Foreign investor business newsmaker of the year

Foreign investor business newsmaker of the year

A nameless, faceless figure at the heart of the controversy surrounding soaring real estate prices has been named The Canadian Press business newsmaker of the year. As home prices in Vancouver and Toronto rose at a torrid pace, public and political attention shifted to an enigma that, rightly or wrongly, some believed to be the culprit: the foreign investor.

The Chronicle Herald – Toronto Star

House flipping a reality, government cools market in 2016

What if you kept making the same prediction over and over again and it never came true? That’s the dilemma for housing naysayers who have been calling for some type of meaningful correction for more than a decade. It hasn’t happened on a national level, unless you consider a 0.7 per cent reduction in prices in 2008 a crash.

Financial Post

Canada’s real-estate boom: a Chinese perspective

While Canadians complain about inflated real estate prices, try buying a home in Shanghai. A two-bedroom unit in “Wonderful Place,” a complex of highrise towers in the city’s northeast, has no closets, a galley kitchen, a minuscule balcony crammed with clothing racks and an extra fridge in the living room. It is listed for $2 million (Canadian).

Toronto Star

Guangzhou home prices to keep rising in 2017

It’s almost impossible to walk through the streets of Guangzhou and not notice the megacity’s red-hot property market. China’s third-largest city, with 13 million residents, is choking with tower blocks, comprising apartment complexes, malls, offices and billboards for these buildings.

Business in Vancouver

Lend millennials cash for houses: Hudak

Tim Hudak, chief executive officer of the Ontario Real Estate Association, said Wednesday he liked the newest housing announcement from British Columbia Premier Christy Clark, who announced last week her province would match down-payments of as much as $37,500 (US$27,980), or 5 percent of the purchase price, for new buyers.

Bloomberg – Globe and Mail

Canada’s first ever moveable, modular housing complex

Finding a quality place for people to live is one of the biggest challenges in addressing homelessness, according to Coun. Kerry Jang. “Not just anyplace. We have our run-down SROs, but people need a place that’s decent, that’s clean and warm, that gives them dignity, that gives them a place to be stable and to start to heal,” he said.

Business in Vancouver – Vancouver Sun

Vacant lot in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for new rental building

A prominent long-vacant lot on the edge of the Downtown Eastside is about to be developed by the company also building the Trump Tower. But because of a city zoning policy put in years ago and the developer’s preference for something different, the new building at the rapidly transforming corner of Hastings and Abbott across the street from the Woodward’s project will be a rental.

Globe and Mail

Hazel McCallion tells province to slow down plans to curb sprawl

Hazel McCallion, long called the “Queen of Sprawl,” is asking the province to slow down plans to curtail … sprawl. The long-time mayor reported Thursday on a September meeting of mayors and other municipal politicians from across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area who discussed the province’s plan to cut urban sprawl across the region.

Toronto Star

Worst new housing supply drought in Toronto in 16 years

There hasn’t been this little housing available in November in the Greater Toronto Area in almost 16 years. The Building and Land Development Association said Thursday that a critical shortage of supply is driving prices to record levels in the detached home category, but also in high-rise condominiums.

Financial Post – Globe and Mail

Toronto eclipses Vancouver as least affordable housing market

Toronto’s screaming real estate prices have made it the least affordable market in the country, with the relatively scarce supply of detached housing one of the leading stressors, according to RBC. The bank’s aggregate affordability measure rose to 63.7 per cent, making it the least affordable quarter since spring 1990 when interest rates were around 14 per cent.

Toronto Star

Vicious market leads move-up homeowners to renovate instead

When their second child was born two years ago, Rajiv Kaushik, 39, and Natalie Alvarez, 43, began scouring the market for a larger home. The family’s two-bedroom, semi-detached Victorian in central Toronto had soared in value since Mr. Kaushik bought it in 2007 for $540,000. But as the couple quickly realized, so had every other property in the Greater Toronto Area.

Globe and Mail – Toronto Star

	RENX top story picks for 2016
	The past year generated more real estate news than any year since RENX started publishing in 2001.  Instead of 5 top stories we selected ten and while we have confined our entire list to 100 stories in the past we let it run on this year. RENX top story picks for 2016

 

Average price of a new detached house in Toronto now $1.24 million

The average price of a new detached house in the Toronto region has risen a staggering 27 per cent, or $258,000, in the last year to an average of $1.24 million, according to the latest statistics released by Altus Data Solutions for the Building and Land Development Association (BILD).

Toronto Star

Million-dollar home values spread to Vancouver’s suburbs

The rush to Vancouver’s suburbs has pushed up the proportion of single-family detached houses valued at $1-million or higher in the region. More than 43 per cent of detached properties in Metro Vancouver had assessed values of at least $1-million on July 1, 2015, compared with 28 per cent on July 1, 2014.

Globe and Mail

A gift from King William IV to the people of Mississauga

Smack in the middle of Mississauga, just north of its shimmering new skyline, sits 200 acres of fenced-in, desolate land entrusted to the local education system in 1833 by King William IV of England.  Almost two centuries later the Peel District School Board and the city are about to launch Mississauga’s very own Central Park.

Toronto Star

Crime-free multi-housing program may come to Regina

Reducing crime in any city involves more than just putting extra police officers on the streets. Sometimes it comes down to implementing crime-prevention programs that help reduce crime at a variety of levels. The Crime-Free Multi-Housing (CFMH) program is one such initiative, and Regina could see its own version in the future. 

Leader Post

Mortgage and Finance

	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

Maristella building inspired by ocean, city skyline, community

 Developer of King’s Wharf, Francis Fares, has recently announced the official plans for the next phase in the popular Dartmouth community — the Maristella. The iconic structure has been in the plans for several years, but now Fares is ready to break ground come the fall of the new year.

The Chronicle Herald

Renovation, Repair and Maintenance

Want a $25,000 gazebo? The cost of home renovations is soaring.

You can’t have a serious conversation about housing affordability without considering gazebos. Last year, 20 or so homeowners applied to the city of Ottawa for a permit to build a gazebo on their property. The cost of these projects cost ranged, for the most part, between $3,000 and $25,000.

Globe and Mail

Condominium Management

Legal line between renovations and repairs to shared space

Our board has recently spent more than $500,000 in cosmetic work — such as refurbishing hallways and the lobby. Two directors are real estate agents and the refurbishing helps them sell units. Is the expenditure valid? The corporation is required to carry out necessary repairs and replacement of the common elements.

Toronto Star

Buying and Selling

What to do when your real estate sales rep takes vacation

I’m selling my home, but my salesperson has told me that she is taking two weeks off over the holidays. She said somebody else at the brokerage will help me with the sale during that time. Is that allowed? With the holiday season in full swing, it’s a time for spending time with loved ones — and, if possible, some relaxation.

Toronto Star

Other

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