04/19/2017
The governments of Ontario and Toronto say they are going to bring in new legislation to curb the huge increases in the costs of housing well that's just great except (okay here comes the rant) the reason prices have gone up so much is a lack of supply. The reason for lack of supply is primarily the cost of buying and selling a home so let's examine that. On the selling side there are options to the seller to sell themselves, negotiate on commission etc. As a full service Realtor I'd be happy to discuss the BENEFITS of paying full commission ie. probably netting you a lot more money but there is almost no leeway on the cost of buying a home because both governments impose Land Transfer Taxes on a purchase (first time home buyers pay little or no tax on the first 400k). The LLT was introduced in it's present form in the early 90s and a tax of 2% on purchases over 400k was the maximum because a 400k purchase was considered a luxury property. Now amounts over 1M pay 5% on the amount over 1M and $32,950- on the amount below. A purchase of $2M will impose a whopping $72,950- in taxes on you. The Toronto Real Estate Board made a huge mistake lobbying for the abolition of this cash cow for governments when they should, in my mind, have lobbied for it's reform. Luxury purchases in Toronto are now easily over $2M. So Premier Wynne and Mayor Tory if you're serious about helping out the consumer how about looking at your own culpability in this problem. Who knows, a lower LLT would probably be revenue neutral or maybe even beneficial if it resulted in more supply for the consumers you say you want to help. OK done! :)
