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CategoryReal Estate Trends

Cartoon house character juggling stacks of cash and buildings with for sale signs
Posted Bank News

Part 2: Beating the Math: How Buyers Can Win in a Broken Mortgage Market

(click here to read Part 1: Breathing the Math: Why Politicians are failing Canadians and what you can do.)

If you are a first-time buyer trying to get into today’s market, you cannot wait for the government to save you. Take back control of your own life.  There are old-school strategies and a few specific tools you can leverage to force your way through the door.

1. “House Hacking” (Rent a Portion Out)

This isn’t a new concept. Exactly 31 years ago, I bought my first house, and the only way I could make the math work was by renting part of it out. Having a tenant pay down my mortgage is exactly how I built my equity. Look for properties with secondary suites or basement apartments. Use that projected rental income to help you qualify for the mortgage and cover your carrying costs.

2. Maximize the RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP)

The government recently enhanced this, and it is a game-changer.

  • The Limits: You can now withdraw up to $60,000 per person (or $120,000 per couple) from your RRSP entirely tax-free.
  • The Strategy: This cash doesn’t just have to be for the down payment. It can be used to cover massive closing costs, land transfer taxes, and legal fees. You have up to 15 years to pay it back into your RRSP, making it a highly effective self-loan.
Continue reading “Part 2: Beating the Math: How Buyers Can Win in a Broken Mortgage Market”
Cartoon house character juggling stacks of cash and buildings with for sale signs
Posted Bank News

Part 1: Beating the Math:  Why Politicians Are Failing Homebuyers and What you can do.

If you are trying to buy a house in Canada right now, the math is completely broken. Instead of treating the root causes of the housing crisis, politicians are serving up PR stunts that do very little to actually put keys in the hands of hardworking Canadians. Let’s look at the reality of the situation.

The HST Discount Reality Check

There has been a lot of government buzz around temporary tax discounts on new home purchases. On March 25, 2026, the Ontario government announced a temporary expansion of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) rebate. This new proposal promises to eat up the entire 13% HST (the 8% provincial and 5% federal portions) for all buyers, up to a maximum rebate of $130,000 for homes priced up to $1 million.

Continue reading “Part 1: Beating the Math:  Why Politicians Are Failing Homebuyers and What you can do.”
Posted Bank News

Ask the mortgage expert: How to buy a home in 2026, between budgets, builders, and opportunities

Every year, homebuyers across Canada hold out for the silver bullet—a policy change that will suddenly make the path to homeownership clearer.

From tax reforms to supply-side stimulus, the landscape is changing. The question is: Are these changes enough to bridge the gap between supply and demand, and how can you leverage them to your advantage?

While there is rarely a single “fix” for a market as complex as ours, the most recent budget cycles and policy updates have introduced significant shifts that every homebuyer needs to understand. Continue Reading ….

I hope you will enjoy this article and if you have any questions or would like to discuss I am always available.

Your best interest is my only interest. I reply to all questions and I welcome your comments. Like this article? Share with a friend.

Steve Garganis: 416-224-0114; steve@canadamortgagenews.

Posted 4 Comments on The Condo Carnage Is Real.. but is it over? Mortgage News

The Condo Carnage Is Real.. but is it over?

Let’s call this what it is: a day of reckoning. The great Canadian condo delusion, a mass psychosis fueled by cheap money and a fear of missing out, is over. The speculative fever has broken, leaving a trail of financial devastation in its wake. For years, an entire generation was told that buying a condo—any condo, at any price—was the only path to prosperity. They were wrong. Dead wrong. And now, the carnage from that spectacular miscalculation is creating the single greatest buying opportunity we’ve seen in decades.

The numbers don’t just tell a story; they scream it from the rooftops. In the Greater Toronto Area, sales volumes haven’t just dipped; they’ve cratered, falling a gut-wrenching 60% from the peak. In the first quarter of this year, a paltry 1,800 new condo units were sold across the entire GTHA. Let that sink in. We haven’t seen a number that terrifyingly low since 1995. This isn’t a slowdown; it’s a full-blown market seizure, a cardiac arrest of consumer confidence.

Continue reading “The Condo Carnage Is Real.. but is it over?”
Posted Finance

The $13 Billion Question: Will Ottawa’s “Build Canada Homes” Fix Our Broken Housing Market, or Just Build More Problems?

Another week, another blockbuster announcement from Ottawa aimed at solving our national housing crisis. This time, it’s a shiny new federal agency dubbed “Build Canada Homes,” launched with a cool $13 billion of your money. The promise? To slice through the red tape, leverage public lands, and finally start building the affordable homes that Canadians are so desperately crying out for. On the surface, it sounds like the cavalry cresting the hill. But as anyone who’s been in the real estate and mortgage game as long as I have knows, the devil is always in the details. And in this case, the details are as sparse as a downtown Toronto parking spot.

So, let’s peel back the layers of this government onion and see if it brings tears of joy or sorrow. What is this program really going to do?

THE GRAND PLAN: PUBLIC LANDS, PREFAB HOMES, AND A WHOLE LOT OF HOPE

The core idea behind Build Canada Homes is for the federal government to become a master developer. They’re planning to use vast swaths of public land – we’re talking about 88 federal properties spanning 463 hectares, roughly the size of downtown Ottawa – to build everything from high-rise apartments to single-family homes. The initial rollout is slated for six cities: Dartmouth, Longueuil, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Edmonton, with a first-phase target of 4,000 factory-built homes.

Continue reading “The $13 Billion Question: Will Ottawa’s “Build Canada Homes” Fix Our Broken Housing Market, or Just Build More Problems?”