Toronto's housing market will boom in 2025, Royal LePage head says - making it the most expensive market in Canada

• By Brittany Whitton
• Posted Monday, Nov 11, 2024 9:39 am

Toronto's housing market will boom in 2025, Royal LePage head says - making it the most expensive market in Canada

The recovery started months ago in other Canadian cities, Royal LePage CEO Phil Soper says, and the last markets to recover are going to be Toronto and Vancouver

Toronto’s high-priced real estate market isn’t going the way of Manhattan — though it could surpass Vancouver in the coming months.

That’s according to Royal LePage president and CEO Phil Soper, who says that, despite recent challenges, the fundamentals that drive real estate markets are solidly established in the city.

As declining interest rates begin to spur activity elsewhere in Canada, Soper believes Toronto’s real estate industry is poised for a booming 2025.

“Toronto is still one heck of a deal compared to Greater New York, let alone Manhattan; it is tough, it is expensive, we had a really unusual period in the Canadian housing market over the last 26 months, but home prices weren’t rising, while wages, salaries and savings were,” he says. “In places like Halifax, Montreal and Calgary, the recovery started months ago, and the last markets to recover from this post-pandemic downturn are going to be Toronto and Vancouver.”

In the short-term, Soper says declining interest rates will kick off Toronto’s next housing market boom; one that will see the city take the crown from Vancouver as the country’s most expensive market.

In the long term, Soper says relatively high incomes, immigration, and interest in home ownership will allow Canada to maintain top home ownership rates among the G20, even if some are priced out of Toronto.

Soper, who describes his childhood in Calgary as filled with niche interests, credits luck for transforming those hobbies into professional opportunities. His athletic abilities landed him a spot on the University of Alberta’s track and field team, his passion for early computing inspired him to pursue a degree that combined business and technology, which landed him a job with IBM soon after graduating. His background in both technology and sales put him in a leadership position as the global technology firm pivoted from hardware to business services.

Five years after moving to Toronto, rather than relocate his family again, the then-single father decided to leave his position at IBM after 17 years and accept a role with Royal LePage, just weeks before the dot-com crash....[READ MORE]