Strategic Group places big bet on Calgary rentals

Strategic Group places big bet on Calgary rentals

Despite rental-vacancy rates continuing to soar, real estate developer Strategic Group is putting its faith in rental apartments falling back into favour as it breaks ground on its fifth apartment building in as many years. Furthermore, it’s in planning stages for a further six sites cross Calgary, says Randy Ferguson, Strategic Group’s COO. 

Globe and Mail – Calgary Herald

Pension funds flock to apartment buildings

After the financial crisis battered the U.S. economy in 2008 and 2009, the real estate investing team at Quebec’s public-sector pension manager noticed an interesting trend in its portfolio of holdings. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec owned a group of apartment buildings in New York, the epicentre of the global financial meltdown.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Hope Street takes luxury home rental model to Vancouver

Calgary-based Hope Street Real Estate Corporation has opened an office in Vancouver where it is poised to take advantage of an elevated number of properties sitting vacant in the West Coast city. Shamon Kureshi, president and CEO of the residential property management firm, says a segment of the Vancouver residential real estate market has attracted plenty of Chinese investment.

Property Biz Canada

Daniels unveils accessibility program for new condos

The Daniels Corporation has unveiled its Accessibility Designed Program for condominium purchasers who use mobility devices, the latest move in its commitment to building homes for the full spectrum of the housing market. “Our mission has always been to try to eliminate barriers to home ownership, be they financial or in this case physical,” said Daniels vice-president of project implementation Jake Cohen.

Property Biz Canada – Newinhomes.com

Court orders B.C. developer to reveal condo-flipper info

A Federal Court judge has approved at least one court order that will require Westbank Corp. to turn over information to tax officials about people who bought and flipped condo units before or during construction. And several similar applications are underway, reflecting the federal government’s efforts to crack down on potential tax cheating in the pre-sale market.

Globe and Mail – Business In Vancouver – CBC – Vancouver Sun

Reliance hikes fee in effort to dampen speculation

Condo sales and prices are on fire. And now, Reliance Properties Ltd. and Jim Pattison Developments, developers of a prominent condo project in Vancouver’s West End, which won’t be completed until 2019, are hiking the fee they charge for letting a pre-sale buyer of a unit re-assign (sell) their contract to another buyer.

Vancouver Sun

Langley condo development ordered into receivership

B.C.’s real estate watchdog has issued its first public consumer alert in four years, following a B.C. Supreme Court decision this week to send a troubled Langley condo development into receivership. As Postmedia reported last week, longtime Metro Vancouver condo developer Mark Chandler was trying to keep Murrayville House, his 92-unit Langley condo development, out of receivership.

Vancouver Sun

Discounted Victoria condos come with strings attached

The developer of a new downtown Victoria condominium tower will offer a price discount, but the deal hinges on favourable construction financing from BC Housing and comes with some strings attached for buyers. “It is a risk-reward situation for us,” said Byron Chard, chief financial and acquisitions officer with Chard Development.

Business In Vancouver

Surface Developments plans 12-storey Ottawa condo

An Ottawa builder is proposing a 56-unit condo project for a rapidly developing stretch of Scott Street in Westboro. Surface Developments has filed a site plan application for a 12-storey building, 300 metres from the Westboro Transitway station and next door to Colonnade Bridgeport’s planned 24-storey mixed-use highrise. Current zoning bylaws cap building heights at 18 metres, while Surface’s proposed condo would be nearly 40 metres tall.

Ottawa Business Journal – CBC

CMHC turns to Airbnb for help with affordable rental housing supply

Canada’s housing agency is looking to an unlikely ally in a bid to boost the stock of affordable rental housing: Airbnb. The head of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., says he believes short-term rental companies like Airbnb and Vacation Rental By Owner (VRBO) could help increase the rental supply in the country and, in turn, possibly reduce rents.

CTV

B.C. ‘very serious’ about closing loopholes in foreign buyers tax

B.C.’s finance minister says she intends to address loopholes in the foreign buyers tax, but rent-to-own programs like the one offered by Apex Western Homes. are generally legal. Carole James spoke after it was revealed her ministry had found no legal issues with the Vancouver Rent-to-Own program from the Apex ad which promises to help foreign buyers “avoid” the 15 per cent tax.

CBC

Feds’ fight to cool Toronto housing an uphill battle

Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has been under pressure to rein in runaway home prices, but a study by theCanada Mortgage & Housing Corp suggests the prime minister will struggle to exert control over the real  estate market in Canada’s largest city. Conventional economic factors including population, incomes and borrowing costs accounted for less than half of the 40 per cent surge in Toronto home prices between 2010 and 2016.

Bloomberg

Mortgage changes to be finalized this month: OSFI

A package of proposed reforms aimed at cooling Canada’s housing market that includes controversial new stress tests for uninsured mortgages will be finalized by the end of the month, the head of Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions said. A document outlining the changes to mortgage underwriting rules, governed by industry guidelines know as B-20, will be published this month.

Financial Post – Globe and Mail – Toronto Star – Reuters

Ontario realtors face new double-ending rules, stiffer fines

Real estate agents in Ontario will face new conflict of interest rules when they represent both a buyer and seller in a single transaction and tougher penalties when they violate the industry regulations and ethics. The provincial government announced an update to the Real Estate Business Brokers Act (REBBA) that will see the fines for offending realtors double to $50,000. Brokerages will be fined up to $100,000 per violation.

Toronto Star – CBC – National Post

Rich driving up the rent in U.S.

Following the Great Recession, the cost of rental housing took a growing bite out of U.S. household budgets, as increasing demand for rental units pushed up prices. Now the share of households considered burdened by high rents is falling, according to a report from New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate & Urban Policy.

Bloomberg – GlobeSt.com

Market Conditions

Montreal-area home sales hit eight-year high

The real estate market in Greater Montreal matched September’s heat wave with sales reaching an eight-year high for the month. The Greater Montreal Real Estate Board says 2,893 residential sales were completed last month, a six per cent increase from a year ago. Four of the area’s five metropolitan areas sustained growth, led by a 17 per cent jump in sales in Laval.

CBC – Canada Newswire

Condo prices still on fire in Vancouver

Vancouver detached properties continue to see limited price increases one year after the B.C. government brought in a 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers. Statistics from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver show the benchmark price for an apartment property was $635,800, a 21.7 per increase from a year ago and a 1.4 per cent increase from just August.

Financial Post – Globe and Mail – Global News – Business In Vancouver

Condo prices still on the rise in GTA

Overall home sales in September were down in the Greater Toronto Area over the same time last year but condo prices continue to rise, according to figures by the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB). Even though listings were up by 9.4 per cent compared to September 2016, sales were down by 35 per cent, the TREB report said.

CBC – Financial Post – Globe and Mail – Newinhomes.com

House prices up nearly seven per cent in Ottawa

With the exception of a couple of outliers, Ottawa’s real estate market in September continued to be marked by a great east-west divide. Overall, the benchmark price for single-family homes jumped 6.8 per cent year over year in September, reaching $401,100, according to figures published Wednesday by the Ottawa Real Estate Board. It’s the first time benchmark prices have topped $400,000.

Ottawa Citizen – Ottawa Business Journal

Seattle’s real estate market sets blistering pace

Home prices have been on the rise nationally since February, but no area of the country has seen a spike like the Pacific Northwest. The price of single-family homes in the Seattle area has soared 13.5 per cent in the past 12 months. That’s more than twice the national average of 5.9%. The median single family home in Seattle, as of August, costs $730,000.

Fortune

Mortgage and Finance

Cost of carrying a home set to spike in Canada

The cost of home ownership in Canada is about to spike, dealing another blow to affordability in some of the country’s wildly inflated markets. Bank of Nova Scotia projects average mortgage carrying costs among new buyers will climb by about eight per cent next year and four per cent in 2019. Those increases will “easily” eclipse the rise of about 2.5 per cent in average annual per-capita income.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – CBC – Globe and Mail

New Developments

Victoria’s Customs House project getting major makeover

Nearly four years since the first proposal, developer Stan Sipos is on the cusp of starting construction on his Customs House project at the foot of Government Street’s retail strip in Victoria. The new configuration will see 57 high-end condos built. The two buildings have been empty for years after the federal government and small retailers moved out.

Victoria Times Colonist

Natural Disasters

Calif. wildfires force thousands to evacuate

An onslaught of wildfires across a wide swath of Northern California broke out almost simultaneously then grew exponentially, swallowing up properties from wineries to trailer parks and tearing through both tiny rural towns and urban subdivisions. At least 10 were dead, at least 100 injured and at least 1,500 homes and businesses have been destroyed, authorities said.

CTV

For wealthy, insurance coverage is on another level

People commonly pay insurance companies to secure their property against loss or damage. But for the affluent, insurance companies sometimes take matters into their own hands. Believing that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, some insurers will send in specialists to prepare a home for disaster, for instance, while others will pay to move valuables out of harm’s way.

Toronto Star

Construction

Ontario housing starts stable thanks to new home demand

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its housing starts data for September, announcing the trend decreased for the first time in many months. National housing starts trended at 214,821 units, which is slightly lower than 220,573 in August 2017. The trend is a six month moving average of seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR).

Newinhomes.com – Canada Newswire

Edmonton housing starts up 29% over 2016

New Edmonton-area home construction soared in the first eight months of the year, according to data from the Realtors Association of Edmonton.  Single-family housing starts in the region from January to August were up by 29 per cent from the same period last year, to 3,350 units, the association said in a Tuesday news release.

Edmonton Journal

Affordable Housing

Victoria’s affordability crisis tied to over-regulation, costs

“It’s a bit hypocritical to talk at council meetings about housing being unaffordable and about finding solutions, when (councils) are a big part of the problem,” Victoria developer Gordon Denford said in a recent interview. “Every time they do something [adding new rules or regulations], it’s like they forget that they’ve done it and we are adding on higher costs . . .”

Victoria Times Colonist

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

Edmonton fails to measure what matters on Jasper: Expert

When Karen Lee helped New York City give Times Square back to pedestrians, they measured everything from improved air quality to foot traffic and retail sales at street-level businesses to prove the temporary pilot should stay. On Jasper Avenue, Edmonton is measuring driving times. That’s it. It has Lee worried. 

Edmonton Journal

Buying and Selling

Kelowna mansion sells at auction for half list price

A new owner got a steal of a deal in a East Kelowna mansion auctioned off without a reserve last week. The winning bid was $2.998 million – less than half of the $6.5 million list price. The 9,000-square-foot, 14-acre property has a view of Okanagan Lake, guest quarters, five bedrooms and five bathrooms, according to the Platinum Luxury Auctions website.

Infotel.ca – Vancouver Sun

Other

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