This Storii Time episode taps Toronto-based agent, Waleed Khan, to talk about the differences in different real estate markets and why you shouldn’t let national news scare you away from a local purchase. Recorded in early 2025.
Saad: There we go.
Waleed: Hey, what’s up, guys?
Mike: There he is.
Saad: There it is. What up?
Waleed: Yeah. Good man. Are you guys doing?
Saad: Good? Good. Can you hear us okay?
Waleed: Yes.
Saad: Awesome. Awesome.
Waleed: What’s going on?
Saad: Oh man. You know, just I was just telling Mike, I’m a daddy daycaring while the wife is out…but thank you for joining us today. I know this is first time you’re meeting Mike.
Waleed: Yeah, although I’ve seen Mike with StoriiTime all the time so I pop in here there you guys have probably seen me.
Mike: Yeah, we love our fans, yeah, and now now guests.
Saad: Well Waleed obviously in his own right has kind of stepped up his social media game recently too, which is exciting to see…but Give me one second.
Waleed: Pick her up
Mike: Perfect. I wouldn’t say story time is polished. So we’re having fun.
Saad: No, exactly.
Waleed: Look, you guys are putting out realistic stuff. There’s no sugar coating. It’s how it is and I think that’s what people want to hear. And that’s what adds value.
Saad: Yeah. I think that’s kind of our premise here. And that’s why we’re doing it every week. It’s because things are changing all the time. There’s so much to cover when it to real estate and whether it’s the legal side, the financing side, just buying, selling, the agent life, what have you. So appreciate you jumping on. I know this is a bit of a unique topic.
Mike: We hit the jackpot with timing. got to say.
Saad: definitely. So for those that are listening in or watch the recording, Waleed is a fellow agent. He’s up in the Greater Toronto area, specifically in Mississauga, right? That’s where you do most of your work, Waleed?
Waleed: I do a lot of my work in the West End, yes.
Saad: Got it. So yeah, he’s been doing this for a while. Obviously brings a special kind of angle to this, and it’d be super interesting to kind of discuss the differences between…forget another market, this is another country we’re talking about, right? So, comparing and contrasting Greater Boston versus Greater Toronto. I think it’ll be super interesting.
Saad: So, Waleed, maybe share with everybody your background, a little bit about kind what you’ve been seeing over the last few years.
Waleed: Yeah. So, first of all, thanks a lot for having me. Guys, this is really exciting to have both of you and to invite me on this StoriiTime, so much appreciated. Just a quick brief in terms of my background. From an educational standpoint, I am a CPA, which is a chartered professional accountant here in Toronto. So, I practiced that for a number of years. I worked at full-time jobs at multinational companies and then decided to take a dive into real estate about six years ago. And I’ve been just doing real estate full time in the GTA region. So that’s just a quick brief in terms of what I’ve done in the past.
Mike: So you started right before COVID pandemic?
Waleed: Yeah, so I would say, are you right? Probably just before it. Yeah, just before the pandemic hit. So, got a feel for what the market was pre-COVID, during COVID, and obviously now that we’re in post-COVID. And just to Saad’s point in terms of what the journey’s been like, it’s definitely been a roller coaster. I’m not sure what it’s been in Boston, but GTA has been crazy wack.
Mike: Yeah, I’ve heard of a lot of money flowing into Toronto and prices kind of…I mean, prices have significantly increased in Boston too. It’s probably one of the top 20 markets of valuation over the last five years.
Waleed: Yeah. So that’s exactly what happened in Toronto as well. Pre-COVID, people felt the prices were high, but they didn’t see what was coming. And so as soon as COVID hit, so what happened with the real estate market was there was a period in, I would say summertime….COVID hit around March 20…2020…March 2020. And that’s where obviously things just came to a halt. The real estate market just crashed, right? The prices dipped significantly and people that were forced to sell because either they were, um, getting into a pre-con, um, or retirement or whatever reason, um, those people, you know, kind of sold at a very, very low price. Um, and then all of a sudden during COVID we saw prices skyrocket all across the GTA. We’re talking about all across property types, whether it’s condos, townhouses, detached homes.
Mike: I was gonna, I was gonna ask, what is the general makeup of your area? What are the, it, are there any single families, all that stuff?
Waleed: Yeah. Good question. So we have a great mix of property types here. And so I’m going to talk in general in GTA region and that’s the case in city to city as well. It varies slightly as you kind of expand your radius outside of Toronto. But generally speaking, high-density residential within the metropolitan cities, you know, it’s similar to Boston. You got a lot of condos as you kind of pan out, you know, you get into your townhouses and detached homes. I think that terminology is probably very similar in the US….
Waleed: As you move further away, the lock sizes will become bigger and bigger. And that’s what it is.
Mike: Right on. Go ahead, man. Saad, you got something?
Saad: I was going to ask, you you guys have a, in terms of terminology, you guys have a special name for Duplexes, don’t you?
Waleed: Do we have, I don’t know.
Waleed: Maybe I’m not, maybe I’m not wrong.
Saad: I remember I put it on my story. Maybe somebody who’s listening can chime in. But you guys had a special term for side by side, side by…
Waleed: Semi-detached. That’s what it is. Semi-detached.
Mike: I was going to say deuce deuces, but I guess that’s probably incorrect.
Saad: Semi-detached. That’s what it is…Semi-detached.
Waleed: I don’t know if you guys have a lot of those there, but it’s basically in between a detached and a time house. So essentially a semi-detached is two houses kind of connected by one wall and there’s nothing else connected to the side. That’s what it is. We have a lot of these.
Saad: Here, that’s a townhouse. There’s a townhouse, right.
Waleed: Okay. It doesn’t matter if it’s two attached or four attached. You guys will still consider, oh, that’s unique. I didn’t know that. Oh, that’s good to know.
Saad: But anyways, that’s obviously not the reason why we’re… No, but this is good information.
Mike: This is the fun stuff. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Saad: But so one thing I wanted to touch on was financing. Financing is definitely different there. I mean as we have talked about. You don’t have a traditional 30-year fix ther, so how does that impact people’s affordability, especially at a time now when interest rates are high? What are you seeing what who are the who are the folks those folks especially who don’t come with a lot of cash and what have you or especially though by those that are afraid of rates within five years just going up on them and now they don’t have forecast they’re not able to forecast How do you have that conversation with them because that’s quite different than over here?
Waleed: Absolutely, and this is one of the biggest differences in financing between just going across the border and I feel that we don’t have it as good as the US and I think most of this has to do with the fact that US generally obviously has a larger market, so for example if you have…if you have clients that are at a lower rate and then lock it in for 30 years, you could offset that with new clients coming in with a current rate. So there’s an offsetting that happens with a larger market, right? So you don’t have everybody locking in for 30 years at 2% in the US.
Mike: That is honestly our biggest problem right now is that once you lock that in, you don’t want to double your rate to move to somewhere else to pay more. So homes are being held more in that natural pipeline of maybe a small condo to a bigger one to a single-family. It’s getting held up.
Waleed: I guess that’s a disadvantage. Never thought about that because that would be a disadvantage, because you’re saying, oh, well, I’m sitting here with such a locked in rate for so many years. Now, either I can’t move, I don’t want to move. Yeah. I never thought about that. That’s interesting.
Waleed: So on the other side where we have it as variable. So we have variable. We have a true variable, which means your monthly payments adjust as interest rates adjust. So you see that on your statement. Okay, that’s a true variable. Then we have a variable fixed, which means that your amount, for example, if it’s $3,000 a month, your interest and your principal will adjust, but your $3,000 won’t adjust. So if the rate goes up, your interest payments for that amount is just going to scale up.
Mike: Oh, okay. Interesting.
Waleed: Okay, so you’re not paying as much principal, which is what happened when you had the spike in interest rates over the last couple of years. And a lot of people, when they were in their fixed variable rates, the bank said, now you’ve surpassed, it’s gone over 100% of your payment. that’s all interest. We’re gonna have to re-file you. Okay. Or 100%. It happened to of probably two years ago a gap about a year about a year and a half ago to a lot of people that said oh my three thousand dollars is all interest…So whether it’s a law or not, but the bank said we’re gonna either increase your amortization out to 70 years or, you’re gonna have to refi it.
Waleed: So that’s the number 2. Number 3 is your traditional fixed fixed amount fixed interest Which is what you can have it for three years. You can have your five years or you can have it for seven years is rare, we don’t practice it here. The rates are not that favorable for seven years. You don’t want to lock yourself in. Now, to Saad’s point where you’re to come for a renewal, that’s a significant change where three years ago, people had their interest rates locked in for two and a half percent, three percent. Now, when their mortgages are coming due, they’re going to be sitting at four and a half percent. That’s a significant increase in their mortgage payment.
Mike: So, what is the majority of people, what route do they typically choose? Or is it really depending on the time?
Waleed: Yeah, on the situation, right? Exactly. So yeah, so if you feel that the interest rates are gonna come down, they would just renew at a variable rate. If they feel that, okay, we’re sitting at a pretty decent amount, we would just fix it at a lower rate. So it just depends on people’s situation…the main point here is they are gonna feel it significantly when they renewal happens where the rates are now not two and a half percent because they’re at four and a half percent. And we need have a mortgage of a million dollars, is kind of typical here, which is a lot, but still for a detached home, your mortgage is somewhere between $700,000 to a million plus. And at a four and a half percent rate, you’re looking at about $5,000 mortgage on average.
Mike: Yeah. It’s wild to have that…like right now, if somebody were to buy what what is like, what are you telling people at the moment or what are your clients doing?
Waleed: So I think the I tell my clients it’s the market moves when you have first-time home buyers that are moving. So, know, it’s sort of a bottom up approach where first-time home buyers active when you don’t have that the market starts to come to a grind. And here we’re experiencing that. And the reason is because first of all, the condo market has seen an oversupply of condos coming into the market.
Mike: Big condo buildings?
Waleed: Big Condos coming in and investors leaving. Because they’re not seeing their rental returns coming to fruition, they’re not seeing that. They’re not seeing the value from the rental. So you’ve seen a lot of investors dumping. I’ve had my investor clients just sell because they’re like, first of all, my renewal is coming. I can’t afford having this condo with the rental that is giving me. I’m going to be negative cashflow. Let’s just dump it, sell it. If we got a gain, we got a small gain. If not, we get a small loss and just get out of it.
Waleed: So, that happened in the condo market. It’s still when you look at the condos, there’s a significant surplus there, which means technically, if you got a smart buyer, this is an opportunity where you can cash in and pick up good deals.
Saad: Well, that’s kind of the line of kind of conversations we’re having with first-time home buyers, especially here. It’s the same deal. We probably have less inventory than you guys do in GTA. But condos, especially, is an area where there’s opportunity for people. Whether it’s new construction, existing homes, what have you, something that’s from the 1980s or from the early 2000s, they tend to sit longer. But during COVID or right before pre-COVID, there were a lot of plans to build these new condos. So there’s parts of Greater Boston that we’re seeing a lot of inventory response. For example, Mike is an example. Both of us have done deals there recently. That’s because nobody else is putting offers in on these. If a client likes it and they can afford to, typically these are 20% buyers, 20% down buyers. In the current environment, you’ve to be able to stomach some payment.
Waleed: Can I ask what the average one-bedroom condo might be? Obviously, it could vary from specific building to building, but just generally speaking.
Saad: In greater Boston.
Mike: Yeah. I would say in the, in the city proper, neighborhoods that they call Back Bay, South End things that. We’re over 2000 a square foot and the average one bedrooms probably 600 to 700 square feet. that’s the, but that the city proper is actually relatively small. It’s all the other neighborhoods that are connected. So outside of that, you’re probably. you know, on average, 700 a square foot, something that.
Saad: I was gonna say your average one bedroom is gonna cost around, somewhere between 650 and $700,000 US.
Waleed: Okay, so that’s the rate outside of Toronto. The rate closer to Toronto is probably $1,000 a square foot. $1,000 a square foot. Yeah, so prices have come down. These used to be, believe it or not, $1,400 a square foot at peak. It was ridiculous.
Mike: They’ve cut in half basically or down a third rather?
Waleed: cut it down to about 40%. 40%. Okay, said down to a thousand. Yeah, 40%. So there’s seen a significant dip in that.
Mike: I’ve actually believed that…Saad, you were saying before, maybe think just comparatively, what outside of condos and single families and things that, what sort of is the makeup of the builds because we have such a long history here that there are neighborhoods that are all brick tudors and you know exactly what those look or triple deckers in different areas using different materials. So like, I guess what’s the makeup, Waleed, and what has been like, for example, it’s been easier to to knock down a building and then build an additional two units on it or something that. What’s the building style at the moment?
Waleed: I think it’s pretty universal here in terms of building style. we don’t see very uniqueness in the buildings that come up. And that’s one of the more, you know, one of these pet peeves that I have…why are we, we’re popping up these buildings. Why can’t we make them unique? Why can’t we make them more attractive? When you go to the Middle East, you go to Dubai and all these places and you see these, each building has its own persona and looks different. Whereas over here, we’re using the same type of material, the same type of floor plans, very similar. They’re not very different. You enter, you got a den on the left, you got a living space, you got a one-bedroom and a kitchen, L-shaped, whatever. It’s the same thing, right? So there’s no uniqueness. And that’s what really takes me off a little bit.
Mike: Saad, you’re on mute.
Saad: One thing that, so that’s 100 % true. And I made that comment to my wife all the time when I’m over there is that literally every house looks the same, right? And I know there’s been an insane amount of mass construction that’s happened because of all the, you know, a lot of immigrant population and things that happening over the last, I would say five to 10 years, right? So there’s a lot of that, but one thing I’ve also noticed is that, you know, similar to Texas, for example, when you drive around Texas, there’s a lot of land, right? And in Mississauga, and when you drive into other parts of GTA, there’s a lot of land, right? So, so like, what’s really fascinating to me is that there is all this land that’s not being used, right? But still prices went up so much and so fast. So one question I have for you, Waleed, is like, what is a process? And I’ve heard a little, I’ve anecdotal, you know, stories about this, but what is a process to develop? Is it very expensive to get permits and all that kind of stuff? Or is it relatively simple and how expensive is land in general?
Waleed: Yeah, good question. So I do have experience in terms of building as well from other partners that I have around the GTA in terms of custom home builds. So the process is simple yet time-consuming. So it’s not a difficult process, but it’s just that there’s a bottleneck in the city, right…in terms of approvals. So there’s a lot of red tape around here in terms of things getting approved. So I’ll give you an example.
Waleed: Recently, about two years ago, we purchased a land out in a city called Pickering. And can Google it and you may know Pickering. In a very posh area, that’s where you’re looking to build some nice, large custom homes and things that, right? So, we purchased one which was about 60-foot front. I don’t know if you guys do…or do you guys do meters? don’t know in the US. So 60-foot front with 150 feet depth, right? So, it’s a fairly large lot, what we consider here fairly large. And for you to build a custom home on. we purchased that for about a million bucks. Just to give you guys some perspective. Now, in terms of construction, we would probably spend another million and a half constructing…a large house…so probably this is a square footage of about 5,000 square feet. Yeah to basement. So you’re looking at about a 2.5 million dollar cost of building that house.
Saad: That’s Canadian.
Waleed: Canadian dollar.
Saad: Yes, So Mike Mike for your reference, that’s about 1.7 1.8 probably Yeah, it’s the dollar to 1.9 USD.
Waleed: Yeah, okay And then a time frame that would take would be six months for the city to approve the drawings and any back and forth and the construction of it we have similar weather conditions so depending on if we have a harsh weather winter Or not probably take another 18 12 months to 18 months max. So, you’re looking about roughly two years a year and a half two years construction
Saad: For a single family
Waleed: For single, yeah. For a condo for a condo you’re looking at five years plus for a building to be constructed now if you’re looking for a multi-plex you could probably depending on if you want to put if it looks a low-rise I don’t you got ten units in there maybe you probably looking at half of five years probably two and a half years three years
Saad: got it…yeah…I feel here condos I mean larger buildings they definitely take longer and they definitely face more delays…Mike and I have talked about that ad nauseam but single families I mean…single families you know, know plenty of developers who single families and it feels seven eight months They have a batch of house up. That’s pretty good. it’s kind of crazy. Yeah, essentially was that half the time I think yeah, which obviously matters when you have that holding cost, right?
Waleed: So holding cost plus plus the variability of the market changing right? So here what’s what’s also happened in the in the recent past is people have bought from builders and either they have not been able to close because the valuations have come down. So, I don’t if this happened to you guys, you experienced it or not, but the banks are not valuing. For example, somebody buys a $1.5 million pre-construction a year ago, and the market shits its pants, and now the house is worth $1 million, as an example. You’re gonna have to cough up $500,000.
Saad: Yeah, what are you gonna do? Exactly, that’s crazy. That’s just wild. That doesn’t happen here.
Waleed: Yeah, see, that’s the variability here is…In the past, I would say three, four years, about three years, it’s been too much.
Waleed: We lost Mike there.
Saad: We lose Mike? Well, he’ll come back. I’ll see if I can invite him back.
Saad: But a couple of the questions I have for you. Looks he’s here, but he’s there. So in terms of inventory, you mentioned the condo market is a bit, there’s a glut of inventory there and what have you. What are you finding like…Is there more stuff sitting right now? Especially, when it comes to single families and condos it seems we have the same story on either side here. I’m curious to know about single-families and I also want to know when it comes to multi-family, is that even a thing in GTA? Interesting. Okay.
Waleed: You want me to wait for Mike to come pop in or?
Saad: we’re limited on time. oh So- I’m just going to invite you back but keep going. No problem. Okay. So- I think your first question was what’s the market for single family here recently, right? I’ll give you some, hey Mike.
Mike: Hey guys.
Waleed: No problem. We’re talking about single family and how the market’s doing in the GTA. So a quick blurb on that. So basically I have a number of listings up for single-family here for sale and I’ll give you some real numbers in terms of open houses, how a typical open house used to be and what we’re seeing now. Okay.
Waleed: Right now…so typical house, open house, you’d see about, you know, almost close to double digit families coming through on a single day. So, for two hours, you’d probably see about 9 or 10 people come through. Last couple of weeks, we’ve been doing it, hardly 1.
Saad: Wow. Even for single families?
Waleed: Even for single-family detached homes.
Saad: Do you think that’s a function of the market? Do you think it’s a function of pricing? Not to say that you’re not pricing properly, but like, like. Curious to know about that. Yeah, Mike. Did you have I was gonna say or…
Mike: some conversations being yeah,
Waleed: so…this is my conversation with my colleagues and my clients as well First of all is it has to significantly do with Trump in power and the variability of having tariffs. You know, so now that Trump has implemented tariffs on us. I think people don’t want to make a big purchase, a purchase in the house, because they don’t know what’s happening. And when the factors are not in their control. They’re very wary on that and that’s the biggest sentiment right now in the community market.
ike: That’s the general population too, right? I get it, it’s going to be the sentiment. But then once again, the people that are kind of a Teflon for that or not affected…buy it psychologically can find deals probably at this point.
Waleed: This is the best time to find a deal because you know a seller is selling their house for a specific reason. Don’t want to sell for you know because…they’re selling because they have to sell. So that’s where the opportunity is and if a smart buyer comes in and recognizes that they can pick up a good
Mike: Yeah exactly you got to know that where somebody’s at across the table to really help your buyers. We’re just saying that the uneasy sentiment is definitely prohibiting people from making a large purchase right now.
Saad: Yeah, I mean there’s a little bit of that conversation or a good amount of that conversation happening here too around general volatility, you don’t know what’s going to happen, stock market getting hit, crypto market getting hit. People just have less net worth right now. Jobs being lost…especially in the government, which you see that a little bit more in see that a little bit more in DC, but generally there’s a lot of that going on.
Waleed: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And we have a rate announcement coming up March 12th, I think, this week or next week. And the buzz around it is they’re going to cut another probably 50 basis point, which is a lot.
Mike: Have you guys been kind of been on pace with our…
Waleed: I think that there were some times where you guys didn’t cut and we did. And that’s because of the disparity between the two economies. think your economy obviously is doing better than the Canadian economy for multiple reasons. And that’s probably the reason why, but we’ve been cutting pretty aggressively.
Waleed: I don’t know about you guys, but I find when it’s about two weeks before the rate announcement, people just halt. Transactions just come to a standstill. They just think, okay, what’s going to happen? And then they pick it back up, knowing what’s going to happen.
Saad: I think it’s less so here. But that’s the thing, I think every market is different. Greater Boston is very different than down in Texas or Florida or what have you. So, the problem with Greater Boston though is just like…there’s a lot of investors who want…I mean, despite rates being as crazy as they are, it’s such a hot market and almost a guaranteed appreciation if you get the right deal. There’s always people looking to get in. So, that’s kind of something that I think might be a little unique about Boston relative to the rest of the country.
Saad: But I mean, it’s still a volatile time. Naturally, people are kind of on the edge of their seats and don’t want to make a decision too soon.
Waleed: Can I ask you guys a question in terms of do you guys get foreign investors?
Saad: Yeah
Waleed: You guys do. Yeah, people in Canada looking invest and pick up some good deals and rental property
Saad: Canada not so much. I mean we get a lot of China we get a lot of a lot of our money as well. Yeah, but but but definitely China more than yeah, would say China more. Yeah, China’s definitely the top.
Waleed: Yeah, here as well. Well, we have big pockets where the you know the Asian people to invest in yeah they’re heavily invested in the northern part of GTA, which would be some parts of Toronto
Saad: yeah makes sense…Mike, go ahead
Mike: Shoot i had it for a second oh no damn oh no i heard your stream of consciousness my bad…Oh before with interest rates…You typically see them in the market weeks before the announcement because they’re anticipated. So it actually adjusts before.
Waleed: And a buyer knows that. The buyer recognizes that. Some buyers recognize that. But some buyers don’t and it’s just unfortunate.
Saad: Well, Waleed, I know we’re over time. Yeah, man. you so much for joining us today and bearing with me as I daddy daycare my day away. We’ll have you on soon just to kind of re-visit how things are going up there and just stay in touch with you. It’s always good to get other people’s views on how things are going in their markets and things that. So really appreciate your insights.
Waleed: Thanks a lot for having me, guys. I appreciate it. And we’ll be in touch. Nice meeting you, Mike.
Mike: Nice to you, too.
Saad: Everybody, thank you for joining on today. He’s Mike.This is Waleed. I’m Saad. This is StoriiTime. See you next week.
Waleed: Take care.
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