AI & Real Estate

 I recently read an article about RBC (Royal Bank) getting into the real estate space with the purchase of an "AI-powered real estate company" & that has renewed conversations in our industry about the flaws surrounding home valuations powered by AI/Algorithms.

For many years Zillow (in the US) was the butt of the joke around their unreliable "Zestimates" & what a disservice their inaccurate information was for buyers & sellers.

And now we get to join in the fun too, lol! Well, to be fair, it's not new here either...

Power of Sales...Lately

The Bank of Canada made an announcement on July 15^th, 2020:

If you've got a mortgage, or if you're considering to make a major purchase or you're a business and you're considering making an investment, you can be confident that interest rates will be low for a long time.  -Tiff Macklem, Governor of the Bank of Canada

 

Then in August we found out that July 2020 was actually the hottest market in real estate HISTORY – for a blast from the past, watch  THIS video that I recorded at that time – but “a long time” turned out to be shorter than many borrowers wanted or needed, as interest rates jumped 3.5% in 6mo starting in April 2022. The prime rate was 2.45% in March of 2022 & now 6.70% in March of 2023.

 

And nobody was sounding the alarm in the early days, not economists, not regulators & not the lenders, that consumers should be locking in their rates so that they could weather this storm!

 

$5K Penalty? Yikes!

Do you own a rental property? Then this post is for you!

 

Think it’s not for you? Read it anyways just to be sure…remember the subject line - $5k Penalty!

Let’s dive right into it!

 

If you own a residential rental property with 3 units or less then it’s time for a chat with your accountant to discuss whether you need to file the Underused Housing Tax Return .

 

Many are under the impression that this form is only required if there are foreign investors involved, or if there have been vacancies in the property. But that’s not entirely accurate.

 

New Laws that Will NOT Help

Will not help what, you ask? Improve housing affordability as the government suggests...

Anti-Flipping Tax

If you buy a property & own it for less than 12mos before you sell, then your net profit is taxed as business income. This is not really new though, it's just been officially added to the Income Tax Act. The CRA has been operating under this premise for years! There are also lots of exemptions like for death, divorce, relocations etc.

What is the net profit? What is left after all your costs associated with buying, selling & renovating the property - that is what is taxed at your regular marginal tax rate, based on your total income. If you're buying & selling through a corporation, that can help lessen the sting because the corporate tax rate is less than for personal income tax.