Harbourfront’s drab towers go contemporary

Harbourfront’s drab towers go contemporary

Once maligned as among the worst examples of a concrete curtain dividing Toronto from Lake Ontario, the residences at the Maple Leaf Quay complex have gotten a facelift. In the last year, the ’80s-built towers at 350 and 390 Queens Quay have been overhauled from drab, puke-coloured edifices to contemporary-looking buildings painted in shades of grey with red accents.

Toronto Star

GTA builders usher in the era of wood

The GTA’s first six-storey wood residential projects are just months away from construction. One of the first six-storey wood buildings expected this summer is Heartwood the Beach. In Toronto’s Beaches neighbourhood, it is a partnership of BILD members Fieldgate Urban and Hullmark Developments and is designed by Quadrangle Architects in collaboration with Moses Structural Engineers.

Toronto Star – Newinhomes.com

Resort Owners Group Uber for vacation homes

Every year, vacation homeowners’ second-biggest asset is sitting empty for 44 weeks, or nearly 85 per cent of the time, based on average industry figures. Toronto-based resort industry veteran Gary Carter wants to change all that. Resort Owners Group (ROG) has developed an ownership model he claims offers the attributes of both whole ownership and factional ownership to resort property owners.

Property Biz Canada

Builders shrug off Winnipeg’s fee-wheeling mayor

A trial balloon floated by Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman has exposed a major gap between the city and property developers in determining who pays for infrastructure in new neighbourhoods. Bowman said fees levied against developments in new neighbourhoods could help pay for the cost of extending roads, water mains, sewers and other services.

Winnipeg Free Press – CTV News

What do developers want in an emerging market?

Trumark Urban, known for pioneering emerging neighbourhoods and developing icons that set a new cultural tone, has developed multi-family and condo projects in San Francisco and is currently working on Ten50, a condo development in downtown Los Angeles. But, developing in these emerging markets takes community engagement, awareness and partnerships for success, managing director Arden Hearing said.

Globest.com

Housing market to lift economic growth in 2016: Poll

Canada’s housing market will be a net contributor to economic growth in 2016, impelled by rising prices, but become a drag soon after due to a slowdown in buying and high levels of household debt, a Reuters poll has found. Boosted by borrowing costs near record lows, the housing market has been one of the brightest spots in Canada’s recovery since the global financial crisis.

Reuters – BNN.ca

‘Conceal’ estate in TO, Vancouver costing Canadians?

The latest attraction in London is the Kleptocracy Tour, organized by anti-corruption groups. They drive customers through neighborhoods that have become the world’s most expensive square footage, thanks to the flood of dirty money bidding up real estate values. The tour is interesting because the Britons more or less know who owns what because their press is vigilant.

Financial Post – Financial Post

Canadians seek government intervention in market

Two-thirds of Canadians included in a recent poll said the government should get more involved in the housing market to ensure the system is fair. That’s one of the main conclusions of a report released Friday by the Angus Reid Institute, based on the opinions of a representative randomized sample of 5,867 Canadians.

CBC News – Vancouver Sun – Edmonton Journal – Vancouver Province

Residential rental market picking up: Altus

As pension funds and other big investors seek new, reliable income streams, purpose-build rental is at levels not seen in two decades. But all that new property entering the market has come at a price: Vacancy rates have risen to levels not seen in nearly 17 years as builders ramp up the supply of new units, says Altus Group.

Financial Post – Vancouver Province

Richmond company banning shadow-flipping

A Richmond real estate company is enforcing a no-shadow-flipping policy in response to recent allegations agents are engaging in the controversial practice. “We owe our clients the best that we can give them,” Metro Edge Realty CEO Kevin Lynch said. “Our policy is basically saying that, as a company, we will not allow internal flipping of this nature.”

Vancouver Sun – Business In Vancouver – Globe and Mail – Toronto Star

Vancouver Island attracts bargain-hunters

Three times a week Neil Valsangkar escapes Canada’s most expensive real estate market by paying $100 for a 20 minute float plane ride to his Vancouver office from his home across the Salish Sea. The 50-kilometre aerial commute allows the father of three to live in Nanaimo, where homes cost about a quarter of those in Vancouver.

Bloomberg – Victoria Times Colonist

Urbanization trend in B.C. can only intensify

A weak currency and slumping global commodity prices are indirectly contributing to a rush on Lower Mainland real estate. The two forces are aggravating a pre-existing situation of too many buyers and renters chasing too few housing units. The lower the dollar drops, the more of a fire sale residential property becomes for foreign investors.

Vancouver Sun – Vancouver Sun

Designers rethink and rebuild the family home

Like a growing number of Canadians approaching retirement, Lloyd Alter and wife Kelly Rossiter have taken a creative approach to the architecture of the “empty nest.” Rapidly rising housing prices – particularly in Toronto and Vancouver – are squeezing the middle-class expectation of home ownership for young adults. Rather than moving house, why not reshape our houses to fit us?

Globe and Mail

U.S. apartment-building boom appears set to ease

Apartment construction has been a bright spot in an otherwise lacklustre recovery of the United States’ housing market over the last six years. Now economists say the tide might be turning away from apartments and toward single-family homes.

Wall Street Journal – Seattle Times – CoStar Group

Multi-family deals get riskier: Trion

The multi-family market is becoming increasingly tighter, with more and more new investors showing up to the party and plenty of capital chasing deals. Max Sharkansky, managing partner at Trion Properties, says the multi-family market is becoming “difficult” and has seen first-hand some of the questionable risks investors are taking in the market.

Globest.com – Globest.com – Globest.com – World Property Journal

RENX Columnists

Are we at risk of becoming tenants in Canada?

Canada is on sale. How could it not be, given the slump in the value of the loonie? But what happens if the buyers lining up at the door want to clean out the store, then buy it, too?

Read more

Market Conditions

U.S. housing expected to outperform in 2016

The real-estate crash preceded the great recession and a turnaround has been a long time in the making, but it is here, according to most observers. Irvine, Calif.-based analytics firm CoreLogic Inc., in its 2016 U.S. housing outlook, forecasts higher but still manageable rates for home owners, pent-up demand (first in rental) from increasing family formation, and an increase in home prices.

Globe and Mail

The world’s most expensive streets

PHOTO GALLERY: High ceilings. Covered terraces. Pools overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. These are just a few features you find at homes on the world’s most expensive streets. And at prices that most of us can only imagine affording. In 2013, U.K.-based real estate firm Knight Frank set out to rank the world’s most expensive streets by looking at how much properties cost per square metre.

Huffington Post

Latest reports:

* Winnipeg condo prices, RBC Housing Trends and Affordability report, Winnipeg Free Press

* Calgary, Calgary Real Estate Board, Calgary Herald

* Airdrie and Cochrane, Calgary Real Estate Board, Calgary Herald

* U.S. pending home sales, National Association of Realtors, Winnipeg Free Press

* Annual U.S. and Canadian city housing starts, Daily Commercial News, Daily Commercial News

RENX Market Summaries

Mortgage and Finance

U.S. 30-year mortgage rate falls

Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week as anxiety over the global economy persisted. Long-term rates resumed their decline after being unchanged last week following six straight weeks of easing. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage slipped to 3.62 per cent from 3.65 per cent last week.

Winnipeg Free Press

New Developments

Handling of Winnipeg projects raises allegations

Allegations of political interference in the City of Winnipeg’s planning department have resurfaced after revelations a luxury condominium project was approved when a similar development for a nonprofit life-lease project was rejected. Proponents for the life-lease project said they remain puzzled as to why city planners rejected their project but approved amendments for a nearby luxury condo project.

Winnipeg Free Press

Ventura unveils new Winnipeg condo plans

Buoyed by the success of its first condominium project in the Osborne Village-Cresentwood area, a local developer is moving ahead with at least two more over the next couple of years. Next up for Winnipeg-based Ventura Developments Ltd. is a four-storey, 48-unit development to be called the 24Seven Condos after the address (247 River Ave.).

Winnipeg Free Press – Winnipeg Free Press

Controversial Ottawa subdivision gets go-ahead

The City of Ottawa’s planning committee has paved the way for a 400-home subdivision in Stittsville, but took steps to ease concerns of nearby residents. The committee approved plans for Minto Homes’ Potter’s Key subdivision with three amendments, including the construction of a temporary road aimed at keeping construction vehicles away from surrounding residential streets. 

CBC News – Ottawa Business Journal

Renovation, Repair and Maintenance

Toronto house that sold well over asking torn down

The humble Willowdale bungalow that sold for more than $400,000 above asking four years ago has buckled under the force of an advancing bulldozer. Standing in its place is a large, two-storey wood frame surrounded by construction fencing. The property became a symbol of the ferocity of bidding wars in 2012, when it drew 18 offers and sold for $1,180,800.

Globe and Mail

Historic Philadelphia school converted to apartments

Colliers International Capital Markets has arranged $24 million in financing for the acquisition and redevelopment of the shuttered West Philadelphia High School, which spreads across an entire block. The historic 442,200-square-foot, four-storey building, which dates back to 1911, will be converted into a 298-unit multi-family community.

Multi-Housing News

Taxes and Utilities

Do Americans pay tax when they sell Canadian house?

VIDEO: Certified accountant Wayne Bewick says it all depends on gains on the property and the currency rate.

Globe and Mail

Natural Disasters

Insurance Bureau pushes for national flood plan

The Insurance Bureau of Canada is calling for the establishment of a national flood plan that would see government subsidize an insurance program for high-risk residential properties. The industry association’s president, Don Forgeron, said there are between 800,000 and a million homes in Canada considered at high risk for flooding.

CBC News

Architect’s stilt homes face resistance

Floods are the most common natural disasters in Canada, the most costly to homeowners and the most devastating to communities. Now one Calgary architect, Kishan Gajjar, is planning a flood-proof showhome to showcase innovative architectural design built to withstand rising water levels.  The plans were submitted and subsequently rejected in a letter from the Minister for Municipal Affairs.

Globe and Mail

First Nations negotiating flooding settlement

Negotiations could soon trump a court case that has dragged on for nearly a quarter-century in obscurity, one that could see three Manitoba Cree bands get millions in flood compensation. Last month, lawyers for the three First Nations proposed a settlement process to Canada’s lawyers. Lawyers for Justice Canada are considering the settlement process proposal.

Winnipeg Free Press

Beauceville flood victims return home to mop up

About 200 Beauceville, Que., residents are returning after flooding forced them to flee their homes, but the cleanup is only just beginning for many. An ice jam caused the Chaudière River to overflow, flooding the town 90 kilometres south of Quebec City.  Residents were awakened in the middle of the night and forced to leave their homes for safety. 

CBC News – Montreal Gazette

Legal Issues

Ontario brokers allegedly lied to investors

A mortgage broker allegedly used fraudulent documents to help arrange numerous loans, then pocketed anywhere from 10 to 50 per cent of the borrowed amounts. Another broker was accused of lying to a pair of investors, telling them the $1.5 million private mortgage they were funding was the first loan on the property, when in fact it was the second.

Financial Post

Construction

B.C. brothers taking ‘Lego’ homes to U.S.

Two years after moving to Okanagan Falls, B.C., from Calgary, the aspirations of brothers Kurt and Kris Goodjohn are beginning to be realized. The pair co-founded Karoleena Inc., a manufacturer of modular prefabricated homes and cottages, in 2006. Kurt Goodjohn likens the components that make up the company’s modernist, energy-efficient houses to big Lego blocks.

Globe and Mail

Home born in a wind tunnel melds efficiency with design

Testing a house in a wind tunnel seems about as logical as buying an aerodynamic toaster. But here, squarely in the middle of that thin strip of land separating Lake Ontario and Lake Erie near Smithville, air moves quickly. Today, it’s whipping the blades of distant turbines into a controlled frenzy, reddening the cheeks of architects Alex Temporale and Mark Driedger.

Globe and Mai

Affordable Housing

Vancouver, TO housing ‘dangerously unaffordable’: RBC

Housing in Canada remains affordable — unless you want a single-family detached home in Toronto or Vancouver, according to the Housing Trends and Affordability Report. There’s been a marked erosion of affordability in Vancouver and Toronto, where housing is approaching the “dangerously unaffordable” level, according RBC economists. That situation is likely to continue as long as mortgage rates remain low.

CBC News – Globe and Mail – Newinhomes.com – Regina Leader-Post

Several cities aid homebuyers

Homes may be astoundingly expensive in Vancouver, but they’re pretty pricey in other North America cities as well. While tax breaks and incentives for homebuyers can be found at provincial, state and federal levels, some local governments have found their own ways to chip in. Here’s a snapshot of some of the ways municipalities are helping out:

Vancouver Sun – The Guardian – The Guardian

Calgary hotel transformed for Syrian refugees

A toddler eagerly explores the lobby of a Calgary hotel with her older brothers as their parents and grandma wait for the plastic keys to their first temporary home in Canada. Hotel key cards in hand, the family soon carries their few possessions down a dimly lit hallway to a small room with two tidy beds.

Calgary Herald – Global News

Lack of U.S. land thwarts affordable housing

While one of the obstacles to developing affordable housing is the difficulty in securing funding, by far the biggest obstacle is the lack of available land, Jamboree Housing’s president Laura Archuleta tells GlobeSt.com. Jamboree and the Garden Grove United Methodist Church recently broke ground on Wesley Village, an innovative, multi-use urban campus in Garden Grove, Calif.

Globest.com

Small houses

‘Micro-boutique’ apartments coming to St. John’s

A developer hopes tiny living catches on in a big way in downtown St. John’s. “They’re a new form of housing, spreading like wildfire across North America,” said Chris Galea, president of Micro Boutique Living. “All our buildings are located in the downtown core, at much more affordable prices because the units are smaller.”

CBC News

Woman creates tiny NYC apartment

A woman in New York City took a 78-square foot space and turned into an amazing half-bedroom apartment. Jen Chu, an interior decorator and art direction specialist with experience in television, was able to make an impressively small space into an elegant living space. She makes the most of her limited space, putting an eclectic array of items on the shelves and storing things under the bed.

Buzzvine

Buying and Selling

Vancouver home sells in record-breaking deal

It’s another first for Vancouver’s crazy real estate market. A Kitsilano house on a standard city lot sold last week for $4.23 million. It is the highest sale price to date for a 33-by-120-foot lot in the west-side community, listing agent Brandan Price confirmed Thursday. The buyer paid $735,000 more than the asking price of $3.495 million.

Financial Post – Financial Post – Globe and Mail – Vancouver Sun

Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch on the block

If you’ve got $100 million, you’re in luck. Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch is for sale and that price includes not only the scenic 2,700-acre estate, located in Los Olivos in California’s Santa Ynez Valley and all of the live-in memorabilia.

National Post

Big Fat Deal: Swish subterranean Southlands abode

Address: 6128 Glendalough Place, Vancouver
Price: $6,900,000
MLS: R2034299
The skinny: Four-bedroom, four-bathroom, 6,621-square-foot house on a 16,770-square-foot lot in Southlands.
The bling: From the street it’s almost invisible; at the rear, it’s banked by trees. Inside, though mod-conned in all departments, it is curiously low slung, giving off that oh-so-familiar basement-like feel — just in a super luxe, stylishly swish version.

BC Business

Other