Some of these trends include incorporating more smart home technology and wellness amenities.

Luxury homes are high-end properties that offer exceptional quality, features, and amenities, often designed and built to meet the needs of affluent clients. These stunning properties typically offer extensive features and amenities, such as premium materials, state-of-the-art technology, advanced security systems, stunning views, spacious living areas, and luxurious finishes.

Luxury real estate trends can vary depending on the location, market conditions, buyers’ preferences, and other luxury real estate in the area. Here are some prominent luxury real estate trends that we are spotting in 2023:

Wellness Amenities

Buyers are increasingly looking for homes that offer a range of wellness amenities, such as gyms, pools, saunas, and meditation rooms. In addition, many luxury home designers are creating more green spaces, including gardens, green roofs, and outdoor spaces for yoga and meditation.

Smart Homes

Smart home technology has become a standard feature in many luxury homes, with buyers seeking properties equipped with the latest technology, such as voice-controlled lighting, smart thermostats, and automated window treatments.

High-end finishes and materials

Luxury homes are often outfitted with high-end finishes, such as marble or granite countertops, hardwood flooring, and custom cabinetry, to create a luxurious and sophisticated living environment.

Home Offices

With remote work evolving into a more common practice, many luxury buyers are looking for homes with dedicated office spaces with high-speed internet, video conferencing capabilities, and other amenities to support a remote work lifestyle.

Sustainable Features

Sustainable features are becoming increasingly important to luxury buyers, with many looking for homes with features such as solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, and sustainable building materials.

Privacy and Security

Luxury buyers are often concerned with privacy and security and are looking for properties that offer gated entrances, security systems, privacy landscaping, and other safety features. Home automation systems are often important for high-end buyers to allow homeowners to control everything from lighting to security systems with the touch of a button.

Location

While location has always been an important factor in real estate, luxury buyers are increasingly looking for properties that offer unique locations, such as waterfront properties, mountain retreats, and homes in exclusive neighbourhoods. Properties in less urban areas, such as beaches or mountain towns, are the ideal areas to enjoy more space and privacy.

Customization

Luxury buyers are often looking for properties that can be customized to their specific needs and preferences, whether that means designing a custom home from scratch or renovating an existing property to their exact specifications.

Multi-Generational Living

Multi-generational living is becoming more popular among luxury buyers. Many high-end homes now include guest suites, separate living areas, and private entrances for extended family members or live-in staff.

Indoor-outdoor living

Luxury homes will continue to blur the lines between indoor and outdoor living spaces by incorporating outdoor kitchens, fire pits, and poolside cabanas to create a seamless flow between indoor and outdoor areas.

The luxury real estate market is constantly evolving, with new trends emerging as the demands and tastes of affluent buyers change. Luxury homes often offer the best possible living experience, and as such, they often come equipped with a wide range of amenities designed to provide comfort, convenience, and relaxation.

Luxury real estate trends are evolving to reflect affluent buyers’ changing priorities and lifestyle preferences. We predict that the above luxury real estate trends will continue to be highlighted in luxury homes in 2023. However, the luxury real estate market is always exciting and forever changing/expanding. Therefore, it will be exciting to see what other new luxury real estate trends emerge in 2023. AddressScoop.com has a list of the current most expensive homes for sale in every US state, so you can use this list to see the luxury trends with current luxury homes for sale. Since the list is being updated frequently, you can see the new luxury homes that are put on the market with unique and sometimes never heard of before features.

Everyone perks up when you start talking about fiscal responsibility, don't they? We know, we know. Don't doze off just yet! There is so much value in knowing how to command your money, especially in the world of real estate investment.

When we think about what it means to succeed in this business, we usually talk about the steps of how to invest, and maybe even when to invest. But there's also an underlying current—underlying money management principles—that demand mastery if you hope to excel as a real estate investor.

Budgeting is so important here. Because if you want to scale your portfolio, grow your assets and passive income, and see your net worth accelerate, you have to have a strong budgeting strategy.

Here are our top budgeting tips for real estate investors.

10 Practical Budgeting Tips for Turnkey Real Estate Investors

1) Map out your investment goals.

Budgeting without a goal in mind makes everything that much harder. Start by mapping out your investment goals. Sit down and speak with an advisor and see what goals and timelines make sense for you. This will help you hone in on what is realistic and doable without putting a strain on your finances.

2) Prioritize savings.

For real estate investors, there is always a financial goal on the horizon. We have ambitions! Goals! Because of that, savings are important. Prioritizing those savings is more important. So first things first, as part of your budgeting, is to pay yourself first. When you receive income, move whatever amount is appropriate for you to savings first. It can be too tempting to spend on impulse otherwise.

3) Make a spreadsheet.

It would be a mistake to keep your budget in your head. Get it down, preferably in a spreadsheet. There, you can see it all in one place, color-coded and categorized. Make a new tab for each month, track your progress, and see how things change over time. If you don't know where to start, free budgeting templates are just an internet search away.

4) Don't spend what you don't have.

In a world of cash advances, credit cards, and instant gratification, it's no small wonder we struggle with this. Part of an effective budget has to be spending only what you actually have. This will keep you in the black. That means not letting yourself get into dangerous fiscal territory because you know payday is close. Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

5) Hold budget meetings.

Treat your personal budget like a professional budget, complete with bi-monthly meetings. Whether you're sitting down alone or with your spouse or business partner, track where you are. Check in and see if you're still on track or if course corrections are necessary. Budgets need to be able to change when the unexpected happens, but if you don't know where things stand, you won't be able to adapt with agility.

6) Grab an accountant.

These are money matters, so talk to an accountant. Just because it's not 'tax season' doesn't mean it's unwise to consult a professional. Ask about the best way to manage and track your finances. Get some advice and see what they say about budgeting, reaching your financial goals, and keeping records.

7) Keep emotions out of it.

We work hard for what we have so it can be challenging to keep emotions out of our money. That said, we must. Don't let anxiety, worry, or even positive emotions make you stray from your budget. Fear, joy, and all manner of intense emotions can cause us to act irrationally: spending where we shouldn't, evaluating situations without clarity, or otherwise acting on impulse. Keep emotions out of it. Evaluate facts, not feelings.

8) Overestimate expenses.

While in most cases we advocate for optimism, in budgeting, err on being tentative. If you want a successful budget, plan for more expenses to come your way and for there to be less income than you expect. It's far better to be pleasantly surprised with more leftover than you expect than for there to be less in your account that you would like.

9) Keep your finances clean.

As an investor, limiting your liability is always a top priority. One of the things that you should do from the get-go is separate your finances between personal and business. You can do this by setting up an LLC and by opening a separate bank account solely for your investments. While this may seem like a hassle, it will prevent this money from mingling in your personal accounts and ensure that your budget stays neat and your risk is mitigated. Untangling personal from professional where taxes are concerned also gets messy, so just keep it separate.

10) Maintain a paper trail.

It's not helpful for you to simply look at the “before” and “after” at the end of each month. You don't get a lot of information by just seeing how much total money was spent versus how much was coming in. In order to really make your budgeting work and to be able to course correct and adjust over time, you need to be diligent in keeping a record of where your money is going month-to-month.

Not only is this valuable as a budgeting reality check, but it will allow you to more easily keep up with pertinent information when you need to file taxes or track down information for an accountant.

Article By: Chris Clothier

If you want to be a home owner in Canada, here’s how the new tax-free FHSA could get you one step closer to realizing your dream.

Becoming a home owner is a significant milestone that many young adults wish they could afford. More than two in five Canadians (43%) plan to purchase a home in the next five years, and 24% of them have yet to start saving for a down payment, according to a study conducted by The Harris Poll for NerdWallet in January. Certainly, there are many Gen Zers among that group.

While Gen Z face many hurdles at the moment, including rising interest rates and inflation, there are still ways to achieve home ownership. In our current economic climate, where many young people feel they will be lifelong renters, the introduction of the new tax-free first home savings account (FHSA) will provide some much-needed assistance.

How does the FHSA work?

The FHSA is a new kind of registered account, like the tax-free savings account (TFSA) and registered retirement savings plan (RRSP). You can contribute up to $8,000 annually toward your FHSA, up to a lifetime limit of $40,000. Contribution room begins to accumulate after you open the account, and you can carry forward any unused portion from one year to the following year, for a maximum contribution of $16,000 in a given year. Another benefit is that contributions to an FHSA are tax-deductible (like an RRSP) and withdrawals are tax-free (like a TFSA). 

Am I eligible for the FHSA?

To qualify for the FHSA, you need to be a Canadian resident who is at least 18 years old. Upon opening the account, you must also qualify as a first-time home buyer and not have lived in a home that you or your spouse or common-law partner owned in the last four calendar years. 

What rules do I need to follow?

Here are some things you’ll need to keep in mind when you open an FHSA:

• After withdrawing money from the account, you must purchase a home by Oct. 1 of the following calendar year, or the funds will be taxed as income.
• The home that you purchase must be located in Canada.
• You are required to close the account after 15 years or at the end of the year you turn 71—whichever comes first.
• If you don’t use the money to buy a home, you can transfer it to your RRSP.
• Unlike with the Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP), you don’t need to repay money withdrawn from an FHSA.

Create an FHSA savings plan

Once you’re ready to open an account, you’ll want to have a savings plan. The average home price in Canada was $662,437 in February 2023, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), and in the areas of Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver, the average price was a whopping $1,091,300 and $1,123,400, respectively. The area you want to live in and the type of property you want to buy (such as a townhouse or a condo) will determine your price range. 

From there, you will need to determine the size of your down payment. Homes valued at $1 million or more require a minimum down payment of at least 20%, and homes worth less than that require a down payment of 5% to 10%.

Here’s an example of how you would determine your own savings goal:

Since you can contribute a maximum of $40,000 to an FHSA, you’ll have to spread out the remaining $80,000 across other accounts, such as an RRSP (for use with the HBP) and a TFSA. For the HBP, you can pull a maximum of $35,000 from your RRSP (or a maximum of $70,000 for a couple buying a home together). So the balance of $45,000 will have to come from your TFSA. Let’s break this down further to determine how much money you’ll need to save in each account: 

Note, these calculations assume you are buying a home as a single person, and they do not factor in investment growth that may come from holding investments like stocks, guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) and bonds. They also don’t factor in potential investment losses. Benefiting from investment growth or buying a home with someone else could help you reach your goal faster, while investment losses may force you to delay buying the home you want.

Ways to start contributing to your FHSA

Once you understand how much you need to save based on your timeline, you can start stashing away money in your account. Beyond putting aside a predetermined amount from every paycheque, consider adding income from these sources to your FHSA:

• Any income tax refund you may receive
• Any bonus, tips or commission earned from your job
• Any monetary gifts from family and friends (everything from birthday money to an early inheritance)
• Any money earned from a part-time job or side hustle

What type of investments can I have in the FHSA?

The investments you can hold in your FHSA are the same as for your TFSA. This includes securities such as stocks, corporate and government bonds, GICs and mutual funds.

The securities that are best for you will depend on a few factors. For one, there’s your time horizon. How many years from now do you plan to buy your home? Another factor is your risk tolerance. How much can you tolerate changes in the stock market? Let’s look at two different scenarios and how they may impact your investment choices. 

Scenario #1

If you are in your early 20s and don’t plan to buy a home until your early 30s, then you have about a decade to save up for it. If you’re comfortable with a medium level of risk, buying index funds and bonds may provide decent returns over a long period of time—just enough to ride out the waves of the stock market. 

Scenario #2

Say you are in your mid-20s. You’re looking to buy a home within the next five years and you have a low risk tolerance (since you don’t want to lose your hard-earned money!). In this situation,  you may opt to buy GICs, which are low-risk and guarantee your initial investment back with interest. Currently, you can find GICs offering a 5% interest rate. This may be a decent option compared to leaving your money in cash, where it risks losing its value to inflation.

Different strategies to optimize your FHSA

There’s no right or wrong way to save money within your FHSA. Here are a few different ways you can use your account. 

1. Contribute to it even if you don’t expect to buy a home

You may be sitting on the fence about whether you’ll actually spend the money on a home. You’ll be happy to know that you’ll have the option to transfer the unused amount into your RRSP on a tax-deferred basis if you decide to forgo buying a home. If you plan to max out your RRSP before retirement, the FHSA essentially creates $40,000 of additional RRSP contribution room over your lifetime. You will still have to be careful not to exceed your annual RRSP contribution limit. The extra room is only created by moving your FHSA savings to an RRSP.

2. Save early

In order to maximize the account’s growth potential, you’ll want to start contributing as much as you can as early as possible. This way you can take advantage of compounding interest. This will help make it easier for you to achieve your savings goal.

3. Consider your income level

Take advantage of the FHSA’s tax deduction potential. For example, you can reinvest the tax refund created by your FHSA contributions into your TFSA. However, remember that contributing to a TFSA instead of an FHSA or RRSP may be better if you don’t have a high income (and wouldn’t benefit from tax deductions). This is especially true if you might need the money for something other than a home, such as a car or a wedding. So, consider your income and the tax implications of each account type. In some cases, it may be more beneficial to stick with your TFSA.

4. Use all the accounts at your disposal

You are able to use the FHSA in conjunction with the HBP. This means you could potentially combine $40,000 from the FHSA with the $35,000 from the HBP for total of $75,000. In most cases, $75,000 will still not be enough for a down payment on a property. So, you may also want to consider adding the amount from your TFSA on top of it.

Laying the foundation for your future

Once it launches this year, the FHSA could help you lay the financial foundation for (what will most likely be) the biggest purchase in your lifetime. Combining the FHSA with money from other accounts, such as your RRSP or TFSA, will help, but realistically, you may still not have enough for a down payment—especially if you plan to live in a big city. Still, the FHSA is another savings tool that can help you on your journey to becoming a home owner. 

Article By: Sandy Yong

Canada’s upcoming national flood insurance program will likely take characteristics from flood models in both France and Britain, Insurance Brokers Association of Canada (IBAC) CEO Peter Braid told Canadian Underwriter in an interview.

In its 2023 budget, the federal government committed $31.7 million over three years to protect households at high risk of flooding and without access to adequate insurance. “This would include offering reinsurance through a federal Crown corporation and a separate insurance subsidy program,” the budget document said.

“It would make eminent sense to leverage the existing Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)…as opposed to establishing a new Crown corporation, but that’s unclear at this point,” Braid told CU. Starting in 2023-24, Public Safety Canada and CMHC will work with the Department of Finance to start up the low-cost flood insurance program, according to the budget.

“I suspect that this will be a made-in-Canada approach that will probably take some characteristics from both the British as well as the French models,” Braid told CU. “In the case of France, they actually have a publicly, government-owned reinsurer….It sounds like that’s the solution that the federal government has landed on.”

Braid pointed to an August 2022 report from Canada’s Task Force on Flood Insurance and Relocation involving full actuarial analysis of four flood insurance models. One was a public reinsurer model. “So that may give some hints as to what the model suggested in the budget may look like,” he said.

Partially inspired by France’s public reinsurer, Caisse Centrale de Réassurance, the public reinsurer model builds on both public and private-based elements of previous models.

“I think it’s critical that the program at the end of the day is a public-private partnership between government and industry. And all indications are that that will be the case,” Braid said. “It’s essential that government leverage not only private sector expertise but the current distribution channel that exists in this country of which brokers are such a significant part.”

According to the task force’s report, the public reinsurer model involves two layers. The first layer provides the homeowner the option to purchase insurance from the private market at the full risk-based price, which must offer coverage up to a ‘modest’ limit of $25,000. The second layer involves the mandatory purchase of flood insurance above this coverage limit up to a high limit ($300,000) from the insurance industry.

“The Crown corporation would sell subsidized excess of loss reinsurance to private insurers, and reimburse insurers for losses covered in the second layer,” the report said. “The Crown corporation is stabilized through a government backstop and market-based reinsurance.”

For its part, the British flood insurance model, Flood Re, relies on private insurers to provide coverage to high-risk areas. Insurers cede the flood portion of residential flood insurance policies and related premiums to a high-risk reinsurance pool when premiums are above a pre-determined affordability cap.

Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) suggested in a statement the national flood insurance program would be set up within the next 24 months. “I think the government has indicated two to three years,” Braid said. “I think two years is probably on the optimistic side, because this will involve discussions and negotiations likely between all three levels of government.

“This is something both IBAC and the IBC have been working closely together on,” Braid added. “It’s very positive for the industry, but most importantly, it’s a positive outcome for the Canadians who happen to live on a high-risk property. And it helps to close a protection gap because currently those Canadians don’t have access to private sector flood coverage.”

Among other items, the 2023 budget also proposed $15.3 million to create a publicly accessible online portal where Canadians can get information on their flooding exposure.

“Raising consumer awareness is key,” Braid said. “And providing new information that’s as specific as possible with respect to a person’s property will make all the difference in terms of understanding the level of flood risk for a specific property.”

Artcle By: Jason Contant