Banks, insurers oppose Ottawa’s new housing rules

Banks, insurers oppose Ottawa’s new housing rules

Canadian banks and mortgage insurers are rallying against new government housing rules that they say will lead to higher mortgage rates, hurt small real estate markets and drive borrowers toward unregulated lenders. The flash point for the big banks is the risk sharing proposal that would require the industry to shoulder a burden of mortgage defaults.

Financial Post

New mortgage rules could lead to more shadow banking

Sweeping changes to Canada’s mortgage lending rules could push more borrowers into the unregulated, shadow banking segment of the market, creating a new pocket of risk in the financial system, industry insiders say. Alternative lenders have seen massive growth in recent years.

The Chronicle Herald

JLL Canada adds to multi-residential sales team

JLL Canada has hired two executives from a competing brokerage to expand the reach of its growing multi-residential investment sales platform. “Three years ago, JLL did not have a presence in the multi-residential sector,” said president Brett Miller. “We developed a strategy and then built and acquired teams in each major market, the biggest being Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and Edmonton.”

Property Biz Canada

Non-banks ‘crippled’ by Ottawa’s lending changes

Canada’s non-bank lenders are reeling from Ottawa’s latest moves to cool Canada’s housing market, with many forced to immediately hike their mortgage rates or scale back their businesses.  First National Financial, the country’s largest non-bank mortgage lender announced that it had temporarily suspended mortgages for rental properties.

Globe and Mail

From a Nobel contender, a red flag for homeowners, regulators

Among the contenders for this year’s Nobel Prize in economics was a Yale University professor named John Geanakoplos, whose work focuses on what’s known as “the leverage cycle.” While he didn’t win the prize the fact that Mr. Geanakoplos attracts this level of critical acclaim should serve as a wake-up call to Canadian homeowners.

Globe and Mail

Winnipeg SkyCity tower pitch lacks key info

Winnipeg condo buyers are bullish about SkyCity Centre, a 45-storey tower billed as the tallest structure between Toronto and Calgary. Almost half the $200-million project’s units — 188 of 388 condos — have been pre-sold, with most of the deals going down in a million-dollar show suite on Garry Street.

CBC.ca

Canada tops off World’s tallest wood-frame building

Celebrating the tallest wood-frame building of its kind anywhere in the world, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr recently attended the “topping out” ceremony of the Brock Commons Residence. The new University of British Columbia student housing tower rises 18 stories to reach a stunning 178.8 feet (53 meters) tall.

Clean Technica – Brock Commons shows tall wood construction potential

Century-old Winnipeg warehouse to turn into apartments

The developers behind the $17-million redevelopment of the Exchange District’s historic James Avenue Pumping Station are at it again. Bryce Alston and Rick Hofer, along with Rick’s brother Mark, plan to spend about $12 million over the next two years to redevelop and expand a century-old warehouse on Ross Avenue to create a new 84-unit rental-apartment complex.

Winnipeg Free Press

A former Toronto rooming house now posted on Airbnb

For 30 years the boxy, Second Empire-style building at 180 Sherbourne St. operated as a licensed rooming house for some of Toronto’s neediest residents. Today, a vintage chandelier hangs in the ground-floor lobby. Nearby is a welcome sign, checkout policy and display rack filled with maps and brochures about local attractions.

Toronto Star

San Francisco’s sinking condo tower units worth zero dollars

Condo owners in the sinking and leaning Millennium Tower in San Francisco are getting nervous about the equity of their homes. According to documents obtained by the SF Examiner through a Freedom of Information Act request, 163 of the owners have participated in an appeal to the condo board by deadline, and a number of them have valued their properties at $0, $1, and $2.

MultiFamily Executive

Five of the most active U.S. multi-family construction markets

A strong employment sector: Check. Solid rent growth: Check. Cultural hubs that have multigenerational appeal: Check. Metro areas that can check those boxes have been gold mines for landlords since the economy crawled out of the Great Recession.

Multifamily Executive

	Multi-residential Property Biz Canada in 2017
	In 2017, or sooner, RENX is going to publish a second weekly edition of Property Biz Canada focused primarily on the multi-residential sector in Canada. This is a great new advertising opportunity to reach professionals in this sector of the industry. Contact sales@renx.ca, 1-855-569-6300

 

Cottage owners to feel bit from tax-free capital gains

Foreign speculators may have been the target of a new rule from Ottawa cracking down on the tax-free capital gains exemption on the sale of a homeowner’s principal residence, but house flippers and cottage owners may also end up feeling its bite. The new rule says you must now report the sale of a principal residence on your tax return.

Financial Post

Ottawa homebuilders association defends OMB

As a provincial review of the Ontario Municipal Board continues, the president of the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association says community groups opposed to development don’t always have the best interests of cities in mind.

CBC

Compensated cooperation

You didn’t get into the commercial real estate business to lose money. But did you know that the existing business model for commercial real estate may be costing you thousands of dollars in potential commission?

Read more

Unlicensed foreign agents are selling B.C. real estate

The man on the phone is cheery and confident, with the practised ease of someone accustomed to calming anxiety. There is no need to worry, he says. Buying a home in Vancouver is simple. His company will dispatch people to the airport, then guide an inexperienced buyer through the entire process.

Globe and Mail

Market Conditions

Foreign buyers disappear from Vancouver market: CMHC

Foreign buyers dropped to one per cent of the Vancouver resale market after being as high as 19 per cent, according to a new report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. The days when Canada’s banks could offload much of the risk of underwriting mortgages onto taxpayers may be drawing to a close.

Financial Post

New home construction increases to 220,617 in September

The pace of new home construction in Canada picked up in September, despite a slowdown in the country’s most populous province. The CMHC said Tuesday that the seasonally adjusted annual rate of starts was 220,617 in September, up from 184,201 units in August. Multiple-unit dwellings were the biggest contributor to the increase.

CBC – Globe and Mail

Mortgage and Finance

New federal policies could cut home purchasing power

New mortgage rules introduced this week by the federal government cut first-time homebuyers’ purchasing power by up to 20%, exacerbating affordability issues, according to a new report from the British Columbia Real Estate Association. One of the changes announced October 3 was to make it necessary for all homebuyers looking to secure a high-ratio mortgage to qualify at the five-year benchmark interest rate.

Business in Vancouver

Realtors say millennials are the real losers from new rules

Millennials will lose up to 20 per cent of their purchasing power from new mortgage rules, which will exacerbate affordability issues, says an organization that represents about 20,000 realtors in British Columbia.The days when Canada’s banks could offload much of the risk of underwriting mortgages onto taxpayers may be drawing to a close.

Financial Post

New Developments

Saint John’s north end poised for transformation

Dozens of apartment houses in the tight grid of streets making up Saint John’s old north end will soon change hands in what could be part of a major transformation in the community.  The buildings, currently registered to Phillip Huggard Properties Ltd., are being sold to Fredericton-based PMV Canada Inc., as part of Huggard’s bankruptcy proceedings.

CBC

Legal Issues

Fighting with your neighbours – and how to keep the peace

It’s the most common hazard that home buyers overlook: disagreements between homeowners that can turn entire neighbourhoods into war zones. These can happen anywhere, of course; but they’re especially common in tonier, wealthier communities, where people are more inclined to lawyer up, and where small contrarian disputes can escalate quickly.

The Star Phoenix

Construction

Circa is developing family-sized condos in Toronto

Flats, walk-ups, brownstones. Whatever they are called, family-sized apartments are common in cities around the world. A scarce, but increasingly sought-after housing option in Toronto, they are the specialty product of one local developer, who has, in retrospect, found an obvious solution to that gap in the market.

Toronto Star

Affordable Housing

The link between Vancouver’s homelessness and soaring housing prices

Across Canada, 235,000 people experiencing homelessness throughout the year and more than 35,000 people are homeless each night. Homelessness is a national disaster and has been called a public health emergency because of the impact that lack of housing has on health and well being.

Globe and Mail

Buying and Selling

Primo Listings acquires Ottawa startup

The Ottawa real estate site startup was sold to Ireland-based Primo Listings, a website with a similar model of providing unique domains for property listings.  Under the new deal, users with accounts, credits and domains under UniqueHomeSites.com will be automatically transfered to Primo Listings.

Ottawa Business Journal – Unique HomeSites News Release

Other

The Architect builds story around building a house

As long as there are artists and accountants in the world, the struggle between art and commerce will always exist. It’s that clash between the creative and economic that is a central theme of The Architect, which is getting its international premiere at the 35^th annual Vancouver International Film Festival, on now until Oct. 14.

Vancouver Sun

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