Canada faces construction labour shortage and the Home of the Week: Canadian real estate news for July 19

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Here are The Globe and Mail’s top housing and real estate stories this week and one home worth a look.

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The best mortgage rates in Canada? We tested five websites in a head-to-head comparison

Borrowing costs may still be uncomfortably high for most Canadians, but anyone venturing into the mortgage market this summer will find a welcome silver lining: a growing variety of lenders and brokers vying to offer the lowest rates and the slickest user experience, writes Erica Alini. A slew of tech-savvy new players has entered Canada’s mortgage market, which means well-qualified borrowers have their pick of low rates without any of the restrictive conditions that usually come with cheaper mortgages. But the variety of options has made comparison shopping more complicated, so The Globe reviewed five websites offering mortgage rates to see who came out on top.

Canada’s next housing crisis: Who is going to build millions of new homes?

Through a variety of policy changes and billions of dollars in new spending, the federal government has charted a course to build 3.9-million new homes by 2031, a huge infusion that aims to ease our way-too-expensive housing market. But as Canada tries to double construction overnight, Globe reporter Matt Lundy raises a simple question that threatens to dash any hopes of an imminent fix: Who is going to build all these homes? The construction industry is among the loudest in talking about labour shortages and, indeed, it can be tough for companies to find skilled workers, many of whom are nearing retirement age.

Experts estimate that the number of on-site construction workers would need to rise by 83 per cent – or nearly half a million people – over the coming decade to bring housing levels down to a healthy state. Some say the issue is less about the number of workers than how they’re being used – an extension of the economy’s productivity woes. And some groups are seriously under-represented in these occupations, notably women, who could bolster the industry’s labour force.

Canada’s national real estate association cuts sales forecast for 2024 following slow spring

In their July forecast, the Canadian Real Estate Association says home sales are only expected to increase by 6.1 per cent this year compared to the last, a drop from their initial 10.5 per cent prediction back in April, writes Rachelle Younglai. With more homeowners putting their properties up for sale, CREA says they expected sales to ramp up, but buyers are still holding out for better deals. Even though the Bank of Canada lowered interest rates in June, realtors say monthly payments are still too high for the average buyer.

Opinion: The only way developers can afford to build rental projects is hiking up the rent. That’s a problem

Increasing overall supply of available units seems like a straightforward solution to Canada’s rental crises. However, building expensive new buildings with high rents only service a small sample of the rental population, and doesn’t actually solve the problem, writes Jonathan Diamond. In other words, there is a large mid-market waiting to be served by developers of rental units, but because of the financial challenges of such projects, they are nearly impossible to make work. Thus, to achieve affordability today, private industry and government must collaborate on strategies to significantly reduce the cost of projects to make lower-rent purpose-built rentals economically feasible.

Home of the week: In Paris, Ont., the opulent home of Salah Bachir

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1 Banfield St., Paris, Ont. – Full gallery here

Built in 1854, this 5-bedroom Gothic Victorian mansion is one of the oldest grand homes in Paris, Ont., and has reportedly featured famous visitors such as inventor Alexander Graham Bell, automobile magnate Henry Ford and more recently, author Margaret Atwood. Though the house still has many of its original elements – such as the arched windows, leaded glass and ornate mouldings – the current owners have made efforts to create a more eclectic, modern look in the interior. Heated floors were installed, rooms were opened up and bright colours and detailed wallpaper bring out the details in the millwork. The backyard features a massive 54-foot by 20-foot saltwater pool, with two waterfalls flowing over a limestone wall – inspired by the owner’s home country of Lebanon.