More Torontonians are eyeing detached homes, although there are those properties are the most difficult to locate.
A brand-new survey by the Ontario Real Estate Association surveyed 1,003 Ontarians looking to purchase a home. Fifty per cent of them said they plan to buy a detached home in the next two years.
In Toronto, that’s up 21 percentage points from a year ago. Across Ontario, it’s up 13 percentage points.
But the prospect of detached homes in Toronto is at an all-time low.
“The real Canadian dream is to have sole home ownership with land so you can develops your family ,” told Mr. Langlois, a real estate agent.” So you find out your client’s needs and what the hell is crave, but then when you go shopping nothing exists .”
Just 537 detached homes for sale in Toronto
In a city of almost three million people, only 537 detached homes were listed for sale on the Toronto Real Estate Board at noon Wednesday.
Langlois says he’s not amazed and that his clients are often frustrated by the absence of supply.
When they do find something that adress the needs and requirements, Langlois mentions, the battle is fierce and that drives costs up.
“I’ll get clients that will finally find their dream home, they have a budget in mind, they are unable to come up so much and when we go in to make an offer, they often get into a bidding campaign.”
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the needs of the detached homes isn’t going to decrease soon.
A autumn report on the housing outlook for the Greater Toronto Area discovered that asking for single detached homes will be particularly strong in 2017, yet fewer of them will be built because of “zoning rules and land-use policies favouring high-density construction .”
The Ontario government made growth a blueprint for the Greater Horseshoe region in the early 2000’s. These programs inhibit where a developer is allowed to build and what kinds of construction can be erected.
“There’s a number of reasons for this,” told Phil Stewart, an urban planner with Pound and Stewart Planning. “There’s the preservation of agricultural land. There’s only so much of it in Ontario, because you don’t have to go too far north before you hit the Canadian Shield — basically a boulder.”
Stewart mentions the other reason is that the government wants to protect geological features such as the Niagara Escarpment.
“The easiest behavior to abide by all of this is to expand vertically. That’s why you have a lot of condo growings today,” told Stewart.
Tim Hudak, CEO of the Ontario Real Estate Association, says that there is still room to constructs more homes in Toronto.
“There are old industrial areas,” told Hudak.” It makes a lot of sense to grow concentration along the subways pipelines.”
Hudak mentions the province is reviewing the growth plan for Ontario and has been receptive to OREA’s suggestions.
“We’ve had personal meets with them,” told Hudak. “To their credit they’ve doubled the land transfer tax for first-time home buyers.”
He mentions now it’s Toronto’s turn to rethink its land transfer tax because that avoids many people from moving.
“Toronto is unique in Canada in having a land transfer tax,” told Hudak.
“On the street we’ve lived on in Toronto, we’ve probably found seven or eight couples who needed more space because they had children. But they found the land transfer tax intimidating, so instead of moving they chose to renovate their property. That entails there’s another young pair who won’t be able to buy that hom .”
With costs of a detached home in Toronto sitting at merely over $1 million, people pay from $40,000 to $50,000 in provincial and municipal land delivery taxes combined.
Source: CBC News, Toronto
