Developer under investigation; condo buyers left in cold

Developer under investigation; condo buyers left in cold

Gary Janzen and his wife, Karen, have been living out of suitcases for 18 months. As he prepared this week to collect his summer clothes from a Pitt Meadows storage locker, he said: “This is getting a little old.” In April 2016, the Janzens signed an agreement to buy a condo in Murrayville House, a 92-unit development in Langley. They expected to move in that July.

Vancouver Sun – Business In Vancouver

Vaughan condo buyers considering legal options

Upset would-be condo owners in Vaughan are considering their legal options after their future homes were cancelled. “In real estate, time is your friend. We’ve lost two years and you can’t get that back,” says buyer Steve Fox. “Two years of investment time is gone.” The Cosmos Condo Developments, a residential project near the Vaughan TTC station, sold in 2016, was recently cancelled.

CityNews Toronto – Canada Newswire – Global News

Tricon sells 14-property Lifestyle Communities portfolio

Tricon Capital Group Inc. (TCN-T) continues to “simplify” its holdings, announcing on April 9 an agreement to sell the 14 manufactured housing communities in its Tricon Lifestyle Communities portfolio. Tricon did not identify the purchaser. Financial details were not immediately released. “The sale of our TLC manufactured housing communities portfolio represents the next meaningful step along our stated plan to simplify Tricon’s business,” president/CEO Gary Berman said in a release.

Property Biz Canada

SmartCentres’ Transit City Condos under construction

SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust  (SRU.UN-T) and the Penguin Group of Companies owned by Mitchell Goldhar announced Tuesday construction has begun on the first two towers of Transit City Condos  in partnership with CentreCourt. Located in SmartCentres Place, next to the new subway station in the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, Transit City Condos consists of three towers of 55 storeys each, totaling more than 1,700 units.

Globe Newswire – Property Biz Canada

Nearly half of existing mortgages face renewal in 2018: CIBC

Nearly half of all existing mortgages in Canada will need to be renewed this year, substantially more than in prior years, according to a new report, amid rising interest rates and new rules that make it tougher for some borrowers to shop around. A CIBC Capital Markets report suggests an estimated 47 per cent of all existing mortgages will need to be refinanced in 2018.

Victoria Times Colonist

Rental task force aims to reform B.C. tenancy laws

B.C. Premier John Horgan has appointed a rental task force, describing it as the first step to reforming B.C.’s tenancy laws to better protect renters and landlords. The three-person task force will spend the summer consulting with landlords, renters, interest groups and the public about the Residential Tenancy Act.

Victoria Times Colonist – National Post – CBC – Globe and Mail

Vancouver ‘renoviction’ tenant wins a round

The B.C. Supreme Court has given a reprieve to a Vancouver woman who claims she has been fighting a “renoviction” from her West End apartment. Vivian Baumann went to court after her new landlord gave her an eviction notice in July last year, telling her her one-bedroom suite needed to be vacated to carry out renovations.

Vancouver Province – Vancouver Province – Victoria Times Colonist

Home sales must be reported to CRA

The Canada Revenue Agency is getting tough with people who fail to comply with new rules requiring the routine sale of a home to be reported, even when there’s zero tax owing. If you don’t report the sale of a principal residence on your income tax return, you could be subject to a fine of as much as $8,000.

Globe and Mail

Toronto condo market heats up as rent hits $1,657

Condo rents in the Greater Toronto Area have gotten pricier as it becomes harder to find vacant units amid strong demand, according to new data from the Toronto Real Estate Board. The data, released Monday, revealed the average rent for a bachelor apartment surged to $1,657 in the first quarter of 2018, a 10-per-cent-increase from the $1,507 average a year earlier.  

BNN – Globe Newswire – Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Financial Post

March home sales volume plunges 22.7%

Canada’s real estate industry organization says the number of homes sold in March plunged 22.7 per cent and the national average price was down 10.4 per cent from the same month last year. The Canadian Real Estate Association says the sales activity marked a four-year low for the month of March and was seven per cent below the 10-year average.

Winnipeg Free Press – Newinhomes.com – CBC – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Toronto’s housing bubble cost sellers $136 million: Report

When the Toronto-area housing bubble burst last spring, 988 home owners lost $136 million in less than five months, according to a new study. That cost was borne by sellers caught in real estate transactions that didn’t close after property values began dropping last spring, says a new report on the fallout from the extradordinary rise and fall of the Toronto region’s recent housing market.

Toronto Star – Bloomberg – Maclean’s – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Canadians bit into home-equity lines of credit trap

Pamela Capraru’s long-term financial plan was overturned by a home renovation that went far over budget. Self-employed after being laid off several times from downsizing magazines, Capraru, 59, has absorbed three interest-rate increases by the Bank of Canada since July, maintaining her payments on the $70,000 outstanding on her home-equity line of credit, as well as a variable-rate mortgage and $41,000 in credit card debt.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Municipalities granted power over affordable development

The Province of Ontario recently announced new inclusionary zoning bylaws in an effort to build a greater number of affordable housing units. The new regulations give municipalities the power to mandate how many affordable units a new residential development should have, how long the units will remain affordable, and determine if the affordable units can be built on another site if necessary.

Newinhomes.com

Builders take a gamble on Rockcliffe Park site

It’s not often a piece of real estate in Ottawa’s exclusive Rockcliffe neighbourhood is up for sale. So when 580 Mariposa Ave. hit the market at about $1 million, two local builders jumped at the opportunity.It was a gamble, they’ll admit, but it has good odds. Daniel Ladouceur and Michael DePalo are co-owners of Novera Homes, a high-end custom homebuilder.

Ottawa Citizen

Old Domtar site no brownfield of dreams for Edmontonians

It’s a cold spring afternoon in Verte Homesteader, a new subdivision in northeast Edmonton. The streets are full of 150 handsome houses, some still under construction. It’s a walkable neighbourhood with a new playground in its centre. It’s all a picture of suburban infill bliss. And that’s what the people who bought homes here — for between $400,000 and $500,000 — were promised.

Edmonton Journal

RENX Columnists

Hot housing markets suffer corrections . . . always

Lemmings get a bum rap. The cute little Arctic rodents don’t jump into the sea in a fit of mass suicide. They can swim. The problem is when they try to swim too far. Reaching too far to buy into an overheated housing market isn’t much different. Just take a look at Toronto. The year in residential real estate has started with a whimper – sales are down more than 35 per cent year over year.

Read more

Market Conditions

Condo prices drop 10% in Regina: Royal LePage

The median price of a condo in Regina has dropped 10 per cent year-over-year to $228,360. That’s largely because of overbuilding, according to a news release from Royal LePage Regina Realty. Government incentives around building rental units led to many new buildings. Royal LePage said the aggregate price of a home in Regina decreased in this first quarter of 2018 by 1.0 per cent year-over-year to $329,727.

CBC

B.C. sales plummet, but not prices

Home sales in B.C. plummeted last month compared with March 2017, but the British Columbia Real Estate Association says the decline was not reflected in prices. Sales figures released by the association for March show 7,409 homes changed hands last month, a decline of 24.6 per cent over March 2017, while average property prices climbed 5.3 per cent over the same period.

Vancouver Sun – Business In Vancouver – Globe and Mail

Apartments, condominiums power Victoria market: CMHC

Greater Victoria’s strong housing market continues to spur development, especially for rental apartments and condominiums. “Housing starts in Metro Victoria appear to be moving in different directions with single-detached and apartment units diverging,” Braden Batch, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. senior market analyst, said Tuesday.

Victoria Times Colonist

U.S. fell 7.3 million units behind housing demand

From 2000 to 2015, the U.S. fell 7.3 million units short of meeting housing demand, according to new research from the Up for Growth National Coalition, ECONorthwest, and Holland Government Affairs.  Housing Underproduction in the U.S. details the depth and breadth of the housing crisis by focusing on the 22 states and Washington, DC that failed to meet their historic housing production demand.

Globe Newswire

Mortgage and Finance

New mortgage rules tightened Q1 household lending: B of C

New mortgage underwriting rules contributed to tighter lending conditions for households in the first quarter of 2018, according to the Bank of Canada’s survey of financial institutions. The central bank’s quarterly questionnaire of lending conditions had historically focused on business loans but, after a year of collecting data, the results have now been expanded to include household lending as well.

Regina Leader-Post

Seniors Housing

Architect finds purpose in providing quality seniors’ homes

As a young boy growing up in southwest Germany, Rainer Müller, founder and chairman of Parc Retirement Living, remembers gaining his first industry knowledge by shadowing his father. His father, an architect and property manager, died when Müller was in his teens, leaving him with valuable experience but also with uncertainty about how to translate those attributes into a career.

Business In Vancouver

Taxes and Utilities

Vancouver auditing empty homes declarations

The City of Vancouver last week began auditing declarations it has received from homeowners ahead of the deadline for payment of its new empty homes tax. It has been asking owners for documents to support claims their homes are not being left unoccupied or under-utilized, even though the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for B.C. says it is still reviewing the audit portion of the program.

Vancouver Sun – Western Investor – Business In Vancouver

Montreal ditching ‘Welcome Tax’ for new families

Montreal is attempting to curb the exodus of young families by tempting them to buy in the city in exchange for a $5,000 tax break. The initiative, which reimburses the so-called “Welcome Tax,” was announced Wednesday. It was one of Projet Montréal’s main campaign promises. The move is part of an updated housing program launched to encourage young families to buy property and stay in the city.

CBC

Legal Issues

Adult-only condo age restrictions removed in Alberta

Whether you are an empty nester looking to downsize, or a senior desiring to living with similarly aged people, a criteria in your condominium or apartment hunting may be that the building is age restricted. In other words, you might desire to live in a building that only permits owners and occupants of a certain age. Up until January 2018, age restrictions were permitted in the province of Alberta.

The Lawyer’s Daily

Construction

Ottawa councillor raises new home building code concerns

The City of Ottawa is suffering from a shortage of building code inspectors, raising concerns about the quality of new homes built in the city’s rapidly expanding suburbs. The city needs eight more building inspectors to fill existing vacancies, which amount to about 10 per cent of the team of people whose job it is to make sure all new buildings in Ottawa are safe.

CBC

U.S. builders’ optimism slides for fourth consecutive month

Homebuilder confidence slid for the fourth consecutive month with steadily rising mortgage rates and sky-high home prices putting ownership out of reach for more and more Americans. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index for April, released Monday, fell one point to 69.

Winnipeg Free Press

Affordable Housing

Vancouver has worst affordability ever recorded in Canada: RBC

A Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) study released this month ranks Vancouver’s housing market as the least affordable for any regional market ever recorded in Canada. The costs of owning a home at today’s prices would have represented an astounding 85.2 per cent of a typical household’s income in the fourth quarter, the bank said in its Housing Trends and Affordability report.

Business In Vancouver

Buying and Selling

40% of Quebec homebuyers would do things differently

One in four Quebecers who purchase a home had an unexpected issue with their property within five years, according to a survey released by insurance company Allstate (ALL-N) on Tuesday. Seven per cent of survey respondents who had a problem had to pay between $1,500 and $5,000 to deal with it, while five per cent had issues that cost more than $10,000 to repair.

Montreal Gazette

The 10 priciest home listings in Metro Vancouver

Vancouver Sun

Other

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