They are more likely to end up with losses in the current environment
Flippers will likely have it worse amid the COVID-19 outbreak, London agent Joyce Byrne warned.
This is because they will probably end up with an unsellable property – a seemingly impossible notion less than a month prior.
“A week-and-a-half ago we were listing houses, showing houses, selling houses. We were not worried about Lysol wipes,” Byrne told CTV News in an interview. “I had a listing and I had the property sold, but the person who bought the property had to go back and sell the house. So their agent is probably talking to them about how they’re going to market their current property now.”
The pandemic has proven to be a punishing environment for home sellers, who are left with less than optimal choices.
“Maybe they soften their price, maybe they open themselves up to conditional offers. Maybe they’ll be open to accepting something with a home inspection or other financing conditions attached,” Byrne said.
Compounding the situation is that brokers have been mandated to observe federal directives regarding the virulent disease. Among these are significantly limited office hours and stringent social distancing rules.
In a recent report, The Conference Board of Canada expressed optimism that Canadians’ purchasing power would recover somewhat, as the national economy will gain some lost ground with 2.5% growth by 2021. This will come after a projected 2.7% decline in Q2 2020.
“Despite the fact that the global economy is currently shaken at its core, we expect to see growth resume in the third quarter, meaning that the economy will avoid a technical recession,” according to Matthew Stewart, director economic forecasting at The Conference Board of Canada.
However, Stewart hastened to add that “due to the unpredictability of the coronavirus, there are still huge downside risks to the outlook.”
