You may have read media reports on a call to ban bully (pre-emptive) offers, which means eliminating offers that result in homes being sold ahead of the time and date specified on the listing. These bidding wars seem to be common in Toronto and other competitive urban markets where inventory is tight. In some neighbourhoods it feels like the days of 2016. We understand it might not seem fair to some, but it would be a tricky area for the government to attempt to legislate, because it could be a conflict situation with seller clients. If you conduct a bully presentation properly by informing everyone who has seen the property, or has booked an appointment, then what is unfair about that? The problem is many buyer agents don’t have the experience or knowledge on how to submit a bully offer, therefore their buyers lose out on a hot property. More training is required to help agents navigate thru this situation and if we don’t see more listings come to market, bully offers will continue to occur.

The freehold market saw another week of increases with 16% more new listings come to market and that reflected in the number of freehold properties sold, up by 34% from last week. Competition was strong with nearly 55% of properties selling above the asking price in the central core with multiple offers and the east end of the city (Riverdale and Leslieville) saw 76% of properties selling above the asking price. It’s not uncommon to see a property sell for $300,000 over the list price in these neighbourhoods.

The condo market saw a huge influx of new listings up 37% from the previous week but the number of sold units was down 17%. Urbanation released their condo market outlook report recently and here are some key facts:

1. 147,000 condos sold in the past 3 years.

2. Condo prices up 50% in 3 years.

3. Average downtown price >$1,000 PSF.

4. 123,000 new condos in development.

5. $100,000+ Income to buy average unit.