Are you a First Time Home Buyer who Purchased in the Past 18 Months? Property Transfer Tax Refunds May Be Available To You

On February 22, 2024, Finance Minister Katrine Conroy introduced the provincial government’s Budget 2024. The budget unveiled several new housing related measures, including the BC Home Flipping Tax and various property transfer tax exemptions.   Read all about the proposed changes on BCREA page here: https://www.bcrea.bc.ca/advocacy/flipping-tax-announced-by-bc-government/   If you are a first time home buyer who bought a property in the past 18 months, you may want to watch the video Dylan Taylor posted to his social media, links below explaining that you may qualify for a refund.   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/C377nTqRKQM/   Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@yyjlawyer/video/7341048146132307205?_r=1&_t=8kJnklJ9mkQ   Real Estate Lawyer Dylan Taylor  https://tayloredlegalservices.ca/          

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Strata Tip of the Week - Does the strata have to provide general meeting notice packages?

    Source: https://mailchi.mp/condoclear.ca/condo-clear-information-13765005?e=3d30910cc1 https://condoclear.ca/     Strata Tip of the Week - Does the strata have to provide general meeting notice packages?   If you’ve read our email titled “Review the AGM/SGM Notice Packages, not just the Minutes”, you’ll know that in addition to reviewing the general meeting minutes, we also recommend that you obtain and review the general meeting notice packages, as they often contain important information not included anywhere else.   1. So, is the strata corporation actually required to provide the general meeting notice packages?   While it’s standard to obtain the general meeting minutes, some strata corporations, or their management companies, have the incorrect assumption that they are not required to provide the general meeting notice packages.   To understand whether the strata is required to provide these documents, one must look at several different sections of the Strata Property Act:   A. Section 45 - Requires the strata corporation to give written notice of an annual or special general meeting.   B. Section 35 - Requires the strata corporation to retain copies of all correspondence sent or received by the strata corporation.   C. Section 36 - Requires the strata corporation to make the records and documents referred to in Section 35 available for inspection and provide copies to an owner or a person authorized in writing by an owner.   As you can see, reading these three sections together makes it clear that the strata should be providing the general meeting notice packages, if requested to do so.   A point of contention?   Some might ask, are general meeting notice packages “correspondence”? While the Strata Property Act doesn’t define “correspondence”, we think it’s probably safe to assume that sending general meeting notice packages would constitute a form of “correspondence” by the strata corporation. If you’ve got doubts, we recommend you obtain legal advice to confirm this position.   2. Tailor your subject clause to require the sellers to provide the general meeting notice packages   If you’re using the BCFSA Receipt of strata documentation clause, you’ll notice that this clause does not reference the general meeting notice packages. It is therefore important that you tailor the subjects, so that they clearly state that the general meeting notice packages must also be provided. That’s it for this week. If you have any suggestions for other topics you’d like us to cover, please let us know at info@condoclear.ca. Disclaimer: The information provided is for general purposes only. It is not intended to provide legal advice or opinions of any kind. No one should act, or refrain from acting, based solely upon the materials provided, any hypertext links or other general information without first seeking appropriate legal or other professional advice.

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Interest Rates Got You Down? Key insights on new-build purchases. Income needed to buy a home falls nationwide in Jan. & Good News on Inflation.

CURRENT INTEREST RATES Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie! You may be eligible for the New to Canada program that can assist with the purchase of a home with just 5% down on homes under $500,000. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...MORE REAL ESTATE NEWS Real Estate Magazine – Ontario making strides in housing supply, urgent action needed to address affordability crisis: OREA Mortgage payments nearly twice cost of average rent in Brampton: report (Insauga) Ontario developers deny they're feeding housing crisis by sitting on land (CBC News) A new report has identified the Ontario cities where house prices have fallen the most (CP24) Navigating Ontario’s real estate market: Key insights on new-build house and condo purchases (Guelph Today) CBC Hamilton – Buying a house in Hamilton costs $300K more than it did 6 years ago, data shows Financial Post - Housing minister says interest rate cuts will spur building boom Canada’s housing minister says he believes lower interest rates will encourage builders to ramp up their activity, alleviating the country’s crunched supply of homes. CBC News - January home sales jump 22 per cent from last year's weak start January home sales jumped 22 per cent compared with a year ago, the largest year-over-year increase since May 2021, according to The Canadian Real Estate Association. The association says the increase reflected weakness last year, which saw the worst start to almost any year in the past two decades. Global News – Canada’s housing market is ‘starting to turn a corner.’ Are prices rising? Financial Post – Condo market faces 'significant slowdown' Globe and Mail – Forget downsizing: Canadian seniors staying in large houses well into their 80s, due in part to lack of options Globe and Mail – What does restoring affordable home ownership actually mean? One economist crunches the numbers Globe and Mail – January home sales in Canada rise as markets tighten but prices still softening: CREA CBC News - Home builders group calls for action on mortgage rules, labour shortage Canada is on the right track but won't reach its target of building 5.8 million new homes in the coming decade unless it loosens mortgage rules, addresses the labour shortage and helps to boost production of factory-built homes, says the Canadian Home Builders' Association (CHBA). Bank of Canada says housing affordability is about boosting supply, not lowering interest rates (CBC News) Housing affordability won’t return to pre-pandemic levels in the next two years: Desjardins (Yahoo! Finance) Real estate commission lawsuit expands across Canada (BNN Bloomberg) What to know if you're considering buying a house with friends (CTV News) High cost of living forces majority of Ontarians to put necessities before retirement savings (Toronto Star) Canada’s largest cities saw home sales surge in January (Canadian Mortgage Trends) Too soon to say when interest rates can come down: Bank of Canada (Canadian Mortgage Trends) Is it cheaper to rent or buy a house with a monthly mortgage in Canada? Prices analyzed in 26 markets (CTV News) Canada’s rental market faces historic challenges of record-low vacancy rates and soaring prices: CMHC (Real Estate Magazine) What history can tell us about soft landings and the pace of rate cuts that usually follow (Canadian Mortgage Trends) Canadians eager for homeownership, but down payments present another hurdle: report (BNN Bloomberg) How we measure housing costs helps explain inflation's stubbornness (Yahoo! Finance) Canada real estate: Income needed to buy a home falls nationwide in January (Yahoo! Finance) Economists say mortgage costs keep inflation high. So why is the Bank of Canada not cutting interest rates? (Toronto Star) What kind of home will $1 million buy in Toronto? More than you’ll get in Vancouver, new report finds (Toronto Star) Unexpected inflation drop won’t hasten Bank of Canada’s rate cut plans, economists say (Canadian Mortgage Trends) What the latest inflation data suggests about Canada's housing market (CTV News) Renting? You probably report lower quality of life than homeowners (CBC News) Great News On The Inflation Front Cause Big Bond Rally @DLCCanadaInc Chief Economist @DrSherryCooper  Vancouver and Toronto renters lament quality of life more than homeowners: StatCan (Canadian Mortgage Trends) CMHC reports annual pace of housing starts in January down 10% from December (Canadian Mortgage Trends) Rent-to-own, tax cuts take centre stage in BC United housing plan (Global News) Canada’s housing rebound continued in January. What should buyers expect this spring? (Canadian Mortgage Trends) Canada’s average rent price hit a new record of nearly $2,200 in January (Canadian Mortgage Trends) Can first-time buyers save Canada’s real estate market? (Real Estate Magazine) Latest in mortgage news: 50% of Canadians say high interest rates are negatively impacting their love life (Canadian Mortgage Trends) National Post – Federal government extends foreign buyer ban on Canadian homes to 2027 CBC News – Government extends ban on foreign buying of Canadian housing CBC News – Bank of Canada says housing affordability is about boosting supply, not lowering interest rates Financial Post – Canada is underestimating the number of new homes needed — by a lot, says CIBC Financial Post – Buyer's remorse? Homeowners in these cities are counting their losses     Diana Winger, REALTOR® CNE, SRS, SRES, ABR Mortgage Agent, Level 1 Valko Financial LTD #13047 eXp Realty | Dominion Lending Centres |  226-705-3369 | 250-588-8839 ON YOUR TEAM! WingerRealEstate.com Housesforsale365.com   |   SearchBestMortgages.com

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