Can we be gentle with density?

Can we be gentle with density?

If you live in Greater Vancouver dreams of buying a single-family home with a yard probably died long ago. But even with the old-fashioned single family home out of reach of most, there are still opportunities to find room in our cities for more than lottery winners. Ramping up so-called “gentle density” isn’t a complete answer to the current crisis of affordable housing supply, but it’s a good place to start.

The Tyee

Winnipeg developer building a case for infill housing

A local developer is ramping up its campaign to save a proposed Crescentwood condominium project and to get the city to adopt binding guidelines for future infill developments in mature neighbourhoods. The campaign by Winnipeg’s Ventura Developments Inc. and its supporters includes a multi-pronged public relations campaign.

Winnipeg Free Press

What are vacancy rates in purpose-built rental housing?

Purpose-built rental housing has taken off in the past 10 years as demand, supply and economic factors have aligned to once again make it attractive to property developers.   Now that new apartment buildings are completed and operating across the country, how well are they renting?

Property Biz Canada

A case study in effective Toronto laneway housing

It was a warm day, and the burbling of a little waterfall carried on the breeze. Ivy and rhododendron rustled, and birds chittered in the trees above us. We could have been deep in the suburbs, but Brigitte Shim and I were sitting in a back laneway in Leslieville. At her kitchen table, to be precise, in the exquisite little house that the architects, Ms. Shim and Howard Sutcliffe, built in 1993.

Globe and Mail

Toronto explores allowing more laneway homes

The solution to Toronto’s housing affordability crisis could be found in your own backyard. In response to skyrocketing home prices, the city’s looking to loosen the bylaws around developing one of its few sources of underused land: laneways. A proposal to allow homeowners to build a secondary suite on the edge of a property leading into a laneway is being considered.

CBC

Is laneway housing a viable solution in Hamilton?

There are about 70 laneway homes in Hamilton, and new report going to the Public Works committee Tuesday explores whether it makes sense to encourage more as a way to increase affordable and sustainable housing options. There are currently 818 laneways in Hamilton that stretch over 100-kilometres.

CBC

Lack of tiny home legislation prompts big fights

Last month, Gregg Taylor was served notice by Rocky View County officials to remove his tiny 160-square-feet home on Springbank Road, west of Calgary, or face a $1,500 fine. The 37-year-old general contractor was confused; he had studied the county’s bylaws before setting up home just a few weeks prior and found nothing to suggest that his home might not be legal.

Globe and Mail

Edmonton’s new Problem Properties Task Force makes progress

The Problem Properties Task Force started its work in August as a coordinated response to community complaints about chronically problematic residential and rental properties.   And like the Avengers or the Justice League, the task force pulls together investigators and enforcers from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Edmonton Journal

City of Vancouver looks to reduce building permit wait

The City of Vancouver’s notoriously sluggish permitting process, which has drawn heavy criticism from councillors, builders and homeowners, and now the head of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, may be in for an overhaul. City staff have been meeting with industry stakeholders for the past four months in a bid to improve the system.

Vancouver Sun

Foreign buyers barely register in Montreal condo market

Not only is the level of foreign ownership of condominiums not an issue in Montreal, the proportion is actually down over the past two years, according to a new housing-market survey by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. And even in cities with higher percentages — specifically Vancouver and Toronto — the proportion remains very low, CMHC concludes.

Montreal Gazette

Realtors loath to share foreign buyer data, CMHC talks show

Ottawa’s attempts to track foreign investment in the housing market are likely to be hampered by realtors’ reluctance to share information on overseas clients, industry players told closed-door meetings with the country’s housing regulator. “The [real estate] industry needs assurances why data on foreign investment will be collected and how it will be used,” Toronto-area realtors and developers told Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp..

Globe and Mail

Vancouver’s new tax pushes Chinese buyers to Seattle, Toronto

Just a few days after Vancouver announced a tax on foreign property investors, Seattle real estate broker Lili Shang received a WeChat message from a wealthy Chinese businessman who wanted to sell a home in Canada and buy in her area. After a week of showings, he purchased a $1-million (U.S.) property in Bellevue, across Lake Washington from Seattle.

Globe and Mail

The demographics of migration in the U.S. cities

While internal migration has slowed greatly over the past forty years, a recent Gallup poll found that 21% of all Americans surveyed had moved sometime in the past five years. The United States’ population is one of the most inwardly mobile in the world.  Research shows that the average American will move 11.3 times during their lifetime.

MultiFamily Executive

NYC puts 3,000 landlords on notice regarding tax compliance

Following a ProPublica investigation that revealed that nearly two-thirds of 6,000 landlords in New York City were cashing in on tax breaks under the 421-a program but not implementing rent caps, New York City officials are putting 3,000 landlords on notice. The 421-a program previously gave away a lucrative tax benefit to developers who agreed to offer rent-capped housing for low-income tenants.

Multifamily Executive

Australia pushes ahead with housing bond

Australia will develop a means of packaging debt to finance affordable housing after calls from local pension providers to ease their entry into the market. The housing bond aggregator model was endorsed last week during a meeting between the federal treasurer, Scott Morrison, and his state counterparts, and was one of four models examined by a working group on affordable housing.

Real Estate IPE

Market Conditions

Foreign buyers a ‘scapegoat’ for high Vancouver prices

High housing prices in the Vancouver region stem from a variety of factors, with foreign buyers shouldering a disproportionate amount of blame, says the president of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. Evan Siddall said he is concerned about “unhealthy tensions” pitting existing residents against recent arrivals, and also older homeowners against younger families priced out of the market.

Globe and Mail

Alberta rental vacancy rate hits highest point since 1988

Alberta’s rental vacancy rate is at its highest point since 1988 and there are few indications it will be coming down any time soon. The latest Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) rental market report for October showed the overall vacancy rate in Alberta increasing to 8.1 per cent, up from 5.6 per cent in the previous year.

Edmonton Journal

Why 2016 may be the year of ‘peak housing’ for Canada

The annualized 5.5 percent decline in this category was its worst quarterly showing since 2010, notes Macquarie Capital Markets Analyst David Doyle, who views the details of the report as “growing evidence that 2016 will be the year of ‘peak housing’ for Canada.” The prime culprit for this downturn in residential investment, according to the economist, was a subcategory that serves as a proxy for real estate commissions.

Bloomberg

Toronto housing market takes a breath

The urgency seems to be seeping out of Toronto’s real estate market as the year comes to a close. “I think people have frankly gone into a ‘wait and see’ mode,” says real estate agent Janet Lindsay of Chestnut Park Real Estate Ltd. Listings are dwindling, as they typically do at the end of November, but agents feel the pause came a little earlier this year.

Globe and Mail

Mortgage and Finance

CIBC’s exposure to real estate correction highest among Canada’s banks

CIBC’s exposure to the residential mortgage market has increased, raising concerns among some analysts who say it comes at a time when Canada’s real estate market is at risk of a correction. But the bank said its loan delinquencies remain low and stable, including in the hot housing markets of Toronto and Vancouver.

Toronto Star

Syndicate mortgage lenders exit Toronto condo development

Building and Development Mortgages Canada Inc. (BDMC) announced today that lenders in a syndicate mortgage that funded King Charlotte, a Lamb Development Corp. (LDC) and Fortress Real Developments Inc. (Fortress) project in Toronto, received their principal back in full that was completed and occupied in 2015.

Canada Newswire

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New Developments

Prospective homeowners adopt ‘cohousing lite’

Mike Lang is accustomed to small apartments with exorbitant rental and purchase prices – he recently returned to Vancouver from living in Hong Kong, one of the most expensive cities in the world. So while he and his wife Cherie consider the recent acceleration in the city’s housing market “ridiculous” and not in any way tied to typical salaries, they’re prepared to settle for less than a stand-alone home with a big backyard.

Business in Vancouver

Developer saves Vancouver’s 111-year-old West End house

The old house at 1754 Pendrell was built in 1905, when Vancouver was only 19 years old and had about 45,000 residents. Like many Edwardian homes of the time, it had a spacious porch, lovely leaded glass windows and nifty dentil work. It was large, but not ostentatious, a solid home whose main architectural feature was a big bay window.

Vancouver Sun

Taxes and Utilities

Mayor Tory promises to ‘fight against’ property tax hike in 2017

Toronto Mayor John Tory announced on Monday that he will ensure property tax increases for 2017 will be recommended to city council at or below the rate of inflation.  “We want to allow people to stay in their homes, allow people to have the finances to be in a home when they can, and a big part of that is keeping their property taxes under control,” said Tory from the front steps of a home in the Weston neighbourhood. 

CBC

Buying and Selling

New real estate rules leave some first-time buyers in the cold

For four years, Jasbeen Lallbahadoor saved for a down payment on a new home. Since new real estate regulations in Canada passed this October, however, she no longer qualifies for the $350,000 townhouse in Montreal’s Mile Ex neighbourhood she was considering for purchase.

CBC

Richmond real estate company fined for unlicensed services

New Coast Realty, a fast-growing Richmond-based real estate firm, has been fined $7,500 by B.C.’s Real Estate Council two years after an auditor discovered that the company’s director and other staff were involved in unlicensed services.  A director at the time and two other unlicensed staff were engaged in real estate activities that require a licence.

Vancouver Sun

Other

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