
BOE Governor Says Further Rate Rises Can’t Be Ruled Out Yet
The Bank of England’s top two policy makers signaled that the most aggressive tightening cycle in three decades may be nearing an end.
Latest Videos
The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
The Bank of England’s top two policy makers signaled that the most aggressive tightening cycle in three decades may be nearing an end.
China’s real estate market is in an unresolved crisis and Beijing needs to do more to support the sector, the International Monetary Fund said, earning a sharp rebuke from Beijing.
Norway’s unemployment rate matched the lowest level in 14 years, indicating labor market strength that could convince the central bank to raise rates more than previously expected.
Sales in the Toronto housing market ground to the slowest pace since the first month of the pandemic as buyers contend with some of the highest borrowing costs they’ve seen in 15 years.
An ultra luxury apartment in Hong Kong’s Mount Nicholson development — one of the most expensive apartment projects in Asia — was recently sold for a loss of HK$130 million ($16.6 million) as the city’s upscale home market struggles to recover from weak demand.
Jan 30, 2020
Bloomberg News
,Dwindling inventories of existing homes in Toronto is driving sales of pricier newly built housing, another sign of tightening in Canada’s largest real estate market.
The number of new homes sold in Toronto jumped 45 per cent last year to 36,471 units, the Building Industry and Land Development Association and Altus Group reported Thursday. That’s well above the 13 per cent increase in transactions of existing homes. The increase in sales of new homes was driven by single-family units, which jumped 157 per cent last year to 9,523.
Growing demand for pricier new construction reflects a willingness to pay up for increasingly scarce supply. A recent correction in prices for new single-family homes also helped sales in that segment.
“The improvement in new single-family home sales in 2019 was aided by the narrowing of the price gap between new single-family homes and new condominium apartments, as well as fewer competing options in the resale home market as inventories were whittled down,” Patricia Arsenault, executive vice president of data solutions at Altus, said in the report.
Newly built single-family homes still represent the most expensive segment of Toronto’s residential real estate market, and have been one of the most volatile in recent years. After surging between 2015 and 2017, prices have dropped considerably since 2017 and are almost 20 per cent below their peak after a five-per-cent drop last year.
Prices for new condominium units, however, have been on an uninterrupted march higher, recording a 15-per-cent gain in 2019, as square footage continues to increase. The benchmark price for a new single-family home in the Greater Toronto Area was $1.09 million at the end of last year, versus $917,000 for condos.