Empire Rental Living launches, plans 5,000 homes

RENX  Residential  •  Apartments, Homes  •  Ontario, Toronto / GTA, International

Toronto-based homebuilder Empire Communities is launching a rental housing division, Empire Rental Living, and appointed Cole Young and Donald Povieng to head its operations. Empire plans to build and manage 5,000 units across North America during its first five years.

Cdn. Real Estate Sentiment Survey: Confidence wanes

RENX  Residential, Commercial  •  Investment  •  National

After plummeting in the second quarter and improving in Q3, confidence in the Canadian real estate market waned slightly heading into year-end, according to the Q4 2020 REALPAC/FPL Canadian Real Estate Sentiment Survey.

Developer sues Calgary $113M over mixed-use site

Residential, Commercial  •  CBC

Vancouver-based Maple Ventures Inc., which is hoping to redevelop the former golf course of Highland Park, is suing the City of Calgary for $113 million, alleging it hasn’t acted in good faith and rendered the land unusable for redevelopment.

Ottawa rejects developers’ plan in favour of Algonquins

Residential, Commercial  •  Ottawa Citizen  •  CBC  •  Ottawa Citizen

Councillors blindsided Claridge, Multivesco, Uniform and EQ Homes Tuesday by recommending removing high-scoring development land from inside a proposed urban boundary so the Algonquins of Ontario can build a major residential community on low-scoring development land in the rural east.

GTA subway could scuttle 1,200-unit housing project

Residential, Commercial  •  Toronto Star

The Ontario government’s $5.5 billion Scarborough subway plan could jeopardize a proposed development at 140 Grangeway Ave., where developer Gates of Scarborough Inc. had planned three residential towers between 31 and 53 storeys each. The development would have more than 1,200 units and ground-level retail.

Queen’s Park fast-tracks a new GTA freeway

Residential, Commercial  •  Toronto Star

Rene Vlahovic’s 85-acre farm in the north end of Vaughan includes fertile soil for growing soybeans. The province, however, sees it as prime real estate . . . for the GTA West Transportation Corridor, a four- to six-lane freeway and transit project.

Value: Weighed and Measured › The CRE sky hasn’t fallen; it’s time to look beyond the pandemic

John Clark: AACI, FRICS | Vice President, The Regional Group of Companies Inc.

CPP pulling funds out of Ontario nursing homes

Residential  •  Toronto Star  •  Toronto Star

CPP Investments is among at least two pension funds to divest millions from Ontario’s for-profit nursing homes, selling at a loss. The moves highlight ethical questions for seniors whose livelihoods rely on dividends from companies accused of scrimping on seniors.

Telus, Omicron propose $70M Nanaimo rental project

Residential  •  Victoria Times Colonist

Telus and partner Omicron are proposing a $70-million project with 197 rental units in Nanaimo’s Old City Quarter as public and private sector investment indicates the city’s construction sector is already shaping up to have another strong year.

Grocers grapple with rising COVID-19 cases

Commercial  •  Financial Post

Big-box grocery chains are reporting hundreds of COVID-19 infections among their employees this month, but the retailers say the high number of cases is just part of a larger trend as the general population grapples with the pandemic’s second wave.

Metro hikes dividend as Q1 sales jump 6.2%

Commercial  •  Toronto Star  •  Canada Newswire  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Montreal-based retailer Metro Inc. (MRU-T) has hiked its dividend payout to shareholders as grocery sales continue to surge during the COVID-19 pandemic. Metro reported on Tuesday that its first-quarter sales grew 6.2 per cent to $4.28 billion.

Clear Blue: off-grid power for wireless tech, IoT devices

BIZ  Energy, Commercial  •  Technology  •  National

Toronto’s Clear Blue Technologies offers off-grid technology which allows solar energy to not only power street lights, but IoT devices like security cameras, traffic lights and more. Founder Miriam Tuerk believes it can revolutionize how power is delivered.

Ivanhoé invests in German mixed-use project

Residential, Commercial  •  IPE Real Assets

Ivanhoé Cambridge has invested an undisclosed sum in Germany to buy a mixed-use building project. Ivanhoé said it has acquired Alte Post Quartier project in Neukölln, a borough in Berlin with Commodus as co-investor.

Abandoned Miami hospital finds new life as condos

Residential, Commercial, RENX Main  •  BDC Network

Real estate investment and development firm Lionheart Capital is turning the 1920s King Cole Hotel – which was first repurposed as the Miami Heart Institute – into the Ritz-Carlton Residences Miami in the largest residential adaptive reuse project in South Florida.

Working from home starting to fall apart: Bankers

Residential, Commercial  •  Financial Post

Senior bankers are sounding the alarm: working from home is at risk of not working anymore. “I don’t think it’s sustainable,” Barclays Plc CEO Jes Staley said Tuesday at the World Economic Forum. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Mary Erdoes agreed.

Nearly 20% of U.S. renters behind on their payments

Residential  •  CNBC

About 18% renters in America, or around 10 million people, were behind in their rent payments as of the beginning of the month, according to a new analysis from Moody’s Analytics and the Urban Institute.

Mortgage deferrals fall sharply; many resume payments

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Toronto Star  •  Victoria Times Colonist

The mortgage deferral cliff has flattened out. Canadian banks had 37,582 active mortgage deferrals on their books as of the end of December, or 0.8 per cent of their residential mortgages, according to the Canadian Bankers Association.

GTA condo sales, rentals surge, prices drop: TRREB

Residential  •  Toronto Star  •  Globe Newswire  •  Globe Newswire

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says condominium apartment sales and rentals in the region surged in Q4, while average selling and rental prices fell. There were 6,469 condominium apartment sales in the final three months of 2020, up 20.7 per cent year-over-year.

What $500,000 buys in today’s Canadian real estate market

Residential  •  Vancouver Sun

Depending on where you look, half a million dollars can buy a one bedroom-one bath condo or a five-bedroom, four-bathroom detached home. Such is the current Canadian housing market. Below, you’ll find homes near our selected $500K ceiling:

Average home prices in Canada 46% above U.S. levels: BMO

Residential  •  Toronto Storeys

In December, the seasonally adjusted average Canadian home price was $617,000, while the U.S. mean home price was roughly $420,000, newly released data from BMO Bank of Montreal is showing. That’s a gap of approximately 46 per cent.