<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly July 21, 2017 | Toronto 16 Modi greets new President Ram Nath Kovind with ladoos
<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly July 21, 2017 | Toronto 17 Real Estate Housing prices: How low can they go? Shivkumar Hiremath Sunith (name changed) is moving into his new larger estate home in Mississauga with a heavy heart and he is a very stressed man. He bought a larger home earlier in March 2017, by overbidding a host of potential buyers and closing the deal in June 2017. He put his primary house on sale in the last week of May. But he was unable to get the high price he was hoping for. Now he is out of pocket because of his quest for a bigger home, but a lot wiser. In this context, let us discuss the macroeconomic scenario in Canada and the factors causing the recent downtrend in house prices in GTA. We all know that investment money moved into real estate markets in a low interest scenario during the last five years. Consistent low mortgage interest rates over the last few years fuelled the hot housing sector. <strong>The</strong> other two major factors that fuelled the housing sector are new immigrants who purchase new homes and foreign real estate investment in the condos and commercial space sectors in a big way. <strong>The</strong>n the Ontario government intervened in April by unveiling a slew of measures aimed at making housing more affordable. <strong>The</strong> 16-odd new measures announced include 15% foreign buyer tax and expanded rent control rules. Coinciding with the Ontario government measures, the Bank of Canada also hiked its benchmark interest rate to 0.75% from 0.5%, its first increase in nearly seven years. As we all know, Increase in bank interest rates will have an effect on interest rates of some personal loans, lines of credits, etc. If the Bank of Canada’s benchmark interest rate progressively rises to 1.5%, home prices will come down. We spoke with an eminent and upcoming real estate agent Harpreet Singh - who is affiliated with Royal LePAGE Flower City Realty - for his views on current housing market. Harpreet, who has received Gold award for sales in 2016 from his brokerage and Master Sales award from Royal LePAGE in 2016, is of the opinion that the current market as of July 2017 is a level playing field for both buyers and sellers. People have booked new homes or are closing their next purchase and moving in this summer. Slowly the home inventory is rising. New immigrants coming into Canada prefer to buy a home rather than to rent. Brampton has low inventory of parcels of available land for new real estate projects. Caledon, Milton and cities to the east of Toronto have the land required for new homes. According to Harpreet, foreign investors are mostly buying into condo market and commercial space. He is very positive that house prices will stabilize by October/November of this year and then start moving up slowly. Priyanka Chopra becomes island girl to celebrate her 35th birthday with mom and brother <strong>The</strong> <strong>Canadian</strong> <strong>Parvasi</strong> Priyanka Chopra celebrated her 35 birthday as an island girl while vacationing with her mother Madhu and brother Siddharth at an unknown place. Skipping the IIFA 2017 in New York, the actress left for the vacation with her mom and brother. Her mom, who is also her business manager, threw a bit of surprise for Priyanka by arranging a beach spectacle for Priyanka by engraving `Happy B'Day PC' on sand and litting it with candles. Wow! Priyanka was bowled over by the gesture. Thanking her mom, she posted the pictures on social media, saying, "Thank you @madhuchopra for the lovely surprise! (sic)." To her millions of wellwishers, Priyanka said, "Island girl... feeling very blessed and loved. Thank you to everyone for your wonderful wishes... it means the world to me to know so much love.. needed it! . #grateful (sic).’’ Priyanka is busy shooting for the third season of the popular ABC series 'Quantico' and her next Hollywood film Isn’t It Romantic. <strong>The</strong> winner of the Miss World 2000 pageant, this Jamshedpur-born daughter of the army physicians Ashok Chopra and Madhu Chopra, Priyanka has become the first South Asian actor to make a big mark in Hollywood, debuting with the ABC thriller series Quantico. After winning the Miss World title in 2000, she entered modeling and then Bollywood, making her debut with film <strong>The</strong> Hero: Love Story of a Spy alongside Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta. Priyanka was given the National Film Award for Best Actress for her role in the film Fashion. Last year, the Indian government gave her the Padma Shri - the fourth-highest civilian award in India.
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