COVID-19 affects Toronto Real Estate

Coronavirus Update: Has COVID-19 Affected Toronto Real Estate? 🏡😷

Saturday Mar 21st, 2020

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**CHECK OUT THE FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW**

Has COVID-19 affected GTA real estate? 😬🏡

In short, no.

The real estate market in the GTA is still very hot.

Even during the course of the past week, most properties at entry-level pricing to mid-range pricing selling firm within days on market and often in multiple offers. The only slow down is around open houses. Today, late in the afternoon, the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA), has asked for all open houses to cease temporarily. Despite this, buyer showings are still proceeding as usual in strong numbers, with health & safety protocols in place as well as the practice of social distancing.

Thank you for watching!

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Full Video Transcript:

Hey, it's Karen from Toronto here.

So unless you've sold a property in the last couple of weeks or you're actively looking to purchase a property right now, you might not be aware of how the real estate market is doing in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

As a short summary, the real estate market here in the GTA is still very hot.

And this is despite a lot of government-regulated shutdowns over the past week in relation to Covid-19.

Properties that are at entry-level pricing to mid-range, are selling just as quickly or if anything, they are selling even faster than usual over the past week.

A lot of properties are selling in multiple offers at record-breaking prices.

And I am talking about the real estate market, even over the past week alone.

So today is Saturday, March 21st.

As an example, for one of the listings that I put up recently 6 days ago on Sunday, we were originally planning for an open house weekend. An open house to be held today as well as tomorrow. And we were originally planning to hold off on offers and taking them on Monday, March 23rd - two days from now. Well what ended up happening with the condo that we listed on Sunday, we ended up having about 10 buyer showings and then the following day on the Monday, we managed to drive in a firm offer. There were no conditions despite the condo status certificate not being available for review. The buyer decided to speak to property management and they were comfortable enough to waive the condo status certificate review. So they came in firm.

We also negotiated for the deposit bank draft to be delivered with the offer. And we ended up negotiating the deal at a record-breaking price that our client was very happy with.

Now, this is just one success story in the past week to the past week and a half. I've taken clients out to see several properties and I will say that almost all of those properties have already sold firm and in multiple offers as well.

In fact, I will add on that over the past week when I've taken clients out to see properties, there has almost always been another real estate agent and their buyer client at the property. So it's just a strong indication that the number of private showing with buyers has not slowed down at all.

I have noticed that for the majority of properties that are listed for sale at the entry-level pricing to mid-range that if they were originally planning to hold off offers for one week, that most of them have actually been selling firm in multiple offers within a few days on market only. And they're not making it even to offer date.

So things are moving very quickly in the real estate market even over the past week alone.

So as a summary Covid-19 has not affected the real estate market here in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) over the past week.

If anything has changed at all, it's been open houses that have drastically slowed down.

A lot of homeowners as well as real estate agents are avoiding holding open houses during this time in order to help minimize the number of crowds and also to encourage social distancing. Our real estate licensing boards have not mandated for us to stop holding open houses nor have they regulated any change in terms of working with seller clients or with our buyer clients. However, our licensing boards have encouraged real estate agents to educate clients on the health and safety protocols with clients that are actively selling a property and for those that are out looking to purchase property as well.

So who knows how the real estate market will play out in the next couple of weeks.

If there's anything at all that our team can help you with, please give us a call.

 

 

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