Vancouver mayor says ‘rein in housing market’

Vancouver mayor says ‘rein in housing market’

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson urged the provincial and federal governments on Sunday to heed warnings from the financial sector to cool Metro’s red-hot housing market.  In a written statement, Robertson said clear measures are needed to “rein in the excesses of the city’s housing market.”

Financial Post

Does the real estate industry influence B.C. politicians?

To what extent does the real estate industry influence B.C. politicians?  People who can offer a sound judgment on that burning question worry that developers and builders have an unhealthy degree of sway over our politicians.

Vancouver Sun

Vancouver home prices up 30 per cent from year ago

Price increases in Canada’s most expensive city for housing continued to get even steeper in May with the average value of a home sold in Greater Vancouver up almost 30 per cent from a year ago.  The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said Thursday the benchmark price for a detached home in Metro Vancouver rose 36.9 per cent year over year to reach $1,513,800.

Financial Post – Globe and Mail

OECD warns of ‘rapidly rising housing prices’

Concerns over Canada’s overheated housing market are not new, but they are growing.  In fact, warnings about the financial-stability risks of elevated household debt and rising home prices are a recurring theme of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. It’s a refrain the OECD sounded again this week.

Montreal Gazette

Scotiabank curbs mortgages in Vancouver, Toronto

Hot housing markets in Vancouver and Toronto prompted Bank of Nova Scotia to ease off on mortgage lending in those cities, Chief Executive Officer Brian Porter said. “We’re a little concerned about housing prices in the greater Vancouver area and Toronto,” Porter, 58, said Tuesday in an interview on Bloomberg TV Canada. 

Financial Post – Financial Post

TREB appeals Competition Tribunal ruling

The Toronto Real Estate Board has served a Notice to Appeal to the Commissioner of Competition, alleging that the Competition Tribunal erred when it ruled against TREB on April 27.  The case has been ongoing since 2011.  On Friday, the tribunal ordered TREB to allow members to use all the “disputed data”, such as sold prices and historical listings, on their virtual office websites.

REM Online

TREB ordered to open up online sales data

The Toronto Real Estate Board must let its member brokers release more home sales data to the public via the internet, the federal Competition Tribunal ordered Friday, in a move that could resonate across Canadian real estate markets.  The tribunal’s order follows an April ruling that TREB was stifling competition by restricting access to data on its proprietary Multiple Listing Service.

CBC.ca – Toronto Star – McLeans

Home buyers caught between Urbancorp and banks

Urbancorp’s lenders are moving to take control of the struggling builder’s development sites, leaving some purchasers worried that they may be at risk of losing out on their unfinished homes.  In separate legal proceedings, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Laurentian Bank of Canada asked courts to appoint receivers for two Urbancorp developments.

Globe and Mail

Complainants puzzled by lack of action on probe of B.C. realty firm

It was a sign something unusual might be happening at New Coast Realty, a Vancouver-area firm under investigation by the industry self-regulator.  In a dumpster outside the firm’s Richmond office were shredded real-estate contracts and other papers – some showing personal client information. On one document, signatures had been altered with white-out.

Globe and Mail

B.C. business leaders call for residential real estate data

B.C. business leaders are joining the chorus of voices calling for more granular residential real estate data.  The provincial government stated in its last budget that it would track the citizenship and residency of owners who are not Canadians in future transactions. But the B.C. Chamber of Commerce is now calling for this kind of information to be made available about existing and past owners.

Vancouver Sun – Globe and Mail

How a tsunami of inheritances could ease Canada’s housing market pain

A record wave of inheritance will transfer billions in wealth over the next decade, taking some of the sting out of the real estate market for young Canadians, CIBC’s deputy chief economist said Monday.  Benjamin Tal argues more than $750 billion will be transferred to Canadians between the ages of 50 to 75 in the next 10 years.

BNN

Millennials flock to city outskirts in search of affordable housing

Young Canadians are worried about money – they have questions about buying real estate, saving for retirement, repaying debt, launching their careers and starting to invest. These two housing stories are part of our enhanced Generation Y coverage, designed to help millennials navigate their finances.

Globe and Mail

Confessions of a committed Gen Y renter: ‘It’s exactly what I want’

Desperate wannabe homeowners, meet Megan Young.  Unlike many of her peers, she believes the answer to expensive house prices is not to make compromises on what and where to buy. This 32-year-old IT consultant in Toronto is a committed renter.

Globe and Mail

David Allison speaking at UDI Capital Region lunch

David Allison will be speaking at the UDI Capital Region Lunch on June 14th, 2016 about The Stackable Boomer.

Read more

Kings Wharf developer celebrates win to silence train whistle

The WM Fares Group, developer of Kings Wharf says he’s celebrating and not dwelling on the three-and-half-year battle to quiet a CN train whistle blown each night near his condo project.  “It’s taken a lot effort and hoops to jump through and now we can all move on with our lives,” said Frances Fares. 

Chronicle Herald

Market Conditions

Toronto-area real estate sets new record in May

The Toronto area’s real estate market set a new record last month, with nearly 13,000 homes sold. Toronto-area real estate sets new record in May That’s up 10.6 per cent from May 2015 in what was already one of Canada’s hottest real-estate markets. The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) says there’s a shortage of listings for low-rise types of housing, such as single family homes.

Daily Commercial News

Risks to Canadian economy looks bleak, getting bleaker

Canada’s central bank governor Stephen Poloz has left little to the imagination on the current state of the economy: It’s looking bleak and will likely get bleaker before it gets better.  We’ve already seen export activity and business investment slip this year.

Financial Post

Real estate boom a licence to print money

It’s a 500 print run of a glossy brochure that only today’s red-hot real estate market could justify.  Bob Faulkner won’t offer specifics on the location the marketing material he’s printing is promoting other than to say he has a client willing to “pay through the nose”. The print job costs $30,000 — a lofty $60 per brochure.

Financial Post

Montréal condominium market in May: Prices increase, supply decreases

The Greater Montréal Real Estate Board (GMREB) most recent residential real estate market statistics for the Montréal Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), based on the real estate brokers’ Centris^® provincial database show 4,416 residential sales were concluded in May 2016, a 2 per cent increase compared to May 2015 and the 15th consecutive monthly increase in sales.

Canada Newswire

RENX Market Summaries

	REITs & REOCs – First-quarter 2016 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. First-quarter results are now arriving. Canadian REITs & REOCs – First-quarter 2016 report

 

Mortgage and Finance

Pay an appraiser for a home’s fair market value

Do you know what your home is worth? Perhaps you have a vague idea, based on current market reports and the fact that your neighbour’s place sold for 10% over asking, just last month. But, put on the spot, most of us have no idea how much our homes are really worth.

Money Sense

Natural Disasters

Fort McMurray residents brace for return to city

Henry Velasquez wants to return to the place where his home once stood — someday, but not yet.  Residents are being allowed to return in stages this week, a month after a voracious wildfire destroyed 10 per cent of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta and forced the evacuation of the entire city.

The Chronicle Herald – Globe and Mail

Construction

PHOTO: Seylynn Village Rises

Journal of Commerce

Other

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