40-storey tower planned for Portage and Main

40-storey tower planned for Portage and Main

Portage and Main, the symbolic heart of Winnipeg, may be about to get a shot of adrenalin that should quicken the pulse of the whole downtown. Winnipeg-based Artis REIT (AX.UN-T) is said to be in the late stages of planning a towering rental residence right next door to the nearly four-decades-old 360 Main, Winnipeg’s tallest office building.

Winnipeg Free Press

Saskatoon headed for ‘apartment renaissance’?

A confluence of factors affecting Saskatoon’s rental market suggest the city could be on the verge of an “apartment renaissance,” according to a new report from Colliers International. Between 1990 and 2008, the condominium conversion boom caused the number of rental units in the city to fall below 14,000 from a peak of about 19,000.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Plenty of blame to go around in real estate crisis

History will not be kind to the political leadership in this country that has mostly watched, hands in pockets, as the hyperinflation we are witnessing in Metro Vancouver’s real estate market destroys the home-ownership dreams of more and more of the young and middle class. Until recently, the British Columbia government refused to recognize there was even a problem.

Globe and Mail – MoneySense – CBC News – Vancouver Sun

Vancouver board increases fines for unethical realtors

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver has increased the maximum fines it can impose on unethical realtors to $30,000 from $10,000. The new rules, ratified at the annual general meeting of the professional association, allow fines to individual agents, managing brokers and their firms or all three at once, up to $90,000 in total.

Vancouver Sun – Globe and Mail – CBC News – Vancouver Sun

Are millennials still interested in buying homes?

Canada is in the midst of a rental housing boom, every major city is building at near-record-level highs. As of February 2016, there were 2,307 rental units under construction in Calgary, compared to the 20-year average of 359 between 1995 and 2014.

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GTA housing developers targeting golf courses

For years, golf courses were seen as an assurance there would always be green space nearby. And many residents say they paid a premium to have their home back onto pristine green space. But in recent years, the hot housing market — and a downswing in the number of new golfers — has turned sprawling GTA golf courses into lucrative real estate investments.

Toronto Star

Condo developers boost ‘sharing’ features

The changing values and spending habits of millennials have been driving the emergence of a collaborative or sharing economy for years. With the first-time-buyer generation leading the trend, condo developers are incorporating sharing features into developments in a bid to entice young, seasoned collaborators.

Globe and Mail

Real estate crowdfunding goes residential

Crowdfunding has arrived in the Toronto residential real estate market, but while these deals have the potential to be lucrative for investors, they’re not without risk. “I think there’s a lot of interest with individual investors with residential real estate given what’s happening in Toronto and Vancouver markets, specifically,” said Hitesh Rathod, NexusCrowd Inc. CEO.

Globe and Mail

Bosleys weathered ups and downs of business

The artifacts of a nearly century-old family firm decorate Thomas Bosley’s real estate headquarters in Davisville Village. There’s a portrait of a venerable looking William H. Bosley, the company’s founder, framed pictures of the sons and grandson who followed in his footsteps, and the vintage shingle that announced the firm’s birth in 1928.

Toronto Star

Developer comes to the aid of condo buyers

When Edmonton businessman George Cantalini bought out the failed Glenora Skyline condo project in 2015, he discovered something unexpected. The Glenora Skyline Development Corp. had stopped construction in 2014 of the planned four-tower residential development. It also couldn’t pay its debts to numerous suppliers, contractors and condo buyers.

Edmonton Journal

Judge to be compensated for Montreal real-estate woes

Another Supreme Court justice is getting an extension of the housing allowances they are entitled to because of “unfavourable conditions in the housing market” in Montreal. Justice Clément Gascon was appointed to the Supreme Court by Stephen Harper on June 9, 2014, to fill one of the Quebec seats on the high court.

Globe and Mail

Fewer snowbirds buying S. California homes

Canadians are no longer flocking to California’s sunny Coachella Valley to buy homes since their currency has weakened, and many are putting properties they own up for sale, real estate experts said. The move coincides with a decline in the Canadian dollar since oil prices have plummeted, the Desert Sun newspaper reported Saturday.

Montreal Gazette

The impact of aging multi-family stock

With the ever-changing landscape of debt and equity sources, market competition for multi-family assets remains strong, placing pressure on borrowers to include sufficient capital reserves in their underwriting models and solidify their offerings. Building stock that was constructed more than 20 years ago must account for a variety of additional maintenance and repair issues.

National Real Estate Investor

U.S. apartment renewals at 10-year high

February’s renewal rate among apartment tenants was the highest nationally in 10-years, MPF Research says. The increasing renewal rate, with 55.1 per cent of renters choosing to re-up last month, comes even as rents continue increasing and more new product becomes available.

Globest.com – Globest.com – Property Biz Canada – Philadelphia Business Journal

19 million U.S. renters used to be homeowners

House prices may have recovered from the mortgage-lending debacle of the 2000s, but millions of people who lived through the mess still have a long way to go. A new report from the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center offers a valuable glimpse at what has happened to the U.S. population’s housing and credit status since the turn of the century.

Bloomberg – Fortune – Bloomberg

RENX Columnists

The MPAC deadline: Pay attention now, or pay me later

Commercial landlords in Ontario, don’t forget the return you’re expected to file by March 31, the 2016 Property Income and Expense Return, for MPAC.

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Your neighbourhood: Keeping mom and pop shops happy

Everyone wants to discover that hidden gem in their neighbourhood. Visiting a certain store or restaurant that just has that something special be it comfort food, nostalgia, or price point.

Read more

Market Conditions

Mexicans spending more on U.S. real estate

Mexico ranked fourth, after China, Canada and India, in international purchases of U.S. residential real estate in the year ending March 2015, according to the National Association of Realtors. Individual Mexican buyers spent a combined $4.9 billion on real estate over the 12 months, accounting for approximately nine per cent of all U.S. sales to international buyers.

Forbes

U.S. pending home sales hit seven-month high

Contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes rose sharply in February, reversing the previous month’s deep decline, as the volatility of the data continues to make it difficult to parse the strength of the housing market. The National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index rose 3.5 per cent to 109.1 last month.

Reuters – Buzzbuzzhome.com

Antidote to dollar crunch fanning Egypt’s housing boom

Good news keeps coming for Hisham Naguib and his sales team at Cairo-based real-estate company Mountain View. With apartments already snapped up long before they’re built, last week’s devaluation of the Egyptian pound looks set to boost demand even further.

Bloomberg

Newest trend in luxury real estate is walls

For Wendy Maitland, Town Residential’s president of sales, an Oscar-winning director client of hers was a typical real estate shopper with typical requests. He had a seven-figure budget and was keen to buy into one of the many new luxury condo complexes sprouting around Manhattan. The client was downsizing from a huge country house in Connecticut.

Bloomberg

Latest reports:

* GTA, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Globe and Mail

* GTA new homes, Altus Group, Toronto Star

* Thunder Bay, RE/MAX First Choice, Net Newsledger

* Calgary, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., Calgary Herald, Calgary Herald

* Vancouver, Snapstats, CBC News, Vancouver Sun

* Canadian housing prices, Globe and Mail

* South Florida, InsideClimate News, PRI 

* Manhattan, Real Capital Analytics, The Real Deal

* Seattle, MarketWatch

* U.S. home prices, S&P/Case Shiller composite index, Reuters, Winnipeg Free Press

* U.S. new home sales, Commerce Department, Reuters

* China, Sputnik International

RENX Market Summaries

Mortgage and Finance

Bank of England tightens buy-to-let mortgages

Britain’s European Union referendum could push up credit costs and weaken sterling more, the Bank of England warned Tuesday, as it moved to bolster banks’ risk buffers and slow a boom in lending to landlords. The bank said the outlook for financial stability had worsened since its last report in November, saying a rebound in Chinese lending was “concerning.”

Reuters – The Guardian

Renovation, Repair and Maintenance

Potential demolition of Vancouver mansion decried

The potential demolition of a Vancouver mansion built almost a century ago to showcase the modern joys of living with electricity is an appalling example of how the real estate boom is endangering the city’s architectural heritage, advocates say. The house, built in 1922, is listed at $7.38 million – almost $2 million more than its latest assessment.

Globe and Mail – – Vancouver Sun

Taxes and Utilities

Fee for land transfer registration tax on a tax

Last week the City of Toronto and Teranet, the administrator of the provincial land registration system, announced a new $84.75 tax on registration of every land transfer in the city. The move, effective April 1, is to cover the cost of collecting the municipal land transfer tax on the registration of all title transfers.

Toronto Star

Construction

Edmonton home buiders optimistic

A downturn in the economy hasn’t put a damper on Edmonton’s home building sector. Provincial housing starts are expected to decline in 2016 before gradually rising in 2017. “I think our members are doing just fine,” said Canadian Home Builders’ Association – Edmonton Region president Steve Ruggiero.

Edmonton Journal – Edmonton Journal

Affordable Housing

Convert remand centre into affordable housing: Procura

Edmonton’s former remand centre should be turned into affordable housing, says George Schluessel, president and CEO of Calgary-based Procura.  “It’s a real disappointment as a developer to see that Edmonton would consider tearing that building down to make another brownfield,” said Schluessel.  “It should be affordable housing. You have so many homeless people.”

Edmonton Journal

Nine per cent of U.S. markets less affordable than norm

RealtyTrac‘s Q1 2016 Home Affordability Index shows nine per cent of U.S. county housing markets were less affordable than their historically normal levels in Q1 2016, up from two per cent of markets that exceeded historic home affordability levels a year ago.

Marketwired

B.C. heritage houses find new life in U.S.

As the Victoria-area housing market heats up, their small-character houses are coming down due to the demand for bigger, newer houses. Developers and incoming buyers, flush with money, are targeting the historic municipality of Oak Bay. The old houses, considered rubbish to many, have become American treasure.

Globe and Mail

Pre-fab apartment turns offices into affordable housing

In an old commercial building in Rotterdam, a former office will spend the next few months as the testing ground for a new type of temporary apartment. A simple square kit called the Hub — with a built-in kitchen, shower, and toilet, along with heat, a sound system, and Internet — can be installed in any abandoned space.

Co.Exist

Small houses

Vancouver couple vacates condo for van

Two gainfully employed millennials and two dogs living in a van in East Vancouver sounds a bit like a parody of the city’s out-of-control housing market, but for Sarah Porco and her partner Tyler Archibald, it works. The couple had been renting a condo in Mount Pleasant, but seven months ago they decided to downsize.

CTV News

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

Ottawa subdivision gives rise to height debate

A 24-hectare plot of land in West Ottawa will officially be home to a controversial 400-unit subdivision. But the development discussion has given rise to another debate: building heights in suburban-versus-urban wards. At the last council meeting, councillors voted in favour of the Potter’s Key development on the condition only single-family homes can back on to existing single-family homes.

Ottawa Business Journal

Community leagues push for higher fines

Slack builders will have to up their game this summer if Edmonton follows through on a set of dramatically higher fines going to a public hearing. Some neighbours think city bylaw officers should lay on the fines more quickly, too. Council will vote April 4 on the new set of fines.

Edmonton Journal

Airbnb’s popularity has cities on edge

Until a couple of months ago, the residents of Vancouver’s Alexander Row didn’t know much about Airbnb. Charlene Brooks, who owns one of six row houses, was surprised to learn Vancouver’s bylaws forbid rentals shorter than a month without a hotel or bed and breakfast licence, and felt little was being done to enforce the rules. 

Vancouver Sun

Winnipeg’s population projection ridiculously optimistic

Over the past few years, Mayor Brian Bowman and Premier Greg Selinger have spoken about growing Winnipeg’s population to one million people. If this is their goal, they better start having more children. Based on current population-growth rates, City of Winnipeg number crunchers expect the municipality to grow to one million people around 2046.

Winnipeg Free Press

Buying and Selling

Black’s mansion sells for bargain price

Conrad Black’s Bridle Path mansion apparently sold for $5 million less than its estimated value. According to a posting on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) website, the home, which rests on 6.6 acres of property, was sold to an undisclosed buyer for $16.5 million — far less than the listed $21.8-million price tag.

Toronto Star – Ottawa Citizen – Globe and Mail

Ecosystem bylaw said to destroy property values

A controversial bylaw meant to protect “ecologically sensitive” areas in Saanich has been too broadly applied, by over-zealous district staff bent on protecting every native plant, every creature, or so goes the complaint from livid homeowners. One Saanich couple claim they are no longer permitted to cut their own grass.

Vancouver Province

The vulnerability of sales reps’ commissions

The suspension of Exit Realty on the Rock’s real estate licence on Feb. 4, which forced the St. John’s company into receivership, and the ensuing investigation by both the provincial Office of the Superintendent of Real Estate and Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, highlights the vulnerability of sales reps’ commissions.

REM.online

How to buy a private island

VIDEO: Many people dream of having their own piece of paradise. Chris Krolow, founder and chief executive officer of Private Islands Inc. discusses the business of buying and selling private islands, and showcases a few private islands for sale right here in Canada.

Globe and Mail

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