‘Small change’ coming to help Ontario first time home buyers: Premier Wynne

TORONTO – Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne says her government’s plan to help first-time home buyers will involve a “small change,” not a radical shift in the way the housing market works in the province.

The provincial Liberal government will announce the strategy in Monday’s fall economic statement, but Wynne is downplaying expectations of broader action to address soaring home prices in the Greater Toronto Area.

There were a record 9,768 properties sold in the Greater Toronto Area last month – up 11.5 per cent year-over-year- while prices jumped 21 per cent in the same period to an average of $762,975.

READ MORE: Ontario real estate groups oppose taxing foreign buyers in Toronto

Wynne says first-time buyers have a real challenge saving a big enough down payment to get into the market, so the government will make “some small adjustments” to help them out.

She says the province doesn’t have all the data it would need to make larger changes, and insists Ontario will not follow British Columbia’s lead to impose a 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers in Vancouver.

READ MORE: Toronto home sales stay hot in October despite soaring prices: TREB

Home sales in Vancouver began to dip before the tax was introduced in August, but those declines have accelerated since, plunging nearly 39 per cent last month compared with October 2015.

The Ontario Real Estate Association has asked the government to exempt first-time buyers from the land transfer tax to help them get into the market.