The pandemic will fundamentally change how the housing market conducts business, Royal LePage CEO says
The period immediately after the COVID-19 crisis will see entirely new models of how business is conducted in the housing market, Royal LePage CEO Phil Soper said.
“We believe that things will ease and people will be able to move into a very different buying and selling process,” Soper said in an interview with CBC Radio. “I’m not saying things will return to normal in 2020, but the market will loosen up as people’s stay-at-home restrictions are lifted.”
And while the long-term value of the residential property sector will depend largely upon the duration of the pandemic-induced slowdown, what is certain is that a market revival will take place in one form or another.
Earlier this month, Toronto-Dominion Bank CEO Bharat Masrani expressed confidence in the fundamental robustness of the Canadian financial and housing segments.
“If this turns out that we can bounce back to some extent next quarter, there is a good chance of having a V-type, or V-ish type of recovery,” Masrani said. “But without a doubt, you can see some recovery, and then a meaningful recovery to come because you will not have some kind of forced lockdown.”
However, these promising scenarios will be tempered by the fact that significant risks will persist even during this period.
“One of the great legacies of the current crisis is that after the pandemic has passed, we’re going to have more indebted households,” Deloitte Chief Economist Craig Alexander said. “So I think the issue around leverage isn’t going to go away; in fact, I think it will become more acute.”
