2 February 2018

“It looks like new home buyers are looking beyond the GTA region as they want to find more affordable low-rise options, and the west direction is leading so far,” – noted Ben Myers, founder of Bullpen Consulting and the author of the report.

As of the high-rise searches, Toronto is followed by Mississauga, Oakville and Hamilton.

It should be noted that the average size of a new condo project in Mississauga is larger than in Toronto: it’s 28 storeys and 433 units versus 26 storeys and 397 units.

In addition to it, the report looked into the influence of Ontario’s Fair Housing Plan on the new homes online searches last year. As you know, in April 2017, the provincial government implemented a pack of new measures aimed at cooling the Greater Golden Horseshoe’s market, including a foreign buyers tax.

In March 2017, we saw investor interest almost tripling from the previous year, and then it suddenly went down following the new rules introduction.

Probably, because of this tax, the number of Chinese users searching for new properties in the region fell by 41% annually in December, while searches by Americans rose by 73%.