Most
Ontarians confused about HST and resale homes
56% mistakenly believe HST applies to purchase price
Toronto, Ontario, October 27, 2010 – An Ipsos Reid survey
commissioned by
the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) and released
today reveals that 56
per cent of Ontarians mistakenly believe that the new
Harmonized Sales Tax
(HST) applies to the full purchase price of a resale home.
In fact the HST is only
levied on the various transaction fees associated with the
purchase of a home
that has been previously occupied (i.e. not a newly-built
home).
Currently, the average price of an Ontario resale home is
around $330,000.
Therefore, this confusion leaves the majority of Ontarians
wrongly believing
that the HST will add more than $40,000 to the transaction
cost. There is
growing concern among real estate professionals that this
misperception about
the HST is dampening the Ontario housing market.
“We see it on the front lines every day. Clearly, Ontarians
still don’t know
what the HST covers and what is exempt,” said Dorothy Mason,
President of
OREA. “This is not helping the housing market, and it’s not
helping the Ontario
economy. This confusion means that many buyers think the
cost of a resale
home is tens of thousands of dollars higher than it actually
is.”
The results of the survey conducted earlier this month were
consistent across
all age groups. However, there were some differences across
other
demographic categories. For instance, of those surveyed,
half of the university
graduates, 71 per cent of northern Ontarians, 59 per cent of
those living in
eastern and southwestern Ontario, and 54 per cent of GTA
residents all
mistakenly believe the HST applies to the full purchase
price of resale homes.
“We’re doing our part to inform our clients, but we
shouldn’t have to do it
alone. We’re calling on the Ontario government to launch an
immediate public
awareness campaign to educate taxpayers and end the HST
confusion,” said
Mason. “For average homebuyers, learning that the HST does
not apply to the
full purchase price means a $40,000 saving they weren’t
expecting.”
Ipsos Reid conducted the survey among 830 Ontarians from
Ipsos’s online panel,
between October 4th and 11th, on behalf of the Ontario Real
Estate Association.
The estimated margin of error is +/-3.8 percentage points,
19 times out of 20.
The Ontario Real Estate Association represents 49,000
brokers and salespeople
who are members of the 42 real estate boards throughout the
province. OREA
serves its REALTOR® members through a wide variety of
professional
publications, educational programs, advocacy, and other
services.
Video Interview
Clips
YouTube
http://bit.ly/9MEdr3
HD version
http://www.thornleyfallis.ca/orea
For more information, contact:
Bob McLean
Director of Communication
Ontario Real Estate Association
(416) 442-3407
mclean@orea.com
Deborah Knight
Senior Consultant
Thornley Fallis
(416) 515-7517 ext. 328
knight@thornleyfallis.ca
