Canada realty sector witnesses standard offers with conditions

Many may not believe this nowadays but it’s a reality. There was a time in many countries like Canada when the real estate industry used to have a booming condition. In those days any prospective buyer used to get multiple offers at the same time and get annoyed because of repeated calls of real estate agents. But those days are no more and have sunk into the oblivion. On the contrary there has almost been the resurrection of standard offers with conditions attached. This is becoming increasingly common in the domain of Canada and the real estate bigwigs are accepting this reality as well.

Phil Soper, President and CEO of Royal Lepage Real Estate Services, the oldest and largest real estate company of Canada, is the latest person to accept this reality. He was speaking at the Scotiabank real estate outlook conference in Toronto when he did reveal this. Soper said, “It’s all about having a home inspection, approval of financing, things that were disregarded during a sellers market.” He also said at the conference, “This is a generation that has been much more comfortable than their parents with mortgages.” “But they have checked out in large numbers. They’re living at home, they’re renting, they don’t have to buy.”

It is to be noted that Scotiabank is making a detailed analysis of Canada’s real estate scenario and its future. According to its prudence, Canadian housing starts will plummet to 155,000 units this year, below long term replacement demand, and far below the 211,056 units registered in 2008.

However Soper was not alone and Scotiabank economist Adrienne Warren came out with the same viewpoint as well. Warren said, “The housing boom is clearly over, and if anything, that’s an understatement.” Moreover, Scotiabank has concluded that the federal government’s renovation tax credit for households may not pick up the construction industry along with the national economy. “It certainly has the potential to provide a boost, but overall the opportunity for it to provide a significant boost to offset the construction gap are fairly limited,” said Warren on this.