New Listings Scaring Foreign Buyers Away

Foreign home buyers in Toronto are pulling off as new listings surged in. last week, in the Ontario fair Housing Plan, Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government introduced a 15 per cent tax on home purchases by non-resident foreigners in Toronto and the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

John Pasalis, Broker and Realosophy President, argued that this imposition wouldn’t have much impact on foreign buyers saying “there are so many exemptions, the people who would qualify will have to pay, it is a really small number.”

Desmond Brown, Real Estate Agent in the Great Pittsburgh Area, and former Toronto Real Estate Board president Richard Silver, both agreed to the government’s choice of roll-out date.

“I think the government timed the announcement with the spring market so they could take credit for a slowdown,” said Brown.

Pasalis believed that this roll-out new measures in late April has affected “seller and buyer psychology”.

”The new listings surged started in mid-March, and we think part of that was driven by people worried if these new provincial changes were going to cool our market,” he stated. “A lot of buyers are pulling back because they think the market might fall. They’re worried about bubbles…. So there’s a lot of uncertainty on the buying end.”

He suggested that now is the best time for home buyers to invest. “Four weeks ago every house that was listed on the market had an offer date and on their offer date they’d have between five and twenty offers,” he further stated.

He believes that buyers will step up the game saying “there’s a lot less stress because there are not as many offers.” He said “when buyers see other buyers step back, they step back, when prices jump up, they jump back in.”