New home and condo market: Canada's best-kept secret

By Debbie Cosic
March 08, 2017

When it comes to the business of housing and ensuring that people get the biggest bang for their buck, I believe that Canadian developers and builders do it best. The funny thing is, the new home and condo market is Canada’s best-kept secret – even to most Canadians!

Many Canadians don’t realize the opportunities and advantages that exist on their home turf, and when shopping for a home or condominium, they will often skip over this market completely. Meanwhile, international home shoppers zero-in on our market for many reasons.

Having studied many housing markets in the U.S. and Europe with other industry experts, we always conclude that the Canadian new home and condo market is far superior in many respects – particularly when it comes to the quality, selection, protection and value we offer here. When we talk to other home-building professionals abroad, we often find they want to come to Canada to learn more about our strategies and tactics. Some often do, and become more competitive in their own markets as a result.

In New York City for example, where the condo market attracts people from all over the globe, it’s not unusual to find that luxury condo developers will offer only one standard kitchen and one set of design and décor options to its clientele. In fact, buyers will often ask the builder to skip the installation of the kitchen because the standard is not to their liking. Imagine if a luxury builder down the street decided to offer more than one option of kitchen? Or if that builder had an interior designer and décor centre on site that offered help with selecting their kitchen’s finishes and features at no extra charge, like we do in Canada? Talk about a competitive advantage.

Customers in NYC will often bring in their own designers, adding to the time and cost, and creating unnecessary construction chaos for other residents in the building after they move in. In Canada, the selection of a new home or condo’s finishes, fixtures and cabinetry is incredible and on-trend. Builders offer a vast selection of standard finishes and upgrades. They keep up with design trends by ensuring that they have professional décor centres that are staffed with highly skilled design managers to help buyers with their selections before construction even begins. The process is efficient, and the end result is a buyer who is happy and confident with their choices.

On the financial side of the business, Canadians have the advantage of a highly regulated mortgage industry through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. A mortgage insurance protection program is mandatory in Canada for down payments between five and 19.99 per cent. In fact, five per cent is the minimum amount you can put down on a home in Canada. This is our secret weapon to help protect the financial stability of our housing market across the country. This insurance protects lenders, in the event that a borrower stops making payments and defaults on their mortgage.

For Canadians, it gives us an opportunity to get into the housing marketing with as little as five per cent down. Although some people may argue we don’t need such protections, historically our housing market has been stable, and our booms and busts are not as severe or as long-term as those we’ve seen south of the border.

There you have it – some of the home turf advantages and secrets of Canada’s hot real estate market. I will be exploring more about Canada’s exciting new home and condo market in the future. If there’s something specific you’d like to ask, reach out to the editor and we’ll address the issues.

About Debbie Cosic

Debbie Cosic, CEO and founder of In2ition Realty, has worked in all facets of the real estate industry for over 25 years. She has sold and overseen the sales of more than $15 billion worth of real estate. With Debbie at its helm, In2ition has become one of the fastest-growing and most innovative new home and condo sales companies. In2ition has received numerous awards from the Building Industry & Land Development and the National Association of Home Builders.

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