Canada

Toronto's housing market entered the busy spring property season with a bang, as sales surged 17% in April compared with a year earlier and prices also pushed higher.

Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have seen the biggest net inflow of millennials in 12 years, a key reason demand for housing is expected to remain strong, despite spiraling costs, according to Royal Bank of Canada.

Quicken Loans parent company Rock Holdings is strengthening its investments in the Canadian market by acquiring a majority stake in Lendesk, a Vancouver-based mortgage fintech.

Canadian home sales and prices rebounded in March from a dismal showing a month earlier, but remained below historical averages.

Canada housing starts rebounded in March from a sluggish performance a month earlier, returning to levels more in line with demographics and highlighting the buoyancy of the nation's battered real estate market.

Home sales are dropping in Vancouver as listings rise, with the local real estate board blaming policy changes for restricting potential buyers.

Canada's housing agency will spend up to C$1.25 billion ($943 million) over three years to take equity positions in homes bought by first-time buyers, part of a plan by Justin Trudeau's government to make housing more affordable for the youngest voters.

A top official at the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions defended tougher underwriting rules blamed recently for a slump in the nation’s housing market, but left open the possibility that regulations could ease if conditions change.

Mortgage growth has shrunk to a 17-year low in Canada, increasing pressure on the country's big banks to find business elsewhere.

After years of frenzied price increases, sales of new homes in Canada's biggest city sunk to the lowest in almost two decades in 2018 and the supply of unsold condos piled up.