Formerly known as Show & Sell, The RAZZ Report breaks down trending real estate topics into four pillars:

🧭 [R]esearch
📊 [A]nalysis
🔎 [Z]oom-In
🌐 [Z]oom-Out

In an effort to understand the market as it is… not as it’s sold.

An assignment sale happens when the original buyer of a pre-construction property sells their purchase contract to a new buyer before final closing.

Assignments have always been part of the market.

But lately, we’re seeing a surge of so-called “firesales” that aren’t quite what they’re made out to be.

We're seeing advertisements for someone else’s massive loss.

And it’s not random either… there’s something deeply human at play here.

When we see “$200,000 LOSS” in all caps, our instinct isn’t to ask what changed structurally.

It’s to think:

Is this my opportunity?

The louder someone else’s pressure, the more we assume there must be some advantage waiting for us.

And if you pause for a second, it’s a strange/distorted thing to celebrate.

We’ve turned someone else’s misfortune into marketing.

“Look how badly this person is about to get squeezed… come feel good about capitalizing on it.”

But unfortunately markets don’t always care about morals.

Whether it’s truly a deal isn’t decided by the advertised “loss.”

It’s decided in the fine print: the structure, the timeline, the financing, and the risks that never made it into the ad.

Assignments aren’t automatic. Builders often:

Approval can take weeks. And some contracts keep the original buyer liable if the assignee fails to close.

Assignments layer new agreements and paperwork on top of the original contract.

You’re dealing with:

More items to manage mean more things that could go wrong.

This is where many pre-con and “discount” buyers get hit.

Adjustments can include:

Here’s an example of one I closed on in 2023. Check out the 7.14% interest rate!:

If the property isn’t registered, you’ll likely enter interim occupancy before final closing.

During occupancy, you pay:

And you don’t control how long occupancy lasts.

Lucky for me, it was only 4 months and we leased out the unit during occupancy...

But had to pay nearly $6,000.00 just for the right to lease it out during occupancy…

This is the silent killer.

That’s why the same listing can be described as:

If the appraised value comes in below the original contract price:

In a declining market, this gap can be material. Assignments amplify this risk because:

So all of those “CASH BACK” ads are not necessarily lying.

They’re just incomplete.

The headline number tells you: what the seller is losing.

It does not tell you: what you’re assuming.

Do your research.

The “firesale” isn’t really a pricing story. It’s a timing + financing story.

An assignment seller isn’t negotiating in the same arena as a normal resale seller.

In resale, you can wait, re-list, stage, rent it out, pull it off the market and try again later. If your timeline allows.

In an assignment, there’s usually one immovable variable:

the builder’s closing date.

That deadline compresses everything. So while assignment listings might read like “great opportunities,” many of them are simply sellers trying to exit a contract they signed five years ago… under very different market conditions.

And that’s why the headline number in the ad is often the least important number in the entire transaction.

Assignments don’t live and die by the sticker price.

They live and die in the fine print.

With limited flexibility, sellers are trying to use the only lever they have left: a dramatic price headline, typically at a significant loss.

But this is where the “firesale” narrative gets misunderstood. Because the discount isn’t competing against resale inventory.

It’s competing against structure.

Take interim occupancy.

Tarion (Ontario’s new home warranty administrator) is blunt about what most buyers learn the hard way: occupancy does not mean ownership. You can be allowed to move into a completed unit while the building is still being finished… but you don’t get title until the building/property is registered. And that interim period can last “a few weeks up to a year or more.”

During interim occupancy, you’ll be required to pay a monthly fee to the builder - whether you move in or not. That fee is based on interest on the unpaid balance of the purchase price, estimated municipal taxes, and projected common expenses.

And no, it’ not credited to the final purchase price.

Tarion’s wording is the real punchline:

“Consider interim occupancy fees as rental payments for your unit.”

…

So yes… in a firesale assignment market, you can end up renting what you “bought,” potentially for a year or more, while you wait to become an actual owner.

Now let’s revisit the headline.

If interim occupancy lasts 12 months and averages $2,500 per month, that’s $30,000 in ‘rent’ before owning... and before adjustments, development charges, and other closing costs.

Suddenly:

“$100K DISCOUNT” in the ad

Translates to:

“Not worth the headache” once the lender, lawyer, or a calculator runs the math.

The ‘discount’ just gets collected by the fine print.

In a resale listing, the photos and price tell you 80% of what you need to know.

In an assignment, the photos/renderings/floorplans are basically there for entertainment.

Because before you negotiate price, you need to negotiate clarity.

Here’s a checklist to run through before considering buying on assignment:

1) Timeline

2) Assignment rules (is this even allowed?)

3) Fees & adjustments

4) Interim occupancy reality

5) Financing

If a seller can’t answer these questions - or can’t produce the documents - then it’s time to move-on.

Zooming out, The Firesale isn’t just a condo story.

When the market is healthy, discounts are isolated. A few motivated sellers, a few “deals,” and the system keeps clearing.

When the market is stressed, discounts travel.

They show up first in the easiest place to move: the contract.

That’s the assignment market. Where sellers try to sell certainty before they ever have to carry the full mortgage.

Then they show up in resale. With once end-users becoming ‘landlords’ by default’ and active inventory bringing both resale and rental prices down.

And when the repricing is real, it eventually hits the most important input of all:

Land

Bullpen Research & Consulting’s High-Rise Land Insights data shows just how aggressive the reset has become.

Across the GTA, average high-rise land values that hovered around $110–$119 per buildable sqft (2018–2021) fell to $78 in 2025 (about -16% YoY, and roughly -29% below 2018).

But the real punchline is how uneven the pain is:

In the 416, high-rise pricing held roughly steady around $85/buildable sqft, but mid-rise pricing fell more than 30% to about $98/buildable sqft.

In the 905, the high-rise market basically seized up: transactions dropped from 20 to 7, and average pricing collapsed from $54 to $23/buildable sqft - a drop of roughly 60%.

If the market is discounting the dirt, it’s not just investors taking haircuts… it’s developers and lenders too.

And finally, the piece we're all wondering: where are rates going?

Canadian Mortgage Trends’ compilation of Big 6 forecasts shows a pretty rare point of agreement: banks largely align on the Bank of Canada holding its policy rate at 2.25% through 2026 — but they diverge sharply in 2027.

RBC, Scotiabank and National Bank model a re-tightening after the easing cycle ends (with forecasts ranging from 2.75% by late 2026 to 3.25% by Q4 2027), while TD, CIBC and BMO expect the policy rate to hold at 2.25% through the end of 2027.

My thoughts:

Rate forecasts are useful but they’re still forecasts. And forecasts, by definition, are narratives built on assumptions. When you read that rates might rise in 2027, it can subtly create urgency today. Lock now. Buy now. Act now.

But markets don’t move on headlines or forecasts alone. They move on employment, consumer confidence, credit conditions, and broader economic stability.

And from where I sit, in conversations with buyers and sellers every week, the stress in the system is real. Could rates move up in 2027? Sure.

But I don’t see the conditions for a meaningful re-tightening any time soon.

And more importantly, your decision today shouldn’t hinge on where rates might be in two years. It should hinge on where you might see yourself in two years.

Thank you for reading and happy Friday!

I’m always looking to make this sharper and more useful, so if you’ve got feedback or topics you’re curious about, send them my way.

And if you know someone who’d enjoy The RAZZ Report, forward it along. Best compliment in the world: “You should read and subscribe to this”

Best,

Jordan Buttarazzi