CPPIB, GIC investing in U.S. student housing

CPPIB, GIC investing in U.S. student housing

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board made its first foray into U.S. student housing, forming a joint venture with the Scion Group LLC and Singapore’s GIC Pte. to purchase a group of properties for $2 billion Cdn. The CPPIB and its partners acquired University House Communities, through a subsidiary of the joint venture, from InvenTrust Properties Corp.

Bloomberg – Winnipeg Free Press – Globest.com – CoStar Group

Alberta developers switch to rental housing

Plunging oil prices have dealt a devastating blow to Calgary’s developers as energy companies hemorrhage office space. But where others see pain, Riaz Mamdani sees opportunity. The head of Strategic Group, a real estate company that has focused mainly on buying and building office space in the Calgary area, is setting his sights on a new market: rental housing.

Globe and Mail

Calgary resale market loses bundle in 2015

Calgary’s resale housing market lost close to $3.5 billion in MLS sales in 2015, according to data released Monday by the Calgary Real Estate Board. The board said total dollar volume in the city fell from about $12.3 billion in 2014 to about $8.8 billion last year – a plunge of $3.475 billion.

Calgary Herald – Edmonton Journal – Calgary Herald – Calgary Herald

Millennials set to drive change in market

They have the potential to be the biggest home-buying cohort in history. But where Canada’s millions of millennials will end up living, and how they will impact the real estate market, has just started to play out. The first wave are just moving into their prime home-buying years. Many live in Toronto and Vancouver.

Toronto Star

Fading real estate prospects sour consumer sentiment

Canadians are carrying a sour economic mood into the new year as a dimming real estate outlook drives continued declines in consumer confidence. The Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index fell to 53.8, from 54.5 a week earlier, the seventh consecutive decline, with the energy-rich prairie provinces reaching their lowest level in seven years.

Bloomberg

Canada offers stable investment: Survey

Canada remains a safe bet for investors in the global property game, the results of a new survey from the Association of Foreign Investment in Real Estate (AFIRE) suggest. As part of its 2016 Foreign Investment Survey, AFIRE asked its 200 worldwide members what country offers the most stability and security when it comes to real estate investment.

Buzzbuzzhome.com

Dominion becomes Canada’s largest mortgage originator

Vancouver’s Dominion Lending Centres (DLC) has acquired Mississauga-based Mortgage Architect for “10s of millions of dollars” in a transaction that will make it the largest mortgage originator in Canada, CEO Gary Mauris said. The combined firms have 4,800 accredited mortgage professionals, and a total of $32 billion in annual mortgage volume.

Business In Vancouver – Financial Post

Vancouver homeowners see massive jump in property values

Assessed values for single-family detached properties in large parts of Greater Vancouver have jumped at least 15 per cent over a one-year period as the region’s real estate market booms. The latest percentage gains for detached houses are among the highest in the past 35 years, from high-end properties to tear-downs where most of the value is in the land.

Globe and Mail – Vancouver Sun – Business in Vancouver – Vancouver Sun

Toronto real estate stole the show in 2015

Forget the Pan Am Games — real estate was Toronto’s favourite sport of 2015. Housing prices grew hand over fist compared to the year before, according to data from the Toronto Real Estate Board. The average price of a home — condos and stand-alone houses combined — reached a high point in May at $649,599, up 11 per cent from 2014.

Toronto Star

Even outlaw bikers joining GTA rental market

The typical Torontonian isn’t the only one being priced out of the sky-high housing market. Local Hells Angels are happy to be renters now after a flirtation with home ownership, Det. Sgt. Len Isnor said. That’s partially a reaction to the estimated $700,000 hit the Hells took when they lost their old clubhouse to the federal government.

Toronto Star – Montreal Gazette

Halifax developers offer free apartments to refugees

Halifax developers are offering the Nova Scotia government up to 25 unfurnished apartments for a year to help Syrian refugees settle into life in the province. “I feel that as developers and landlords it’s a great thing for us to do,” said Wadih Fares, president of Halifax-based WM Fares Group. The apartments will be for government-sponsored refugees. 

CBC News – CTV News – Halifax ChronicleHerald

U.S. apartment market hottest since 2005

An exceptional first three quarters of 2015 sparked the U.S. apartment market to its strongest year in a decade, according to early fourth-quarter/year-end apartment data from Axiometrics, the leader in apartment market and student housing research and analysis.

MultifamilyBiz.com – Globest.com

Rent hikes stress U.S. single-family renters

Rising rents for single-family rental homes are stressing the budgets for many households. “There may not be as much room to raise rents going forward. We are starting to see affordability become an issue,” says Daren Blomquist, vice-president with data firm RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosures. 

National Real Estate Investor

New lending blamed for U.S. home sales slump

Last month, U.S. home sales dropped to the lowest level tracked in over a year and a half, and changes to the lending process likely played a part, says the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Total existing American home sales, which cover single-family homes, townhomes, condos, and co-ops, tumbled 10.5 per cent from October, according to the NAR.

Buzzbuzzhome.com

U.K. housebuilders sitting on land

Britain’s biggest housebuilders possess enough land to create more than 600,000 new homes, an analysis by the Guardian has found, raising questions about whether they are doing enough to solve the housing crisis facing Britain. The nine housebuilders in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 hold 615,152 housing plots in their landbank, according to financial disclosures

The Guardian

RENX Columnists

Building bragging rights into your project story

Even though I’m in the business of helping companies figure out their best and most interesting story, I get overwhelmed by the number of stories being lobbed at me daily like promotional hand grenades. Then why do some stories stick out at all? Why are some stories so good at becoming part of our conversational repertoire?

Let’s Make Things Interesting

Garbage in, garbage out

GIGO stands for “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” It’s an informal concept common to mathematics and computer science. The quality of the output is determined by the quality of the input. I’d like to discuss how this concept applies to the world of commercial real estate. Read the story in Capital Commentary, December 17, 2015. Contributed by Adam Powadiuk, Business Development Manager, First National Financial LP

 

Market Conditions

Predicting the 2016 housing market

“Once again, experts agree that housing affordability is stretched, historically low interest rates will rise, and housing prices will drop. Rewind 365 days and you could be reading a forecast for 2014. But this time the experts agree: prices really will fall and it’s got everything to do with the recovery of the global economy,” MoneySense magazine said in January 2015.

Newinhomes.com

The 20 hottest U.S. markets

As another year gets underway, Realtor.com, which lays claim to more than three million online home sale listings, has published its final monthly U.S. real estate hot list for 2015. The latest top-20 is made up of mid-sized and large urban areas, where homes generally stay on the market for a shorter period of time and garner the most interest.

Buzzbuzzhome.com

China slowdown to hit luxury real estate

Luxury prices for the world’s major cities are expected to slow by nearly half this year, from three per cent in 2015 to 1.7 per cent this year, according to the latest Knight Frank Prime Cities Forecast. The report said China’s economic slowdown is mainly to blame, although rising rates in the U.S. and a slowdown in other emerging markets will also add to the headwinds.

CNBC

Latest market reports:

* Halifax, Nova Scotia Association of Realtors, MetroNews Canada

* Victoria, B.C. Assessment, Victoria Times Colonist, Victoria Times Colonist

* Denver, Zillow, Denver Post

* Manhattan, Douglas Elliman, CNBC, Bloomberg

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

 

Mortgage and Finance

Average U.S. rate on 30-year mortgages increases

Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates crossed the four per cent mark last week, a slight increase in the wake of the Federal Reserve decision this month to hike a key short-term interest rate. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac (FMCC-Q2) said Thursday the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.01 per cent from 3.96 per cent a week earlier.

Edmonton Journal

New Developments

Top 10 Toronto condo developments of 2015

PHOTO GALLERY: The top condo developments announced in 2015 aren’t relegated to the downtown core. Rather, they bring well-designed, high-density housing to all areas of the city. These ambitious new projects won’t be ready for a while, but many are available for pre-sale if you’re considering investing in some swanky new digs next year.

blogTO – Metro News

Renovation, Repair and Maintenance

Outremont convent to become condos

PHOTO GALLERY: Olivier Leclerc, president of Gestion M & O, plans to convert the Château Maplewood, formally known as Soeurs Des Saints Noms Jesus convent/private school into luxury condos. The showcase of the condo project is the chapel which will remain as it is and will be used for special events as well as be open to the public on special occasions.

Montreal Gazette

Legal Issues

Soldier suing over real estate loss

A soldier stationed at CFB Gagetown is hoping to see progress in 2016 in a class action lawsuit over a financial bath he took when selling a house in Alberta. Neil Dodsworth and others in the military say the federal government should compensate them for such losses. Dodsworth has been with the Canadian Armed Forces for more than 34 years.

CBC News

Affordable Housing

Designers creating refugee-focused spaces

There are more than 60 million migrants and refugees currently on the move around the world. Many, of course, are from Syria – Canada’s goal is to settle 25,000 Syrians across the country by the end of February – but displaced people are also leaving Haiti, Afghanistan, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, North Korea and areas all over Northern Africa.

Globe and Mail

B.C.’s affordable efforts barely address need

The B.C. government posted a self-congratulatory news release at the end of 2015 touting its work on affordable housing. More than 13,000 beds were funded last year to help shelter the homeless, and almost 30,000 low-income seniors and families received rent assistance.

Globe and Mail (Subscription Required)

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

Liberty Village: Here comes the neighbourhood

When Emily Runions moved to Liberty five years ago, she felt like the only mom in the village. Dogs still vastly outnumber the likes of Runions’ eight-year-old daughter but there are signs young families are setting up in the condo enclave.

Toronto Star

Buying and Selling

Wilson’s Vancouver home still B.C.’s priciest

Chip Wilson may have taken a step back from the spotlight this past year, but his sprawling Kitsilano home is still front and centre as the most valuable property in B.C. BC Assessment‘s 2016 numbers value the Lululemon founder’s home at 3085 Point Grey Rd. at $63.87 million, a 10.9 per cent increase over the 2015 assessed value.

Vancouver Sun

Other

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