The CEO of the Dan Gemus Real Estate Team believes Ontario raising the foreign homebuyer tax and making it provincewide is a step in the right direction, but doesn't expect it to make a massive difference in the local market.
On top of expanding the tax to cover all of Ontario, the province announced an increase to the speculation tax on non-resident homebuyers up to 20 per cent from 15 per cent with changes taking effect Wednesday.
Dan Gemus joined AM800's The Morning Drive to discuss the changes, saying when the tax was launched in the Golden Horseshoe region they did see an initial slowing of the growth pace.
"That didn't last forever though, and as the market heated up obviously it hasn't done much to curb that pricing inflation. The average price in the GTA surpassed $1.3 million which is up 28 per cent from the previous year, so very similar gains as we have here in our part of the country."
The average sale price for a home in Windsor-Essex for February was over $700,000, a 44.7 per cent increase compared to a year previous.
Gemus says what this move boils down to is being one of the many steps needed to curb rising home prices.
"The government is just trying to do whatever it can to help calm some folks down because this is getting out of hand. Our average price year to date is sitting at $677,000, so last month it was $704,000, I can't wait to see in the next few days to see how we ended March. I think it'll be even higher."
The average cost of a home in Windsor-Essex 10 years ago was $170,000 according to Gemus.
He says during a conversation a few years back with others in real estate from the GTA, they couldn't believe the average prices locally, so it's more of a shock for people in our region to see these increases.
"And so a lot of these changes the government will be making will effect the Golden Horseshoe and GTA area first, and those folks are going to keep moving down our way. So I've been saying for a while now the Windsor-Essex region will be among the last to feel any relief from a hot market."
A news release from the province says they're looking at other possible measures aimed at land speculation issues like construction slowdowns that may be driving up home prices as well.
- with files from AM800's The Morning Drive