Immigration will continue to be the key driver in ensuring Ontario's housing market remains buoyant, a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. conference heard.

"This is going to be important," CMHC senior market analyst Jason Mercer told the conference, held recently at the Metro Toronto Conference Centre. "The key issue we are looking at is population growth," Mercer added. "All these new households are going to need a place to live."

Coupled with the high number of first-time homebuyers continuing to flood the market and downsizing baby boomers, all this activity will continue to fuel a "balanced market situation," he said.

Indeed, if you have an ethnic background in this business, you have an obvious advantage. For the rest of us, we must rely on good, solid service. Consumers from other cultures will often look to non-members of their own culture thinking we know the market better. Others stick with their culture due to language barriers and all around confidence issues.

Regardless, there is plenty of business for all nationalities and many will crossover. I have had tremendous success this year with Iraqi, Italian, Polish, Chinese, and Iranian buyers and sellers, some new immigrants, most 1st and 2nd generation Canadians. Their primary requirement? Honesty, understanding and acceptance of requirements demanded by their culture, and professionalism.

Robert J. Morrow is editor of www.HamiltonHomeReview.com, an online real estate magazine serving Greater Hamilton, Ontario. Click here for a FREE SUBSCRIPTION sent to your email monthly. Click here to receive new Hamilton area listings in your email daily.