A tale of two cities – Vancouver and Toronto

Toronto and Vancouver

Vancouver and Toronto

It seems you can’t mention one without mentioning the other. It wasn’t always this way. It used to be that Vancouver was a faraway and remote (backwater) place to us in Ontario, like Winnipeg, Regina, Flim Flam or Moose Jaw. It was kind of jokey, a farm team for big leagues, the real Canada here in southwestern Ontario basking in the shining glow of the BIG T.O.

But that changed with real estate. Many things have.

Toronto’s up, Vancouver down

Now a recent story from the Canadian Press suggests that the two hottest real estate markets in Canada are heading in opposite directions. Short-term statistics show that real estate in Toronto continues to rumble forth whereas Vancouver is finally and inevitably cooling off.

What is being blamed of course is the 15% property transfer tax on foreign buyers. Some say that some of these investors will make their way to Toronto.

Some might, I suppose. But not many. We just don’t have the same foreign demand in Toronto. There is just too much geography between us and all that foreign money.

(Psst… Calgary is looking like a good market for foreign investors. The market is a little soft there). 

No new Tax for Metro T.O.

There is no talk, no reason for Toronto to impose a tax like Vancouver’s. That tax was part political, part reactionary, and part ideological. There was the issue of shadow flipping too.

Why it matters to KW

Victoria, which essentially takes a half a day to get to from Vancouver has been affected by Vancouver’s real estate market. That’s why I am talking about Toronto real estate from here in KW. What happens in Vancouver impacts Abbotsford, Victoria and Nanaimo. What happens in Toronto affects Aurora, Ajax, Hamilton, and Kitchener.

It is geography. It is the spill over effect, black spot economics.

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