OTTAWA, Ont. – A chill is setting in with Ottawa’s home buyers due to the proposed federal government job cuts according to the Greater Ottawa Homebuilders Association.       

Executive Director, John Herbert told 1310News, the Association originally thought the job reductions were managable.   “What we didn’t know at the time was that they were going to have to notify everybody in a given job classification that there were going to be changes so, thousands of people were notified about in some cases only dozens of job reductions.”   

Herbert says home sales are down 20 per cent year over year and he doesn’t expect it to bounce back for two years after the job cuts are complete.

While sales are down, Herbert doesn’t expect buyers to find bargains. “At this point, that’s not in the cards”.

Despite furious condo construction in Ottawa and new housing starts up 46 per cent compared to last year, he expects layoffs in the construction industry. “Builders don’t do a lot of inventory.  Even on the condo side for condo developers to get financing they need to have 80 per cent pre-sold.”