Urbanis Property Group
1 Yonge Street Toronto, ON, Canada

As of this week, short-term rentals are allowed to re-open! This should have a balancing effect on the resale condo market as many speculated a shut-down would cause a 'pandemic sell-off' (especially in the condo market) to occur. We'll continue to monitor the re-opening and its impact on the market. The Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, the Hon. Vic Fedeli, has announced that short-term rental of cottages, condos and other sites will be permitted to ...resume as long as health and safety measures are put in place. This announcement comes after the province shut down non-essential short-term rental operations due to COVID-19 back on April 4. Under Ontario’s Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, short-term rentals defined as 28 days or less were only allowed to be rented to people in need of emergency housing. Source: TREB, The Ministery of Economic Development

If you have less than 20% as a downpayment, note the following mortgage qualification changes: 1. Minimum credit score increase from 600 to 680 (at least one of the borrowers) 2. TDS (Total Debt Service) and GDS (Gross Debt Service) ratios tightened from 44 to 42 and 39 to 35, respectively. This means either your income has to be higher or you have to buy a less expensive home. 3. Non traditional sources of downpayment will not work (count towards equity). This means that bo...rrowed funds can't be used as a downpayment. All these elements will make the marketplace more secure but it will require more planning and time by would be first time buyers. We are here to help should any questions come up. Getting your finances in order is the very step of the home buying process - yes, even before surfing MLS online :)) CMHC Reviews Underwriting Criteria| CMHC https://zcu.io/7dJW

We are glad to see rates hold steady (as expected). Those with variable rates will continue to see no change in the prime rate. Fixed rates (especially 10 yr) are at historic lows. Bank of Canada maintains target for the overnight rate, scales back some market operations as financial conditions improve - Bank of Canada https://zcu.io/kKOH

Under the Toronto Economic Support and Recovery Task Force, please note the 60- day grace period provided for Toronto property tax payments: Revised Interim Bill Property Tax payments and due dates: - The interim instalment amount that was originally due on April 1 is now due on June 1, 2020, and the May 1st due date is now July 2, 2020.... - Note: the interim Bill instalment amounts remain unchanged.

As we await the April stats - which will be the first full month post-COVID; the March numbers below indicate a tale of two halves. Despite a strong increase in sales for March 2020 as a whole, there was a clear break in market activity between the pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 periods. For the purposes of this release, the start of the post-COVID-19 period was the week beginning Sunday, March 15. The overall March sales result was clearly driven by the first two weeks of ...the month. There were 4,643 sales reported in the pre-COVID-19 period, accounting for 58 per cent of total transactions and representing a 49 per cent increase compared to the first 14 days of March 2019. There were 3,369 sales reported during the post-COVID-period down by 15.9 per cent compared to the same period in March 2019. For March as a whole, new listings were up by three per cent year-over-year to 14,424. However, similar to sales, new listings dropped on a year-over-year basis during the second half of the month (beginning March 15) by 18.4 per cent. SOURCE: TREB MARCH 2020 MARKET WATCH