Developers drawn to Vancouver Island

Developers drawn to Vancouver Island

A Vancouver development company is making its first investments in Nanaimo, joining other Lower Mainland firms that have been building on the Island as land values and demand rise in one of B.C.’s hottest real estate markets. Wertman Development Corp. has bought two Nanaimo sites – one for a downtown condo tower of 20-plus storeys and another for a two-building rental project.

Business in Vancouver

Toronto to sell off almost 800 TCHC-owned buildings

Toronto city council is looking to sell almost 800 residential homes and rooming houses owned by Toronto Community Housing Corp. to buyers who will keep the units as affordable housing. This latest move aims to shift the ownership of the city’s “scattered housing” stock to non-profit housing co-ops, community land trusts and non-profit housing agencies.

Globe and Mail

Quebec forum tackles rental housing challenges

An influx of affluent international students in Montreal is providing new opportunities to developers and forcing managers of student housing to up their game, says Jean-Marc Bélanger, vice-president of operations at Cogir Real Estate. He was among the speakers at a session on trends in student housing, seniors housing and mixed-use developments at the recent Quebec Apartment Investment Conference in Montreal.

Property Biz Canada

RioCan Living launches as residential developer

RioCan REIT (REI.UN-T) has taken the next step in its program to redevelop dozens of its retail properties across Canada,  announcing Monday its new residential brand, RioCan Living. RioCan Living will drive the trust’s efforts to turn selected existing retail shopping centres into mixed-use communities. In a release announcing the move, RioCan says this marks its “official, and permanent, entry into the residential market.”

Property Biz Canada

Dream GM says urban sprawl could benefit Calgary

A Calgary developer wants the city to reconsider its approach to urban sprawl, arguing population growth is outpacing our focus only on density. Josh White is a private developer, the general manager of development at Dream Unlimited (DRM-T) and a member of BILD, the Building Industry Land Development industry association.

CBC

Pre-sale condo buyers pay more to keep contracts alive

Most pre-sale buyers at a New Westminster condo project have chosen to pay an extra 15 per cent to keep alive their approximately two-year-old contracts, after the developer, Jago Development Inc.  said it would otherwise be unable to finish building the units.

Vancouver Sun

CIBC’s new foreign rules could squeeze Van. market

A clampdown on lending rules for foreign buyers could prove to be a major game-changer for Vancouver’s housing industry. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has sent out a memo to its mortgage specialists that said, as of Feb. 1, it has ended its Foreign Income Program and will introduce more stringent requirements for foreign clients.

Globe and Mail – Mortgage Broker News – Business in Vancouver

GTA home sales down 35% year-over-year

Canada’s largest real estate board says home sales in the Greater Toronto Area fell nearly 35 per cent year over year in February, as selling prices dropped more than 12 per cent. The Toronto Real Estate Board reported 5,175 residential transactions through TREB’s MLS system last month, down 34.9 per cent compared to the record 7,955 sales reported in February 2017.

CBC – Toronto Star – Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Globe Newswire

‘Own use’ evictions on the rise in Toronto

More Ontario renters are being served with eviction notices suggesting the landlord intends to occupy the unit for his or her own use – and the trend is accelerating. Data provided by the Social Justice Tribunals Ontario (SJTO) show the number of eviction applications has almost doubled over the last five years.

Globe and Mail

Toronto’s supply challenge and the growth plan paradox

Toronto has a supply problem and the nation’s housing agency admits it is not quite sure why soaring prices have not spurred more construction. New homes replace demolished ones at a sharply lower rate than early this decade, completion times for multi-family projects have doubled and prospective buyers have far fewer new homes to choose from than only a few years ago.

Reuters – Newinhomes.com

Toronto condo owner discovers unit listed on Airbnb

When Sanda Jovasevic agreed to lease her downtown Toronto condo to a tenant in May 2016, she hoped it would be a wise, long-term investment for her retirement. But after a series of strange incidents the following year, Jovasevic and her husband learned someone was repeatedly renting out the unit on Airbnb.

CBC – CBC

‘Water is the new fire’: Insurance Bureau of Canada

Paving over porous paradise, or any absorbent ground, increases the risk of basement flooding, say researchers using City of Toronto data. The ScienceDirect study could help GTA homeowners make sense of the sometimes-ridiculed notion that the amount of land people cover with buildings, parking pads, parking lots and more, is linked to the costly rising tide of urban flooding that is expected to worsen in coming years.

Toronto Star

Canada’s first ‘dementia village’ to open in B.C.

Canada’s first community designed specifically for people with dementia is opening next year in Langley. Comprised of six, single-storey cottage-style homes and a community centre, The Village will be home to 78 people with dementia, an umbrella term that includes people suffering from Alzheimer’s and other degenerative brain diseases associated with aging. Care will be provided by 72 specially trained staff.

Vancouver Province

Trump tariff forcing U.S. homebuilders to cut costs

For the past 18 months, Eddie Martin has been trying to find ways to keep the affordable homes he builds, well, affordable. About 40 per cent of the Texas homebuilder’s framing lumber comes from Canada. The Trump administration slapped punitive tariffs on Canadian softwood timber last year, claiming the industry is unfairly subsidized. The move has driven lumber prices to near record highs. 

Bloomberg

U.S. developer launches European student housing venture

Student housing has become a big business in the U.S., mostly because both students and their families have created demand for amenity-rich communities located near top universities. Now CA Ventures, a Chicago-based developer, says it’s ready to launch a $500-million effort that will bring similar housing to students throughout much of Europe.

GlobeSt.com – IPE Real Assets

Market Conditions

Vancouver’s affordable one-bedroom rent: $1,750

The recent B.C. budget emphasized affordable housing, particularly in Metro Vancouver. Guidelines for rentals built under a city incentive program now define that for Vancouver: affordable rent is $1,750 for a one-bedroom and $2,505 for a two-bedroom apartment. “Those rates will likely go up next year,” said Josephine Kwan, a spokeswoman for Spire Development, which will open a 95-unit rental project this fall in southeast Vancouver.

Business In Vancouver

Vancouver home sales plunge in February

Home sales in Metro Vancouver fell more than 14 per cent below the 10-year average in February as buyers contended with stricter mortgage rules and higher interest rates, according to statistics released Thursday. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s data showed that 2,207 homes sold last month. That’s down nine per cent from Ferburary 2017 and 14.4 per cent from the 10-year February average.

Vancouver Sun – Globe and Mail – Maclean’s

Calgarians need to be ‘realistic’ as sales drop 18%

As Calgary real estate sales lag this year, a prominent city realtor is recommending sellers price their homes aggressively. Home sales in the city for February were 18 per cent lower than they were a year earlier, according to a new report by the Calgary Real Estate Board.

CBC

Mortgage and Finance

Laurentian Bank cites progress on problematic mortgages

Problematic mortgages loomed over Laurentian Bank of Canada’s (LB-T) first-quarter earnings on Wednesday, but the Montreal-based lender said it’s making headway in resolving the situation. Laurentian’s results included an update to last year’s revelation the bank had discovered some loans sold to third parties had been affected by “documentation issues and client misrepresentations,” and that others were “inadvertently sold.”

Financial Post – Winnipeg Free Press – Reuters

One in five would struggle if rates rise: Survey

Based on a survey of 10,000 people across 10 countries including Canada, the latest findings from HSBC’s Beyond the Bricks global research series offers deeper insights into how a shift from the low interest rate environment could affect Canadian homeowners, and how they compare against their global peers.

Canada Newswire

New Developments

Calgary unveils first laneway shipping-container home

In a backyard in the southwest community of Killarney, three shipping containers are being positioned above a two-car garage to create 480 square feet of living space for Chad Saunders and his wife, Jennifer Head. The finished residence will be the first laneway shipping-container home in Calgary. Jeremy Johnson, founder of the Calgary-based builder responsible, Modern Huts, believes it will be the first of many.

Globe and Mail

440 housing units planned for Langford, B.C.

Gold-coloured shovels hit the ground on Thursday to mark the start of construction of Belmont Residences, a $200-million development in Langford. Plans call for the construction of seven buildings in six stages over five years. A total of 440 housing units are planned by Ledcor Properties Inc, with 146 designated as rental. The rest will be condominiums.

Victoria Times Colonist – CHEK

Edmonton approves rezoning for condo development

Edmonton city council has approved rezoning for a proposed high-density, low-rise condo building at 76th Avenue and 115th Street, but not before hearing from several Belgravia residents concerned about the plan at a public hearing Monday. Niche Development said feedback for its project was positive, but there were concerns about the building’s size, design, amenities and effects on traffic in the area

CBC

Generational divide blocks Victoria rental apartments

Pushback against a proposed rental apartment building in south Fairfield could be a sign of “change fatigue” in a rapidly changing city, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps says. “I don’t necessarily think that council or the city or the community has necessarily done the best job of managing and stewarding change in a way that everyone sees the benefits or that’s sustainable,” she said.

Victoria Times Colonist

Seniors Housing

Public debate necessary for seniors housing: Report

Fine-tuning zoning and setting aside a portion of social housing for seniors are among the ways an aging population may be accommodated in Metro Vancouver, according to an international report by the Grosvenor Group. Traditionally, the discussion among politicians, planners and the public has primarily focused on affordability for young people in the region, said James Patillo, one of the report’s authors.

Vancouver Sun

Independent, assisted-living facilities the most desirable

A recent survey on seniors housing conducted by real estate services firm JLL found independent and assisted-living facilities are currently considered the most promising property sub-types in the sector. Thirty per cent of JLL’s survey respondents ranked those property sub-types as “extremely desirable,” and another 56 per cent ranked them as “very desirable.” No one ranked these sub-sectors as “not at all desirable.”

National Real Estate Investor

Taxes and Utilities

B.C. rental buildings to be exempt from luxury house tax

The B.C. Finance Ministry has confirmed a section of the Feb. 20 provincial budget that levied a special school tax on luxury homes valued at $3 million will not apply to residential apartment buildings, which it defines as properties with four or more rental units. Members of the rental industry had complained the tax would increase rental rates as landlords passed on the extra tax.

Business In Vancouver

Natural Disasters

Quebec municipalities ordered to produce action plans

Every municipality in Quebec has two years to come up with an emergency plan to deal with a disaster. The province’s mandatory plan aims to help the province’s municipalities be ready in the case of a natural disaster in their midst, such as last spring’s floods, which devastated several cities and towns. Two-thirds of Quebec municipalities don’t have an updated preparedness plan.

CBC – CBC

Affordable Housing

Calgary sells land to non-profits for new projects

The City of Calgary has sold six plots of land to local non-profits to create new affordable housing sites. “This historic sale is . . . the largest non-commercial land transaction in the City of Calgary’s history,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi said in a release. Three development sites were sold to HomeSpace Society, two to Habitat for Humanity and one to the Homes for Heroes Foundation.

CBC

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

Oak Bay councillor pushes to legalize secondary suites

It’s time to restart the conversation about legalizing secondary suites in Oak Bay, says Coun. Tara Ney. Ney has introduced a motion that would see a made-in-Oak Bay policy developed to bring secondary suites out of the shadows. Oak Bay is the only municipality in B.C.’s capital region that doesn’t regulate secondary suites, even though it probably includes hundreds of illegal suites throughout the municipality.

Victoria Times Colonist

Montreal couple downsize to house in the backyard

Jean-Luc Gagnon and Marie-Hélène Larouche live in their soon-to-be former backyard. Last September, Gagnon and Larouche finished construction on a Scandinavian-modern, 930-square-foot granny suite behind their house.

Globe and Mail

Richmond, B.C., residents petition targets ALR mansions

More than 60 Richmond, B.C., residents gathered outside Richmond’s city council chambers Febr. 26 to deliver a petition requesting limits to mega-homes on the ALR. Approximately 5,500 signed the petition, which called upon council to reduce home sizes on the ALR to a maximum of 5,382 square feet and place a moratorium on new applications until the new home size is adopted as a bylaw.

Business In Vancouver – CBC – Richmond News

Buying and Selling

Online auction of swanky Calgary home called off by owners

A home in Calgary’s Collingwood area was set to go on the auction block on Wednesday afternoon but the owners elected to back out of the auction after the opening bids proved to be not to their liking. The  4,625-square-foot home on Clarendon Road N.W. is listed at $3.88 million and features a gourmet kitchen, wine cellar, home theatre and game room.

CTV News – Calgary Herald

Other

Marketplace events acquires ExpoPromotion consumer home shows

The Montréal National Home Show and the Montréal HomeExpo will now be part of the same family. Donald Cantin, president of ExpoPromotion Inc. and Tom Baugh, CEO of Marketplace Events, announced the purchase of the Montréal HomeExpo and Fall HomeExpo by Marketplace Events, the largest home show producer in North America.

Canada Newswire

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