Image: Chris Sharp / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The news of the improving economy is everywhere, as is the red-hot real estate market, but one of the sure indicators of both those improvements is in the number of building permits being filed across Canada – a number that’s on the rise, in keeping with the improving market conditions.
Building permit numbers dropped significantly at the onset of the recession and with the real estate market slump, as investors and builders began to worry about the possibility of selling new properties or recently-constructed homes. But thanks to the huge leaps the real estate market’s been making all across the country since the last half of 2009, many of those investors and builders are diving right back into their projects and finishing them off. For the many eager buyers in cities like Toronto – where potential buyers have outnumbered the listings on the market, creating a seller’s market – the attendant boom in property availability is coming just at the right time.
Across the nation, building permits have gone up for properties like single-family homes, as well as for non-residential properties. According to Statistics Canada, contractors took out $5.9 billion worth of building permits in November, 2009, 62.8 per cent over the amount from February, 2009, when the lowest recorded value for building permits was reached during the recession.
This increase in building permits and the surge in the real estate market have nudged the Canadian dollar up and contributed to the slight rebound in the economy that’s been seen since the third quarter of 2009.
The real estate market is expected to remain strong until at least June of this year, due to the Bank of Canada’s pledge to keep interest rates down at their current record lows. Until then, we will probably see some record-breaking highs in the real estate market – at least in Canada. Although the American real estate market is making a recovery, it’s been a harder slog for our neighbours to the south. Nonetheless, prospects remain good for real estate right across North America, a situation that’s certainly helped in Canada by the promise of ongoing low interest rates.
Nelson Goulart
Broker of Record with Signature Service GMAC Real Estate
www.infomarketgroup.com
