Investor's Corner

The core of the 2025 tax environment is certainty: the government explicitly cancelled the proposal from the 2024 budget that would have increased the general capital gains inclusion rate from 50% to 66.67% (two-thirds).7

While the long-term vision is strategically sound, a significant criticism leveled against the budget is its perceived lack of substantial provisions for immediate economic relief and stimulus. Economists and analysts have noted that the budget offers little in the way of direct, broad-based measures to alleviate the current cost-of-living crunch. Workers are grappling with high inflation, high interest rates, and stagnant real wages, all of which are immediate concerns.

Simply put, you cannot recreate peak demand conditions without replicating peak affordability. Since affordability remains severely strained, the theoretical demand is locked away behind an economic wall.

The investment landscape across Southern Ontario is in a period of recalibration. After the frenetic appreciation seen in recent years, driven by low interest rates and fierce demand, 2025 brings a more cautious environment. Higher borrowing costs mean that relying solely on market appreciation to deliver returns is a far riskier proposition. For experienced investors, this is the signal to pivot: the focus must shift from buying market growth to creating value. This is the c