2020, 10:55 a.m. EST
OTTAWA — Positive news about vaccine delivery won't be enough to give the economy a shot in the arm to start 2021, the Bank of Canada said Wednesday as it kept its key interest rate on hold and warned rising COVID-19 cases in Canada will weigh on near-term growth.

The central bank said economic restrictions in response to burgeoning case counts will hold down economic growth for the first three months of the new year and that the virus will "contribute to a choppy trajectory until a vaccine is widely available."

The Canadian economy took a nosedive in March and April when the pandemic first washed over the country, as non-essential businesses were ordered closed, workers told to stay at home and some three million jobs were lost.

Since then, the country has clawed back just over four-fifths of those job losses.

The central bank's most recent economic forecasts were based on having a vaccine becoming widely available in 2022, not by next year as now appears the case.

Still, the central bank said Wednesday the economy will need what it calls "extraordinary monetary policy support" in the forms of a rock-bottom policy rate and a continued bond-buying program unprecedented in the central bank's history.

The central bank held its key policy rate at 0.25 per cent. It also announced it would continue its quantitative easing program by buying $4 billion of bonds per week.

Both moves are designed to drive down interest rates on things like mortgages and business loans to prod spending and ease debt loads.

The central bank said it will hold the policy interest rate at the effective lower bound, meaning it is as low as the bank believes it can go, until economic slack is absorbed so that its two per cent inflation target is sustainably achieved.

In its statement, the Bank of Canada said it doesn't expect inflation to get back on target until some time in 2023.

The bank said the federal government’s recently announced measures should help maintain business and household incomes during this second wave of COVID-19 and help the economy continue to recover.

12/03/2020

TORONTO — November brought a sense of urgency to the Toronto real estate market, where COVID-19 has people buying and selling homes for "completely different reasons" than before the pandemic, according to Peel-based broker Bethany King.

With schools restarting in January and many children and parents home for remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, buyers were willing to push their budgets to get a more spacious home in place for the new year, says King, a team leader at Century 21 Millennium Inc. brokerage.

"A huge draw to being in the city was all of the things that happen in the city,: the festivals, the nightlife, parties and gatherings. But all of that is gone now," says King. "A lot of people don't see the value in living in a place with so little square footage."

Pockets of listings have also cropped up from sellers facing down lingering unemployment from the COVID-19 pandemic, as the period for deferring mortgages draws to a close, said King.

"It's a mixed pot. In regards to new listings, I do believe that our new listings are driven by financial need," says King.

"But regardless, our inventory is still low. In our suburban areas, we're still seeing bidding wars. It's highly competitive and our properties are not sitting for too long."

King's comments reflect new data from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, which showed that November home sales in the Greater Toronto Area were up 24.3 per cent compared with last year, as demand for single-family homes continued to surge ahead of condos.

There were 8,766 homes sold in the month, up from 7,054 in November 2019, the board said on Thursday. The average price was $955,615, up 13.3 per cent from $843,307 a year earlier.

Board president Lisa Patel says homebuyers continued to take advantage of very low borrowing costs in November, especially those looking to buy some form of single-family home.

While detached home prices rose to an average of $1,202,281, up 15.2 per cent from November 2019, average condo prices fell two per cent to $605,863.

Compared with November 2019, average prices were also rising more quickly in the suburbs than in the city's core, with detached home prices up 19.2 per cent, townhouse prices up 14.9 per cent, and condo prices up 4.8 per cent in the suburbs.

In the city centre, detached home prices rose 8.7 per cent, townhouses were 7.3 per cent pricier, and condo prices fell three per cent from Nov. 2019.

Even as news of a potential COVID-19 vaccine mounted in November, Toronto-based broker Jasmine Lee says many buyers have their minds made up to leave the downtown core.

"Torontonians are exploring more outside of their city. We have clients who said things like, 'We don't travel north of Bloor,' and now they're travelling to Ajax or Oshawa," says Lee. "I think this is going to be a big trend we're seeing now and in the future."

Low-rise, suburban homes have been increasingly popular since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as telecommuting and stay-at-home restrictions have left buyers seeking space over the convenience of downtown.

So far this year, sales of detached homes in the Toronto area are up 13.1 per cent from 2019 despite a near-shutdown of sales this spring, while condo sales are down 10 per cent so far this year.

The number of condos that hit the market this November was almost double that of November of last year.

"My buyers … are comfortable with abandoning their downtown Toronto condos, to get something big — more substantial — in the suburbs," says King, although she noted that could change with the government's plan to add 401,000 permanent residents to Canada's population next year.

"This so-called condo crash may just be a short blip in our 2020 COVID-19 real estate market."

The board said 11,545 homes were listed for sale in November, up from 8,651 in November last year, as the market catches up from spring's slowdown. There have been 150,913 listings in the Toronto area so far this year, compared with 149,241 at this time last year.

Although there was an uptick in condo listings, Lee says that the harried summer and fall in the real estate market is in part due to a shortage of homes on the market, even dating back to the beginning of 2020.

Homes are spending about 20 per cent fewer days on the market this year compared with last year, the board said.

"It seems like something bigger than a pandemic would have to happen in order to shut down the real estate market," says Lee.

10/24/2020

TORONTO — Rental listings more than doubled in the third quarter, as investors pulled their condos from platforms such as Airbnb and put them onto the traditional rental market instead, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board.

There was a nearly 114-per cent surge in the number of condos listed for rent in the Greater Toronto Area this summer, driving down rents for units of all sizes, TRREB said on Friday.

Board president Lisa Patel said the growing pool of condos on the market led to more choice and negotiating power for renters this summer.

Although there was a 30 per-cent year-over-year increase in the number of condos rented, the 14,036 new leases signed weren't enough to keep up with the wave of 34,971 new rental listings.

“The demand for condo rentals remained very strong in Q3 as the economy experienced a substantial rebound. However, this demand was overshadowed by the very rapid rise in rental listings,” said Jason Mercer, TRREB’s chief market analyst.

Rents for one-bedroom units, the most popular size on the market, fell by more than 11 per cent to $2,012 in Toronto during the quarter, down from $2,262 in summer 2019.

Rent prices for bachelors, two-bedroom and three-bedroom condos also fell during the quarter, the board’s report said. Bachelor apartment rents fell 15.5 per cent to $1,608 from $1,904 in 2019; two-bedroom rents fell 9.2 per cent to $2,672 from $2,941; and three-bedroom rents were down 8.7 per cent to $3,421 from $3,746 in the same period last year.

The city of Toronto had the highest vacancy rate, at 0.9 per cent, while vacancy was at 0.4 per cent for condo apartments in Durham, Peel and Halton, and 0.3 per cent in York, said TRREB, citing data from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

The break in Toronto rental prices comes amid a proposal from the Ontario government to freeze rents in 2021, a measure aimed at steadying the economy as many workers remain unemployed during the COVID-19 pandemic after the end of an eviction moratorium this fall.

Toronto is not the only city where rents have fallen as more rentals sit vacant on the market, amid economic changes stemming from the pandemic.

A separate report from website Rentals.ca also documented falling rent rates this summer, showing average rents in September down 9.5 per cent from a year ago across the country, to $1,769 per month, after holding steady for four months. Some of the factors behind the lower prices were vacancies due to job losses, lower immigration levels, virtual university classes, lack of tourism fuelling short-term rentals, low interest rates encouraging buying, and a shift to cheaper areas due to the ability of many employees to work from home.

“There has been much discussion surrounding the drop in rents downtown due to the shutdown of many of the office towers, and a reduction in demand for short-term rentals from tourist and out-of-town contract workers. With Ryerson and U of T downtown, as well as several other colleges, many students decided to stay with their parents,” Rental.ca’s report said.

“In 2016 and 2017, the Toronto new condominium apartment market set record highs for sales, and those buildings are coming to completion now. A high share of those units were purchased by investors with the intent of renting them out to young professionals.”

As Toronto sh*ts to a renter’s market, Rentals.ca’s analysis suggests that larger apartments are getting more interest from potential tenants. The website suggested that rent prices declined four per cent for apartments around 37.2 square metres compared with September 2019, but rose 17 per cent for apartments larger than 102.2 sq. m.

Commercial real estate firm CBRE this month also suggested that, amid the COVID-19 restrictions over the summer, more tenants are asking landlords for features such as in-suite laundry, balconies, dens and home offices, gyms, and elevator-free access.

CBRE’s report also noted that, despite tenants’ interest in amenities, landlords are concerned about the second wave of COVID-19, elevated unemployment, fading government stimulus and slowing immigration levels.

“Given the economic stress being felt across Canada, many of these residents have been pushed to either seek accommodations with a roommate, downgrade to a more affordable building, or move in with family members,” the firm said.

But on Friday, TRREB’s Mercer expressed optimism about the future of the rental market.

“Once we move into the post-COVID period, population growth from immigration and non-permanent residents will bolster rental demand and absorption,” Mercer said.

10/15/2020

Canadian home sales climbed 0.9% in September from August, raising them to a new all-time monthly record for the third month in a row, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) said on Thursday.

The industry group said actual sales, not seasonally adjusted, rose 45.6% from a year earlier, while the group's Home Price Index was up 10.3% from September last year and up 1.3% from August.

"This is starting to sound like a broken record (about records being broken), but Canadian home sales and prices set records once again in September ... as they did in July and August," said Shaun Cathcart, senior economist at CREA, in a statement.

The largest price gains were in smaller Ontario cities and in the capital region of Ottawa, with further flung Toronto suburbs and Ontario cottage towns also showing very strong year-over-year gains.

This reinforces the view that Canadians are fleeing the tight confines of urban centers for larger spaces amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Home has been our workplace, our kids’ schools, the gym, the park and more. Personal space is more important than ever,” said Cathcart.

The actual average home price in Canada jumped 17.5%, hitting a record C$604,211 ($456,766.71) in September.

While the strength of the Canadian housing market through the COVID-19 pandemic has shocked analysts, many warn that the record shattering pace cannot continue.

"We doubt that this recent sizzling strength can persist amid some of the building headwinds," said Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, in a note. "The underlying economic conditions simply do not support such a piping hot market over a sustained period."

10/06/2020

The Greater Toronto Area’s real estate market had its busiest September on record, even as COVID-19 cases rise and the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) wound down.

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) says 11,083 homes were sold during the month, 42.3 per cent more than September 2019.

TRREB continued to beat the drum of pent up demand to explain the unusually strong sales this late in the year, combined with low interest rates. But it also warned the pandemic’s economic effects could cool the market in the coming months.

“Further improvements in the economy, including job growth, would support strong home sales moving forward,” said TRREB president Lisa Patel, in a release. “However, it will be important to monitor the trajectory of COVID-19 cases, the related government policy response, and the impact on jobs and consumer confidence.”

As has been the trend during the pandemic, year over year sales growth was led by detached (54.7 per cent), semi-detached (53 per cent), and townhomes (46.9 per cent). Condo apartment sales were up 14.6 per cent).

A segmented housing market
The other trend that continued to make a mark was stronger sales in the suburbs, with 3,555 properties changing hands in the city of Toronto or the 416 area code, compared to the 905 regions led by South Simcoe County (20 per cent), Orangeville (17.43 per cent), and Durham region (17.07 per cent).

The uneven demand for higher-priced types of homes pushed the average selling price up to $960,772 – up by 14 per cent year over year and a new record. The MLS composite, which aims to smooth out those kinds of distortions, was up 11 per cent.

“On a GTA-wide basis, market conditions tightened in September relative to last year, with sales increasing at a faster pace than new listings,” said Jason Mercer, TRREB’s chief market analyst.

“With competition between buyers increasing noticeably, double-digit year-over-year price growth was commonplace throughout the region in September, resulting in the overall average selling price reaching a new record.”

09/18/2020

Canada posted record home sales and prices in August, but the increase was uneven, as the housing market levelled off in some regions.

Home sales in August climbed 6.2 per cent compared with July to hit a record for the month, with gains led by the Greater Toronto Area and B.C.'s Lower Mainland, the Canadian Real Estate Association said on Tuesday.

Compared with a year ago, sales in August were up 33.5 per cent. CREA noted, however, unlike the countrywide home sales spike in June and July, sales in August were up in about 60 per cent of local markets.

"One change in August is that some regional disparity is starting to show again, after all markets were rebounding in unison in recent months," wrote Robert Kavcic, BMO senior economist, in a note to clients.

"(Sales) were driven by gains in Toronto and surrounding markets, as well as Vancouver/Victoria, but others like Calgary and Regina have ebbed...We suspect this regional split will re-establish itself as the dust settles."

The national average home price also set another record in August at more than $586,000, up 18.5 per cent compared with a year ago. Excluding Greater Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area, two of Canada's most active and expensive housing markets, lowers the national average price by about $122,000.

Ottawa, Montreal and Moncton saw some of the biggest surges in home prices last month, but prices were nearly flat in Calgary, Edmonton and St. John’s, CREA said.

Royal LePage CEO Phil Soper attributed the climbing prices with a housing shortage, calling the 18.5 per cent uptick “unhealthy.”

CREA said that it would only take 2.6 months to sell the houses currently on the market, as housing inventory fell to a record low, especially in Ontario.

“Both number of homes people are buying and the number of newly listed homes are rising significantly. This cannot hide the fact that August 2020 was the worst on record for available housing,” Soper said.

After fears about listing their houses during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, more sellers are returning to the market. CREA said that in August, new supply outpaced the rise in sales for the first time since May.

Home sales in Canada came to a near halt in the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but have surged through the summer, helped by pent up demand and low mortgage rates. CREA said in addition to a record for August it was the sixth-highest monthly sales figure of any month.

The record-busting sales activity means the housing market has caught up to last year’s levels, despite weeks of inactivity this spring. Year-to-date, sales in August were up 0.8 per cent from the first eight months of 2019, CREA said.

But Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s senior economist, said comparing 2020 with 2019 sets a “low bar.”

“(The) first half of 2019 wasn’t really anything to write home about,” said Cathcart.

“(With) eight months now in the books and activity showing signs of moderating in September, 2020 is looking like it will go down as a fairly middling year overall – weaker than in a non-COVID world but quite a bit better than we would have given it back in April.”

Soper agreed that 2020’s sales numbers look strong, in part, because the 2019 market was “unusually slow” amid a set of new laws that pressured housing for about 18 months, ending last August. Now, 2020 is set to be another extraordinary year, as banks begin collecting deferred mortgage payments and jobless rates threaten to languish for the rest of the year.

“The residual impact of rising unemployment and the end of mortgage deferrals should have a dampening affect demand overall, and bring some balance to the market by the end of the year. The real question is what happens in the spring of 2021,” Soper said.