Sean MacKay

Real estate data tracker Altus Group had its quarterly Canadian home construction report ready to publish as of two weeks ago and even ensured the requisite coronavirus-influenced projections were included.

Despite the encouraging February data — published earlier this week by the Canadian Real Estate Association — all bets are now off as the coronavirus pandemic aims to put the freeze on homebuying activity through the typically busy spring months.

Where was Vancouver home sales activity heading in March before coronavirus-inspired fear and panic threw the market into uncertainty? The data was looking promising.

Just as Toronto’s home builders and their sales team were ramping up for their typically busy spring season, the rapid spread of the coronavirus is now causing a shift in their selling practices and interactions with potential buyers.

It was tipped to be the year that Vancouver’s housing market, which struggled through 2019, returned to relative normalcy. This recovery is now all threatened by the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“The world has changed,” read the headline of RBC’s Macroeconomic Outlook published today and, with all the events that hit like a tsunami over the last week, it’s hard to argue.

Mirroring a nationwide dip in home construction, Toronto builders began work on fewer homes in February compared to the previous month.

The worst global economic turmoil seen since the financial crisis of 2008 has inspired a forceful response from Canada’s monetary policymakers at the Bank of Canada.

It’s promising to be a super-charged winter and spring homebuying season for Toronto, as buyer demand continues to rise, pulling prices up along with it.

The Vancouver housing revival continued into February, with strong gains measured across all property types both when compared to the previous month and the same month a year ago.