Showing posts with label new homes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new homes. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

City Offering $136 million in Subsidies and Incentives to Keep Homebuyers on the Island

The city of Montreal has quietly renewed a program to encourage tenants and families to buy and stay on the island. The on-again, off-again home ownership program received a $136-million cash injection with little fanfare in April. As in years past, the city will take applications for up to  three years, or until the cash runs out.

The cash tends to run out well before the three years are up.

Still, not a bad program if you fit the various criteria. For new homes, the incentives are on a sliding scale, depending on whether you are a single buyer, a couple without children or a household with children. The lump sum incentives range from $4,500 to $12,000 . Households with kids can also get a refund of the hated welcome tax.

Not bad! The program gets complicated when you look at the types of properties that are eligible. For single buyers, the maximum budget is $200,000, for a couple $250,000. If you're buying for a family, the budget can go as high at $360,000, but to qualify for the highest amount you must buy a three-bedroom unit.

The program will also refund the welcome tax on the purchase of a resale duplex or triplex, providing the purchase price is not more than $450.000 and $490.000 respectively.

Households with kids can also get six months of free public transit with the purchase of a one-year Opus card. It is not clear from the brochure whether this means a total of 18 months of public transit for the price of 12 or 12 months for the price of six.

As with any program, there's lots of small print. Still, worth looking into if it can save you several thousand dollars, right?

Here's the website, en anglais et en francais .

You can also download the brochure on the site.


Monday, August 15, 2011

City of Montreal Offers Cash Incentives to New Buyers. Some Strings Attached

Did you know that Montreal offers financial incentives to encourage tenants to become home buyers?  The incentives are even better for households with at least one child under the age of 18. You don't have to be a first-time buyer to be eligible, but you must prove that you have not owned a property for at least five years.
As with most government programs, this one is more than a little complicated.  Still, it might be something worth investigating  if you are looking at buyung either a single unit or a revenue property where you will reside.
 Single Units, How Much?If you buy a newly built unit and are the first owner of that property, you can collect a rebate of $4,500, $10,000 or $12,500 depending on if you are a childless single buyer, two buyers, or a household with at least one child.
For a single buyer, the rebate is good for the purchase of a new unit costing not more than $200,000, taxes and extras like kitchen upgrades or a parking space included. (if my math is correct, that means a condo or house priced at not more than $175,554. Ce n'est pas beaucoup ça!)
For two-buyer households, the limit is $235,000.
For a household with at least one kid, the limit is $265,000 or $310,000 if the unit has three bedrooms.
The city will also refund 40 per cent of your property transfer tax (the hated welcome tax that you will be hit with about 30 days after you take possession.)
The welccome tax refund is 100 per cent for households with at least one kid.
This program has the twin aim of encouraging developers to build family-affordable housing in the city and encouraging young families to stay on the island instead of fleeing to the suburbs.
Revenue Properties, How Much?
 If you buy a duplex and live in one unit while renting the other, the city will refund 40 per cent of your property transfer tax, as long as your duplex does not cost more than $400,000 (There's no sales tax of resale duplexes, so that $400,000 is a real market price.) If you buy a triplex, the maximum is $450,000.
For households with children, the maximum purchase price remains $400,000 for a duplex and $450,000 for a triplex but the city will refund the entire amount of your property transfer tax.
This program was designed to encourage owner occupancy. It has been proven that revenue properties where the owner lives on site are better maintained than those with absentee landlords.
As with any government program,there's a lot of fine print. For example, you have to commit to owning the property for three years or else you have to pay the money back.
You have to pay your property transfer tax up front and then apply to for the rebate.
This is a program partially funded by the Quebec government, so it lasts as long as there's money in the kitty. When the envelope is empty, as they say in French, ze program she ends. I can't see anything on the city website to indicate that the program has run out of funds.
You can find out more by visiting the City of Montreal's housing site and download the application form. You have six months after the purchase of your property to apply for the rebate. You can also visit your local borough office to find out more.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Residential Construction Declined in March

Foundations were poured for 1,805 residential units in metropolitan Montreal in March, a 12-per-cent decline compared to the same month a year ago, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
That was improvement over February, when the number of starts dropped by 63 per cent.
CMHC attributed the decline to two factors, the tighter economic picture and a growing inventory of resales houses on the market. New home construction typically picks up when the resale market tightens.
The drop in construction was felt pretty much across the board, with freehold home starts down by 35 per cent, condo starts down 30 per cent and rental starts down 26 per cent.
The one category that bucked the trend was semi-detached and row housing, which rose by 40 per cent in March,, a modest gain of 76 new units.
The decline in new construction is good news for both vendors and agents. Less new inventory helps focus buyers' attention on the existing home market, where there are still plenty of good deals to be had, anyway.