Escalation Clause

New home sales in the Greater Toronto Area showed marginal improvement in February 2026, though activity continued to track well below historical norms, according to the newest from the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD).

There were 531 new homes sold across the GTA last month, up 16% from February 2025 but still 76% below the 10-year average of 2,251 units for the month, based on data from Altus Group, BILD's official source for new home market intelligence.

Last week, Canadian residential real estate brokerage Sutton Group and American luxury real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman announced a two-pronged cross-border relationship that will see the American brand enter Canada, and the two companies establish a two-way referral program.

After buying the license for Sotheby’s International Realty Canada in 2004, real estate entrepreneur Ross McCredie, through McCredie Investments, is buying the license to the Douglas Elliman brand in Canada, which will be called “Elliman Canada.” (The company initiated a rebranding a few months ago and, while there's been no official announcement yet, Douglas Elliman will be rebranding as “Elliman.”)

Ontario is moving to take a bigger swing at housing affordability — this time by scrapping the HST on new homes for a broader pool of buyers.

As part of its 2026 Budget, the Government of Ontario says it will remove the full 13% Harmonized Sales Tax for eligible purchasers of new homes priced up to $1 million, translating to a maximum rebate of $130,000. That max rebate would also extend to homes valued up to $1.5 million, before phasing down on a sliding scale to $24,000 for homes priced at $1.85 million and above.

There is no easy way to control consumer sentiment, macroeconomic conditions, or the cost of construction materials (let alone tariff threats from our neighbour), which is a big reason why the real estate industry has been so focused on development charges (DCs) in recent years.

Development charges are levied by governments on new construction, and are used to fund new infrastructure, under the premise that “growth pays for growth.” When the real estate market was strong, development charges were tolerable because homes could be sold for a high enough price to cover them.