B.C. mayors target speculators to cool prices

B.C. mayors target speculators to cool prices

The province’s mayors and councillors brought a sharp new focus Thursday to finding effective ways to cool intense foreign and domestic speculation in housing. The Union of B.C. Municipalities announced 32 recommendations designed to fix the home ownership and rental crises that have devastated many residents of Metro Vancouver.

Vancouver Sun – Victoria Times Colonist – CBC

More than half of Vancouverites rent their homes

Fifty three per cent of Vancouver residents rent their homes and it would be easy to assume those renters are living in dense, central and mid-rise neighbourhoods such as the West End. You might also assume the so-called “single family home” areas are pretty much exclusive to homeowners. But new data shows renters are distributed around the city at levels that go against stereotypes.

Globe and Mail

TREB forecasts ‘volatile’ 2018 GTA resale home market

“There will be some volatility in 2018.” So Jason Mercer of the Toronto Real Estate Board opened his address on the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) resale home market as part of Altus Group Data Solutions’ 10th annual state-of-the-market event.

Property Biz Canada – Globe and Mail – Bloomberg

Hungerford, Vancouver social agencies JV on The Link

Vancouver-based Hungerford Properties is partnering with several agencies to create an innovative, six-storey mixed-use development which combines social and market rental housing with ground-floor retail space. The project, to be known as The Link, broke ground Friday and will create 148 rental homes; 44 seniors housing apartments, 104 market rental apartments, in addition to the retail units.

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Vancouver Tenants Union sees membership grow

Rising rental costs, evictions and a scarcity of units in Vancouver’s densely populated West End were among the reasons for Gail Harmer’s decision to join he Vancouver Tenants Union. The union was formed last spring in response to a growing number of renters who say they fear eviction or being priced out of their homes and neighbourhoods.

Globe and Mail

TREB takes housing data dispute to Supreme Court

The Toronto Real Estate Board is taking a longstanding dispute over access to housing market data to the Supreme Court of Canada, seeking to appeal a lower court decision. In December, the Federal Court of Appeals ruled TREB could not prevent realtor members in the Greater Toronto Area from publishing the restricted data contained in its Multiple Listings Service (MLS), including previous home sale prices.

Financial Post

Trez Capital aims to build on record-setting 2017

After issuing a record-setting amount of loans in 2017, private commercial mortgage lender Trez Capital has bold growth targets for 2018.  The Vancouver-based, non-bank lender issued $1.4 billion in loan authorizations and closings for its 2017 fiscal year, president Greg Vorwaller told RENX in an interview. “As a number, that is the most that we recorded in any one of our prior fiscal periods,” he said.

Property Biz Canada

Credit unions may face tighter mortgage rules in Quebec

Credit unions in Quebec could soon face the same stiffer mortgage rules as Canada’s big banks, its securities watchdog said, but the country’s other provinces with frothy property markets are split on whether to require tougher stress tests for borrowers who look to smaller lenders to buy a house. The schism opens the door for credit unions to take a bigger share of the country’s mortgage market. 

Reuters

New mortgage rules sending borrowers to alternative lenders

Mortgage brokers say the borrower rejection rate from large banks and traditional monoline mortgage lenders has gone up as much as 20 per cent after Canada’s banking regulator imposed a new stress test for home buyers who don’t need mortgage insurance. As a result, alternative lenders are seeing an uptick in business as brokers increasingly direct home buyers toward other borrowing options.

Financial Post

Toronto’s new condo sales to fall after record year: Urbanation

Sales of new condominiums in Toronto will probably drop in 2018 from last year’s record high as developers face rising construction costs and slipping investor demand, according to Urbanation Inc. A total of 35,074 new condos were sold across the Toronto region last year, 30 per cent more than in 2016, a surge driven by investor purchases and openings of projects with 500-plus units. Q4 asking prices for condos rose 35 per cent year-over-year.

Bloomberg

A driverless future threatens the laws of real estate

Since the ancients, few things have delivered higher land values with more certainty than advances in transport, from roads to canals, railways to highways. But now, the dawn of the driverless car—promising a utopia of stress-free commutes, urban playgrounds and the end of parking hassles—threatens to complicate the calculus for anyone buying property.

Bloomberg

Multi-family developers should focus on baby boomer renters

For the past few years, the importance of appealing to millennial renters has dominated the conversation. But, based on recent trends, the industry should really start honing their focus on baby boomers. From being the fastest-growing tenant profile to experiencing less rent burden to staying in one place for longer than other demographics, baby boomers are the ideal tenant in today’s luxury multi-family space.

Forbes

Multi-family investors spent less in 2017, but bought more apts.

Investors spent less money on apartments in 2017 than the previous year, according to CoStar research, but bought more multi-family properties.  The math may be a little counter-intuitive, but resulted from sales in the most expensive urban infill markets dropping off as owners of newer downtown properties decided to hang on to their assets or demanded rich pricing.

CoStar Group – Marketwired – Globe Newswire

Apartment rents rise In 89 per cent of U.S. cities

One way to view rent growth is that it’s occurring at a slower pace these days than the U.S. saw in 2015 and 2016. Another is that it continues to occur in the vast majority of cities, and at a healthy clip. Citing Yardi Matrix data, RentCafe reported rents grew year-over-year in 89 per cent of the 250 largest US cities during January.

GlobeSt.com

Wildfires threaten $1.5T worth of U.S. homes

Wildfires threaten $1.5 trillion worth of homes in the United States, representing a disproportionately large portion — 7.7 per cent — of U.S. housing value, according to Redfin (RDFN-Q), the next-generation real estate brokerage. The counties at the greatest risk — California’s Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Clara — are among the country’s most expensive housing markets and are already plagued by ongoing inventory shortages.

PR Newswire

Market Conditions

National housing market still ‘highly vulnerable’: CMHC

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) says the country’s housing markets remain “highly vulnerable” overall for the sixth consecutive quarter with evidence of overvaluation and price acceleration, despite some improvements seen in Winnipeg and Saskatoon. In its latest quarterly housing market assessment, CMHC said it found the housing markets in Toronto, Hamilton, Vancouver and Victoria continue to be highly vulnerable due to price acceleration and overvaluation.

CBC – CBC – Vancouver Province – CBC

Ottawa’s condo luxury market on the rebound

Much like the housing market in general, Ottawa’s high-end and luxury apartment niche is seeing a resurgence after several years of stagnation. From high-end rental units to executive and custom-like luxury condos, new projects are dotting the landscape, while the logjam in the $1-million-plus resale condo market finally broke in 2017.

Ottawa Citizen – Globe and Mail – Ottawa Business Journal

Sales take off for Windsor’s million-dollar homes

Bidding wars have become common in Windsor’s red-hot real estate market, but now this region’s homes in the multi-million-dollar category are selling — in some cases after sitting on the market for years. And the buyers are not from out-of-town or the Greater Toronto area, but right here in Windsor, say local real estate agents.

Windsor Star

New Developments

Edmonton builder splits lots as sales stall

Sylvancroft Estates, the Edmonton infill development on the site of the now-demolished Sylvancroft Manor, is relaxing its development guidelines in a bid to sell the remaining sites, six years after launching sales. Buyers will now be able to purchase split lots, building two narrower homes on lots previously designed for one wide house.

Globe and Mail

Greybrook, Fieldgate invest in Brooklin, Ont., development

Greybrook Realty Partners Inc. announced the successful closing of an equity investment by its managed issuer of $10,985,000 to acquire and oversee the development of a prime parcel of land in Brooklin, Ont. Together with its developer partner, Fieldgate Homes, the firm will develop the land into a residential community consisting of more than 170 single-detached homes, freehold townhomes and condominium townhomes.

Globe Newswire

Daniels FirstHome Beckenrose coming to Brampton

Daniels FirstHome has a new community coming this summer. In the wake of double digit price growth in the condo market, record low single-family homes, and a stress test for uninsured mortgages, Daniels is seemingly coming to the rescue with Daniels FirstHome Beckenrose in Brampton. The fully-built condo townhomes are surrounded by shopping, restaurants, entertainment, recreational centres, health services, schools, green space, and five golf courses.

Newinhomes.com

Buyer interest strong for unique Winnipeg condo complex

After a battle with a City of Winnipeg community committee, a local development company is set to break ground on a new luxury condominium complex in Crescentwood next month. The building is a 12-unit, four-storey, high-end complex, set to go up on vacant property. Breaking ground on the project was more difficult than expected for Winnipeg’s Ventura Developments.

Winnipeg Free Ppress

Urban Capital has eyes on additional Saskatoon project

The Toronto condominium developer building the tower on Parcel Y at River Landing is planning another big project, this time in the Broadway district. Urban Capital, which is building the 126-unit, 20-storey high-rise condo building called No. 1 River Landing, has set its sights on the other bank of the South Saskatchewan River.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Taxes and Utilities

As Vancouver rolls out empty homes tax, city-owned house vacant

Vancouver’s empty homes tax is supposed to tackle one element of the housing crisis by motivating property owners to rent out their empty homes. But Samantha Reynolds can’t help but wonder what it will take to motivate the City of Vancouver itself to rent out an empty home it owns which has sat vacant for two years.

CBC

Natural Disasters

Fort Mac embraces plan to bolster wildfire prevention

Lawmakers in Fort McMurray have approved a plan to help prevent destructive wildfires such as the one that ravaged the community in 2016. The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo council says the five-year mitigation strategy includes a more robust fire prevention program. The plan calls for more tree and brush clearing and for residents to remove any combustible material within 1.5 metres of homes.

Calgary Herald

Condominium Management

Most Toronto condo fees higher than estimates: Review

Most Toronto buyers who take possession of newly constructed condominium units are paying higher monthly maintenance fees than the developers estimated when the units were marketed and sold prior to construction, a review has concluded. Toronto realtor Scott Ingram from Century 21 Regal Realty Inc. said condo fees were higher than estimated in 97 per cent of 124 new buildings he reviewed.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Affordable Housing

Vancouver proposes fourth modular housing project

Vancouver plans to build 600 temporary modular housing units around the city with the newest project proposed near the Olympic Village SkyTrain station. If the project goes through, part of a parking lot in the 500 block of West Second Avenue, just off Cambie Street, would be replaced by a three-storey-high building with up to 50 units. It would be the fourth such project in Vancouver. 

CBC

Small houses

Tiny home model a big deal to Calgary design company

A Calgary company opened the regular-sized doors to its first tiny home Friday, to show off a new way of living they believe will catch on with people of all ages. ZeroSquared‘s tiny home model they have dubbed Aurora comes complete with a full-sized refrigerator, shower, sliding walls, even laundry, all within 341 square feet of living space that can be towed behind a pickup truck.

CBC – Calgary Herald

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

Toronto tenants stage rent strike

A group of tenants in Parkdale say their landlord, Nuspor Investments, has left them no choice but to follow in the footsteps of hundreds of their neighbours and stage a rent strike. More than 50 residents at 1251 King Street West are hanging onto their rent cheques for February, much as other tenants in Parkdale did in a dispute with property manager MetCap Living Inc. last year.

CBC

Buying and Selling

New ‘dual agency’ realty rules sowing seeds of confusion

A new B.C. “dual agency” rule banning real estate agents from working with both the buyer and seller of a property are so complex and onerous it will result in frustrated consumers and a blizzard of useless paperwork when it comes into force March 15, according to real estate agents. The Office of the Superintendent of Real Estate announced B.C.’s new real estate consumer protection rules in November.

Business In Vancouver

OREA seeks increased transparency in home sales

The Ontario Real Estate Association is considering urging the provincial government to allow a transparent bidding process for home sales as part of several proposals to improve the industry’s ethics and reputation. The OREA has been promoting higher standards in light of concerns raised about unscrupulous practices in the province’s overheated real estate market in recent years.

Globe and Mail – Financial Post

Other

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