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MNI BRIEF: BOC Started Hiking Too Slowly, Toronto Realtors Say

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(MNI) OTTAWA
TORONTO (MNI)

Canada's largest urban real estate board criticized the central bank Thursday, saying slow rate hikes fed inflation that is adding to affordability struggles.

"With the benefit of hindsight, it appears that the Bank of Canada’s rate increases started too late. Now we are dealing with outsized increases to curb generationally high inflation," Toronto Regional Real Estate Board President Kevin Crigger said in a monthly report on home sales. The number of transactions plunged 47% in July from a year earlier while the average sale price rose 1.2% to almost CAD1.1 million.

“With significant increases to lending rates in a short period, there has been a shift in consumer sentiment, not market fundamentals," the report said. The BOC hiked 100bps last month in the biggest such move since 1998. Other former officials have also told MNI that policy stimulus should have been pulled back faster.

MNI Ottawa Bureau | +1 613-314-9647 | greg.quinn@marketnews.com
MNI Ottawa Bureau | +1 613-314-9647 | greg.quinn@marketnews.com

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