Benjamin Tal, the Deputy Chief Economist of the CIBC, has issued a rebuttal to a warning the Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD says markets in Toronto and Vancouver are at risk of a sharp fall in prices. It says that in Ontario, and especially Toronto, economic activity has been relatively buoyant and demand by foreigners has been boosted by the falling Canadian dollar. It adds however that newly completed but unoccupied housing units have soared in Toronto, increasing the risk of a sharp market correction, according to the report.
BENJAMIN TAL
The reaction of Mr. Tal is that the situation is not as crazy as it may seem. He says over-building is not a real issue in Canada. More than that, there are only four developers out of about 150 with unsold inventory and two of them have so much cash in the bank it hardly matters — i.e no financing. Interesting