Mortgage rates may finally be bottoming out

Mortgage rates may finally be bottoming out

The average price of a home across the country continued to climb in 2016 but any savings Canadians are getting from mortgage rates are getting smaller, according to a new survey. Mortgage Professionals Canada, the national mortgage broker channel association, said in a report out Thursday the average homeowner mortgage interest rate was 3.02 per cent this year, down from 3.07 per cent a year ago. 

Financial Post

A housing-affordability crisis? Not so fast

It is widely accepted that in Canada the affordability of home ownership has deteriorated sharply in recent times. That is just partly true. There are two ways that we should look at affordability: first, how much of a down payment is required, and second, how much does it cost to live in an owner-occupied home?

Globe and Mail

Canadian apartment sector still looking good

Canada hasn’t seen a surge in apartment construction like the one it’s experiencing now since the 1960s, and five major players speaking at the Toronto Real Estate Forum expect a continued strong performance for the purpose-built rental sector for the next few years. “People left the rental market for lower interest rates in home-buying in the ‘90s, and it became really rough in the 2000s,” said CAPREIT chief operating officer Mark Kenney

Property Biz Canada

Developer blazes trail for inclusive design

EdgeCorp Developments Ltd. is being called “a champion” for including as many as 12 suites with accessibility features in the 60-unit condominium complex being built on the site of the former Palomino Club. “As far as I know, there is nobody who is not government-funded that is doing this,” said Marnie Courage, director and inclusive design consultant with Enabling Access Inc.

Winnipeg Free Press

Calgary’s Kensington Road Legion partners with developer

Legion Branch No. 264 on Calgary’s Kensington Road is the latest branch of Canada’s largest veteran support service to secure its long-term future by monetizing valuable land assets thanks to a unique partnership with Truman Homes. The project team involved says partnerships between asset rich non-profits and developers are viable and valuable to both parties.

Globe and Mail

Edmonton condo development continues despite economic woes

Many players in the housing industry have been impacted by Alberta’s economic slowdown, but Edmonton condominium developers, in particular, have taken it on the chin amid the cutbacks and job losses. Both new and pre-existing condominium sales are down this year. The Realtors Association of Edmonton said that average selling prices for condos fell 4.75 per cent year-over-year in November, dipping to an average of $241,569.

Edmonton Journal

Airbnb hits legal snag in Ottawa condo court case

Condo owners across the province could find it more difficult to rent out their units for short periods using services such as Airbnb following a landmark court ruling involving an Ottawa condominium corporation. A local Ontario Superior Court judge found that Airbnb operators were essentially running a business out of their residential dwellings.

Ottawa Business Journal

Toronto house prices climb more than 22%

The Toronto-area real estate market continued to see strong sales volumes and higher prices in November. The Toronto Real Estate Board says there were 8,547 sales through its system last month, up 16.5 per cent from November 2015. The average selling price for all types of housing was $776,684, up 22.7 per cent over the same time last year.

Toronto Star – Globe and Mail

Harvey Kalles on what it takes to stand alone

There’s no for sale sign in front of the offices of Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd. but that doesn’t stop the offers from coming in for the independent brokerage. Founded in 1957, the high-end Toronto firm, which has more than 180 full-time agents and is on pace to do a record $2.7 billion in real estate sales this year.

Financial Post

Ontario Energy Group customers face leins in the thousands

Taylor Wild and his family were looking forward to moving into their new Orangeville home in February next year. But that deal is in jeopardy after they discovered there was an $11,000 security interest on the heating, ventilation and air conditioning units (HVAC) in their old place.

CBC

10-hectare lot issue back before Halifax council

Rural residents itching to build on their 10-hectare lots may soon be given the go-ahead if Halifax Regional Council approves the next steps of the process on Tuesday. Many residents in communities like West Jeddore and Musquodoboit are being denied building permits because their lots are too large.

The Chronicle Herald

Lack of strata managers hurting industry, insiders say

The Lower Mainland is in serious need of more licensed strata managers – but persuading people to take up the job isn’t easy, say industry insiders. Scott Ponuick, president and senior strata agent for Surrey-based Peninsula Strata Management Ltd., said the Lower Mainland alone could use “a couple hundred more agents” to help out an overworked industry. 

Business in Vancouver

Nearly half of B.C.’s most expensive homes secretly owned

Critics say the B.C. government must work to close loopholes that allow homeowners in the province to hide their identities behind false fronts such as shell companies.  NDP housing critic David Eby and Green MLA Andrew Weaver called for changes after reading about a Transparency International report.

Calgary Herald

Move to combine real estate boards across B.C. falls short

An attempt to amalgamate six real estate boards across British Columbia flopped last week, in spite of strong support from many members across the province. The proposal also won a majority of support from members of the Greater Vancouver, South Okanagan and B.C. Northern real estate boards. But Fraser Valley, Okanagan Mainline and Kamloops all voted against.

Business in Vancouver – Vancouver Sun

Huge fire consumes Langley apartment building

Residents of an 80-unit condo complex in Langley City are homeless after a fast-moving fire tore through the building Sunday morning. Fire crews and RCMP continue to sift through the badly damaged upper floors of the building looking for casualties following the fire that is believed to have started on the fourth floor.

Vancouver Sun

RENX Columnists

A railway boom for Ontario and Quebec is long overdue

Shortly after the Liberal win in the last federal election, I wrote about how today’s infrastructure builds become tomorrow’s real estate investments. It’s what happens after the construction workers go home that truly matters.

Read more

Market Conditions

Vancouver home prices jump while building slows down

When something becomes more expensive, people will produce more of it. According to that pillar of Econ 101, new homes should be springing up all over Vancouver. Which they aren’t. The property market on Canada’s west coast is one of the world’s hottest, or most unhinged, depending on your perspective.

Bloomberg

Real estate pros fret court could unlock secret sales data

There’s little doubt Canada’s real estate industry feels under siege these days. Just check out the recent Danger Report commissioned by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), which analyzes “negative game changers emerging in real estate.” Top threats include people selling their homes without an agent, consumers pressuring agents to reduce their commission, and the prospect of making inside information widely available. 

CBC

Greenbelt likely contributed to tighter housing market

Ontario officials, in a presentation to their Ottawa counterparts in June, said the province’s own land-use restrictions around its largest city have constrained the supply of detached homes — a position the development community has long-held as the main reason for rapidly rising detached home prices in the Greater Toronto Area.

Financial Post

Condo market rebound buoys Ottawa real estate in November

With one month still left in 2016, Ottawa realtors have already set a new record for the number of homes sold in a single year, according to the local real estate board.  Through the first 11 months of the year, OREB members have sold some 14,853 properties, 200 more homes than the industry sold through all of 2015.

Ottawa Business Journal

Mortgage and Finance

Canadian home price and debt charts alarming

Here are some charts that should raise the hair on the back of your neck. Or, given how often Canadians have been warned about high levels of household debt and home prices, some eyebrows, at least. They’re from a quarterly report released over the weekend by the Bank for International Settlements, a global body made up of central banks.

Globe and Mail

Why you’re more tied to real estate than you think

Canadian Real Estate prices only have three main directions they can go: Up, flat or down. Now that we have gotten that out of the way, this article is about what happens if they go down. It is not a prediction, but just trying to paint a picture of just what might be in store for Canadians.

Financial Post

	RENX 2017 media kit now available
	A blended ad program, take-over advertising, writing services and a second weekly edition of Property Biz Canada in 2017. Advertising that reaches thousands of professionals in the commercial real estate industry every business day. Contact sales@renx.ca, 1-855-569-6300

 

New Developments

Development waiver issued in error a one time error

An error that resulted in a Yaletown condo project being mistakenly granted a development cost levy waiver for which it did not qualify was a one-time, isolated incident, according to an internal review. DCL waivers are a financial incentive offered by the City of Vancouver to developers who agree to build affordable rental housing.

Vancouver Sun

Renovation, Repair and Maintenance

Double the ideas for personalizing condo space at My Legacy Park

Sometimes two is better than one. Such is the case with showcasing the benefits of Brad Remington Homes’ high-functioning F Plan. The developer’s My Legacy Park condo development has eight show suites, including two that pull the aforementioned F Plan into the spotlight.

Calgary Herald

Taxes and Utilities

Real estate developers slammed B.C. over surprise foreign-buyer tax

Hours after B.C. announced its tax on foreign buyers this past summer, prominent developers e-mailed Premier Christy Clark and her government saying the policy amounted to a betrayal of Metro Vancouver’s international citizens and could hurt a market already showing signs of cooling according to correspondence obtained through a Globe and Mail Freedom of Information request.

Globe and Mail

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

100-year-old tree could change city building rules

A downtown councillor will introduce a motion at city hall Tuesday that could drastically change the way building permits are issued, in order to protect the city’s trees from unscrupulous, unaware or careless builders, CBC Toronto has learned.

CBC

Other

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