Friday, June 16, 2017

Ontario Fair Housing Plan – Takeaways For Windsor-Essex Real Estate Market



The Ontario Fair Housing Plan has now been around for almost 2 months.  The effects are starting to show in the GTA with month over month sales dropping 25%+.  In our last blog we reviewed the highlights of the plan and what you needed to know.  This post we are going to be discussing those highlights and specifically how they affect our home market of Windsor-Essex.

A 15% Foreign Buyers Tax In The GTA
This tax doesn’t apply to our market and only applies to the GTA area.  A large percentage of these foreign buyers were investors and this additional cost will make investing in the GTA less attractive.  With sales down since being introduced, it’s obvious these investors are pulling back.  This should lead to investors looking away from the GTA, naturally coming south where the tax doesn’t apply and their dollar goes much further.  These additional investors will only add fuel to the fire for local investment property demand and could push cap rates even lower.  Residential demand should also get an added boost.

Expanding Rent Controls
With a vacancy rate below 3% in the area, there has been upward pressure on market rents.  These rent controls will affect the functioning of this market and should ultimately lead to a lower supply of rental units pushing down the vacancy rate.  This effect will be seen in all markets in Ontario.

Changes To The Landlord Tenant Act
These tenant-friendly changes should also lead tenants to stay longer in their units when combined with the expanded rent controls.  Turnover should be lower for landlords.  This would tend to lower vacancy rates as well.  These effects will also be seen across Ontario.

Vacant Home Tax
We don’t see much evidence of vacant homes being bought by foreigners in our market.  This is more of a Toronto/Vancouver problem that shouldn’t have much effect in our area. We don’t see The City Of Windsor legislating something like this at the present time.

Levelling Property Tax Levels For New Multi-Residential Buildings
This should help the economics of building rental units, but combined with enhanced rent controls this might be nullified.  The low vacancy rate is supportive but further incentives from the City might be needed to encourage these new rental units.


Those are our local takeaways from the Ontario Fair Housing Plan.  What are yours?