Rental buildings hot commodity in Vancouver

Rental buildings hot commodity in Vancouver

Sales of rental apartment buildings in Metro Vancouver surged 47 per cent in 2015 — and the total value of all sales of apartment buildings went up 99 per cent from 2014.  But that’s because most of the apartment blocks sold were bigger. The number of suites in the 181 buildings sold in 2015 was 6,259, up from 3,282 in 123 buildings the year before.

Vancouver Sun

B.C. strata councils in ‘critical’ funding state

Strata depreciation reports have unearthed an alarming situation for B.C. condo owners: The overwhelming majority of strata units are carrying monthly maintenance fees that are nowhere near adequate to keep up their buildings. Special assessments are the dreaded lump-sum levies imposed on owners by strata corporations when they need extra cash to cover supposedly unexpected expenses.

Vancouver Sun – Vancouver Sun

Calgary apartment market in state of flux

The market outlook for purpose-built apartments in Calgary is in a state of flux following a year that saw rental rates drop, vacancies spike and growing uncertainty for the Alberta economy. A report by SVN Canada looked at more than 60 old stock rental buildings across Calgary and 18 buildings constructed after 2000.

Property Biz Canada

Vancouver apartment rental market ‘a mess’

A massive infusion of offshore cash into the Lower Mainland’s multi-family residential property market is “disrupting the local development and investor communities,” resulting in bidding wars and a surge in the value of real estate sales. A report by Goodman Realty also notes the region’s vacancy rates continue to drop and tenants are being hit with rent hikes

Vancouver Sun

JLL acquisition expands Canada platform

JLL (JLL-N) has acquired Bill Goold Realty, one of Western Canada’s most successful commercial and multi-family residential property brokers. The transaction expands the reach of JLL’s multi-family investment sales platform and is consistent with JLL’s global growth strategy and focus on expanding its Canadian business.

Marketwired – Yahoo Finance

Vancouver No. 3 for least affordable housing

Vancouver may have just add another notch to its reputation for being pricey. According to U.S. group Demographia, Vancouver is the third-least affordable city in the world for a home, and construction constraints are to blame for rising home prices.

Vancouver Sun – Irish Times – Canada Newswire

Pure Multi-Family REIT buys Texas properties

Pure Multi-Family REIT  (RUF.UN-X) has entered into an agreement to acquire two multi-family apartment communities, located in San Antonio, Texas, for a combined purchase price of US$117,500,000.   The TPC Portfolio consists of two properties with a total of 750 units.

Canada Newswire

Development encroaching on Chinatown charm

King-mong Chan, who was born in Hong Kong and came to Canada at the age of 1, says he has been discovering his roots through Vancouver’s historic Chinatown. Encroaching new midrise condo developments threaten the culture and charm of the tiny neighbourhood which has a history that goes back to the 1880s.

Globe and Mail

Building a better Winnipeg neighbourhood

The Guardian’s recent  Crime in the community: when ‘designer’ social housing goes wrong column presents a less-than-glowing review of Centre Village, a Manitoba Housing complex in Winnipeg’s Central Park neighbourhood designed by local firm 5468796 Architecture. The reality is Central Park’s courtyards are lively and active, filled with children playing or people socializing.

Winnipeg Free Press

St. John’s condo investors want deposits back

Investors in a stalled St. John’s condominium project are outraged they haven’t received their money back, after years of waiting for condos that still haven’t been built. The developers of Harbourside Condominiums on Temperance Street began selling units in 2009, but construction on the downtown building still hasn’t started.

CBC News

436 condo units get green light in Pointe-Claire

Pointe-Claire council has approved plans for a 400,000-square-foot lot for a multi-family residential development that will include 436 condominium units in six towers, some of which will be up to nine storeys, as well as 14 two-storey townhouses. The vacant lot is a former industrial property. The project is a collaboration between promoters Groupe Pentian and Soltron Development.

Montreal Gazette

Aviva Canada to buy RBC General Insurance

Royal Bank of Canada is selling its home and auto insurance business to Aviva Canada Inc. for $582 million in a deal that includes a 15-year distribution arrangement allowing the bank to continue selling a “full suite” of insurance products. The sale appears to acknowledge the abandonment of  Canadian banks being allowed to sell insurance in their branches.

Financial Post – Bloomberg – Globe and Mail (Subscription Required)

Communal living the next form of homeownership?

As people migrate to major cities around the world every day, the need to take advantage of every square inch of space becomes more and more crucial, which is why we think collaborative consumption (or a sharing economy) and communal living may be the way of the future.

Newinhomes.com

Rent forecast data for 50 large U.S. markets

Rent growth has been a big story in the housing recovery. Multifamily rental starts and completions have concentrated on higher-end market segments in big cities, while development in the mid- and lower tiers of the rent spectrum has been scarce.

Builder Online

Chinese developer lowers aim in Manhattan

Chinese developer Xinyuan Real Estate Co. (XIN-N) is forging ahead with plans for a condominium property on Manhattan’s far west side, even as the company’s New York-based executive vice-president sees signs of a glut in the luxury-home market. Xinyuan is distancing itself from the plethora of skyscrapers aimed at ultra-wealthy investors, however. 

Bloomberg – Curbed NY

RENX Columnists

Thoughts on 2015 and 2016

Now that 2015 has ended and we begin 2016, we can wonder what lies ahead for this year. Before we take a look at the possibilities, let us review what 2015 produced. A review of the preceding year allows us to look for trends that occurred throughout the year which may hold true in 2016 or create other possibilities.

Read more

Condominiums incubating next rental apartment boom

In Canada, especially in heated real estate markets such as Vancouver and Toronto, pundits are looking at the rush of condominium construction and wondering if this will be bad for the real estate market. Thus far, however, the condominium market has defied expectations and continues to grow.

Read more

Market Conditions

	Royal Lepage: Q4 2015 housing market report
	RENX has published a summary of Royal Lepage’s: Fourth-quarter 2015 housing market report for 19 jurisdictions including the country as a whole, major urban centres and provinces, published in Canada Newswire on January 13, 2016.

 

Legacy neighbourhood led multi-family in Calgary in 2015

Most of the call to bring on more multi-family housing in 2015 was fuelled by the city’s southeast end. Three communities in the quadrant topped all communities in Calgary for permit applications for multi-family projects last year, the city’s planning and development department says.

Calgary Herald

Toronto listings start 2016 in a deep freeze

In 2015, industry pundits were predicting the scarcity of real estate listings in Toronto would continue into 2016. So far, they appear to be right. Agents from central Toronto to the suburbs say listings are in the deep freeze – even for a January, when the market is normally cool.

Globe and Mail

U.S. home prices rise at fastest rate since July 2014

Annualized U.S. single-family home prices rose more than expected in November and at the fastest pace in 16 months, a closely watched survey showed today. The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas rose 5.8 per cent in November on a year-over-year basis compared with 5.5 per cent the month before.

Reuters

RENX Market Summaries

	REITs & REOCs – Third-quarter 2015 report
	RENX has prepared a table with a convenient list of the companies and a summary of links to their reports that will be updated quarterly. Fourth-quarter results will be available at the end of January, 2016. Canadian REITs & REOCs – Third-quarter 2015 report

 

New Developments

Vancouver mayor debates density with former chief planner

Sam Sullivan considers himself a “casualty of density,” so he knows just how much outrage can be generated in Vancouver by something as innocuous as plans for a new townhouse development. The former mayor believes that his support for densification was a big factor behind his loss of the NPA nomination in 2008.

Vancouver Sun

Seasonal Homes

Kamloops man wants to fly houseboats to remote lakes

AUDIO: Imagine spending a week aboard a houseboat on a remote B.C. lake. Neil Thompson of Kamloops has an idea for a new kind of house-boating business. It involves flying them around by helicopter. Thompson recently dropped into our studio to explain.

CBC – Kamloops News

Small houses

Log cabin builders adapt to growing tiny-home market

Kevin Rouck, 55, built his first log cabin in 1980: a modest 1,200-square-foot home over two floors in which he and his wife raised their family. Thirty-five years on and the craftsman is still proud to call it home – a home that has stood the test of time in a rapidly changing building industry.

Globe and Mail

Buying and Selling

75 years of TO real estate

VIDEO: Top real estate broker David Batori explains the current value of 100-year-old Ralph Etigson’s past Toronto properties.

Financial Post

A zig-zag route up Vancouver’s property ladder

Amber and Rob Stefanson didn’t plan to become condo investors. Or landlords. Or renters who are condo investors. They have become all three, as they – like many younger people trying to grapple with Vancouver’s real-estate market – try to figure out a way to accumulate some equity but also live in a place that meshes with their situation.

Globe and Mail

Other

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