During my latest interview with Matt Gilmour from CTV, we explored the immediate effects of tariffs on real estate. One of the possible short-term outcomes is that new construction could slow even more than it has in recent years, due to the fact that construction will become even more expensive. Developers haven’t been able to significantly lower construction costs since the COVID pandemic, and now with additional tariffs, the situation could worsen further, forcing costs up, ultimately to be passed on to consumers. Benjamin Sternthal has pointed this out. He also stresses the importance of building new relationships with different countries to supply Canada with cheaper construction materials, and the streamlining of municipal approval processes, which could help offset the cost of these tariffs.
From my end, what I’m seeing in the short term is that some sellers are hesitant to list their properties on the market—they assume the market will be bad based on everything they see in the news. The problem is, while Canada is actively lowering rates, the last thing we need is a limited supply of homes coming to market, which would drive up prices like we saw during COVID.
If we want to keep prices affordable, we need to find ways to encourage new construction to meet the pent-up demand for housing.
The market is currently on fire nonetheless, and as always, as your trusty real estate broker, I’ll keep you posted on how things are evolving.
