Beginning of spring market in Toronto appears to be busy. We are seeing more homes come out. World instability has perhaps pushed those who were thinking of selling to sell. Potentially rising interest rates may also push buyers to buy. Inflation is definitely on its way up and will have to be addressed. Here is the thing – we have no idea what will happen. Any attempts at forecasting are speculative at best.

Taking a snapshot of current market is not that simple. Clients often ask us – if you had to guess what do you think will happen with our real estate market in the next year. This question is difficult to answer.

Currently it appears that the market remains very strong and a number of houses are getting very high numbers. However we have seen a few cracks in ”the crazy market” Not all houses in all areas are getting crazy prices. Some are selling for very rational prices and anything that is obviously overpriced is simply not selling. Condos are selling but are definitely not as hot as houses.

The advice to buyers and sellers is to buy and sell when the time is right for them and not to try and predict the timing. The last couple of years has shown that predicting the future is impossible.

The concept of having a real estate team has grown in popularity in the past number of years. There are many reasons why it makes sense to hire a team. Firstly, there is always someone there to service the client for whatever need they may have. Agents who are good are busy and it is really hard to be everywhere at the same time. A team who has specialized people for each category is able to move fast and efficiently. There is someone handling home preparation, staging, social media, and advertising. A team can handle all of a clients real estate needs whether it is buying, selling or leasing. We become a group of consultants who are able to service families of different generations with all their needs.

On the other side, younger less experienced agents are able to be mentored by more experienced agents. It is a win win for everyone to hire a team.

Desire to live out of the city does not appear to be waning. With the world slowly opening up, outlook on life has changed for many. Those able to work remotely and who had places to work out of the city opted to work there for extended periods of time. A good number decided that they actually liked it and preferred living in country serenity with outdoor activities –  therapeutic for those with stressful jobs. Hence popular areas like Collingwood/Thornbury continue to see growth and increasing prices. That doesn’t appear to be ending. The world has definitely changed. Hopefully those quiet country oasis continue to be just that.

Income properties continue to be popular and it looks like investors will take very low cap rates.

Looking at the price of real estate in Toronto it’s no wonder that investors are looking at any way possible to own it and have someone else pay part of the carrying costs.

From a return on investment perspective it appears that the numbers don’t make that much sense but the real estate/land itself is escalating quickly. It looks like rents, which were somewhat flat during the pandemic are on the rebound. This makes owning an income property somewhat high demand and prices are up. Good income properties in central neighbourhoods are hard to find. There are very few that go to market.

Nothing new to report in real estate. The last few weeks have been eerily quiet. We are heading towards mid January and there is not much activity on the streets of the city. It looks like everyone is waiting for Omicron to blow over. It can’t be soon enough. In our world buyers are waiting to buy. We hope that sellers are willing to sell. With houses increasing in price we are looking at possible increases in condo sales and prices. Condos have not kept up with houses.

Many of our clients have asked us what to expect in 2022. The world has experienced so much uncertainty in the past couple years and yet real estate remained one of the most certain things that people had. Home ownership was security in an uncertain world. In 2021 we saw a big surge in demand and prices in real estate throughout Canada. Needs of people changed and we saw a lot of movement. Towards the end of 2021 product dried up but demand didn’t,  hence prices spiked up. We saw a big increase in demand and prices in the luxury market as those who often spent a lot of time travelling opted to stay home.

Here we are going into 2022. A couple of weeks ago we thought that we saw the worst of the pandemic behind us. How quickly things can change in such a short period of time. Before the appearance of Omicron, 2022  was looking like more of the the same in real estate with low supply and high demand. Interest rate hikes were looming due to inflation and there was some question how this would affect real estate. And now – who knows. We have stopped forecasting and are dealing with day to day. We are not seeing a change in demand – in fact demand may even increase. We may just have another very busy year. Unpredictable at this point…

Co-ownership perhaps an option for those not wanting and being able to spend on owning a home in Toronto’s highly priced real estate market. A client called me the other day and wanted to discuss the option of buying a house with 2 apartments and sharing with a friend. The idea sounded good but the realty of co-owning is not simple. So many what happens when… We see co-ownership arrangements happening more and more. Not only is it financially easier but also good for sharing responsibility in looking after a home, perhaps good for company. If all goes well this could work. But what if it doesn’t – lawyers could be busy.