More than 85 lenders hike mortgage rates

More than 85 lenders hike mortgage rates

Canada’s five-year government yield closed at yet another seven-and-a-half-year high Thursday. That’s made lending more expensive, and in turn, inspired more than 85 Canadian lenders to hike fixed mortgage rates in the last week.  With most U.S.-Canadian trade uncertainty out of the way, a hot U.S. economy, and oil near a four-year high, consumers and businesses are feeling more confident about spending money. That’s got the market worried.

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

High debt, rising rates mean Canada ‘isn’t out of woods’ yet

Canada’s economy faces a major risk through the next three years from how debt-laden consumers cope with higher interest rates, according to economists from three of the country’s largest financial institutions. Risks in the housing market remain, even after the slowdown in sales earlier this year after the government imposed new regulations, according to Frances Donald, head of macroeconomic strategy at Manulife Asset Management.

Bloomberg

Dream likes Saskatchewan despite ‘tough’ economy: Cooper

Dream (DRM-T), one of Canada’s largest residential land developers and homebuilders, likes to promote its slogan of building better communities. The real estate company has certainly put those words into action as it works to grow its footprint in Saskatchewan, particularly its major centres Regina and Saskatoon. “We have significant holdings in both Saskatoon and Regina,” Michael Cooper, president and chief responsible officer of Dream, told RENX.

Property Biz Canada

Graywood, Alterra invest big bread in Wonder Condos

An east-end Toronto site which had hosted bread factories since 1887 will become home for hundreds of people as a mixed-use development called Wonder Condos. “Everyone knows it as the Weston bakery, but it was Brown’s Bread and General Bakeries for a lot longer,” said Neil Pattison, vice-president of development and project management for Graywood, which is co-developing the condominium project with Alterra.

Property Biz Canada

Gupta proposes another condo project in Vaughan

The developer who sent cancellation letters and refunds to buyers of the Icona condos at Vaughan Metropolitan Centre last month is proposing to build a similar project at Yonge St. and Steeles Ave. The City of Vaughan confirmed the Gupta Group has applied for official plan and zoning amendments for the 2.85-acre plot, which would also include three towers and a hotel.

Toronto Star – Global News

Great Gulf, OakWood earn top 2018 OHBA Award honours

Great Gulf and OakWood have taken the top two honours in the 2018 Ontario Home Builders’ Association awards.  Great Gulf was named the 2018 Ontario Home Builder of the Year for the first time, after finishing as a runner-up in past years. However, the OHBA judges felt 2018 was Great Gulf’s year to shine. 

Property Biz Canada

Record year for acquisitions for Killam Apartment REIT

Killam Apartment REIT  (KMP-UN-T) has continued its recent buying spree with an announcement Tuesday it has made $88 million worth of residential acquisitions in three provinces. The purchases in P.E.I., Alberta and Ontario push Killam’s 2018 total to a record $263 million in acquisitions. It might not be done yet, either, according to president and CEO Philip Fraser.

Property Biz Canada

Montreal sales hit nine-year high for September

Montreal’s real estate market is continuing its hot streak. The Greater Montreal Real Estate Board says residential sales rose eight per cent in September compared to the same month last year. The 3,220 sales represent a nine-year high for the month of September. The median price of single-family homes hit $336,000, up seven per cent year over year. Duplexes jumped six per cent to $504,00, while condominiums climbed four per cent to $263,000.

Montreal Gazette – Canada Newswire

Pointe-Claire Village condo project put on hold

It’s back to the drawing board for the Pointe-Claire Village Special Planning Project, the Pointe-Claire Village Code and any projects that might want to become part of the future of the charming heritage destination. The decision, made prior to Tuesday’s regular council meeting, essentially puts plans to demolish the Pioneer bar and restaurant and build a condo project on hold for the foreseeable future.

Montreal Gazette – CBC

Habitations Trigone, Fonds break ground on Viva-Cité Espace Nature

Habitations Trigone and its partner Fonds immobilier de solidarité FTQ have broken ground on a new residential rental project, Viva-Cité Espace Nature. Located in Longueuil, Viva-Cité Espace Nature will welcome its first tenants in the spring of 2019. This real estate project is part of three complexes under the Viva-Cité banner that will be built in 2019 and joins seven other developments already completed  on Montréal’s South and North Shores.

Canada Newswire

GTA sees a shift in mid-rise condo development

There’s a subtle shift underway in the Greater Toronto Area’s pre-sale condominium market in 2018: As developers are launching fewer towering projects designed to woo investors, they are finding there’s still a strong market for people looking to pay a little more money for a larger, family-friendly unit in neighbourhoods outside the downtown core.

Globe and Mail

Appraisers warn of the RE cost of homegrown cannabis

The national organization representing home appraisers is warning growing cannabis at home comes with a risk. The new law legalizing cannabis includes allowing Canadians to grow a maximum of four plants in their homes. Keith Lancastle, chief executive of the Appraisal Institute of Canada (AIC), is calling on the federal government to help educate homeowners on what he calls the dangers of growing at home.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

West Vancouver considers subsidized ‘workforce housing’

West Vancouver is considering building housing for working professionals and young families who have been squeezed out of the pricey North Shore municipality by high housing costs. The proposed development would have 200 units, including 170 rental units priced at 70 per cent of market rent and 30 strata condo units, spread over two or three buildings on district-owned land at 2195 Gordon Ave.

Vancouver Sun – Vancouver Sun

Being in real estate a cursed blessing: Zoocasa CEO

Lauren Haw, 33, is the CEO and broker of record at the full-service brokerage Zoocasa, one of Canada’s top online real estate search sites, based in Toronto. “One cursed blessing is everyone’s in love with real estate. Everything we do has a pretty good megaphone. . . . Everybody has an opinion of what’s going on in the market and they want to hear yours.”

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

TREB sues listings website Mongohouse for $2M

The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) is suing Mongohouse for $2 million, alleging the anonymously run property listings website is illegally accessing, copying and distributing its proprietary data. The board, which represents more than 50,000 realtors across the Greater Toronto Area, filed the lawsuit last month in Federal Court asking for an immediate and permanent injunction for the popular website to be taken down.

Globe and Mail

Market Conditions

Canadian housing starts trend decreases in September

The trend in housing starts was 207,768 units in September, compared to 213,966 units in August, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). This trend measure is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts. “The national trend in housing starts stood at a 19-month low in September, following declines in four of the last five months,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC’s chief economist. 

Canada Newswire

Metro Vancouver sales 36% below September average

September home sales across Metro Vancouver fell to 36.1% below the 10-year average for the month, according to Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV), as demand remained low and supply continued to increase. Across the region, a total of 1,595 homes changed ownership last month, which is a 43.5% drop compared to the 2,821 sales in the same month last year. It is down 17.3% compared with August.

Business In Vancouver – CTV – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Hamilton-area sales drop nearly 19% year-over-year

The number of residential property sales in Hamilton and Burlington last month were almost 19 per cent lower year to date than the same point last year, according to new numbers from the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB). The September statistics released by the RAHB show 948 total sales were processed through the Multiple Listing Service system during the month — a 4.6 per cent increase over the same month last year.

CBC

GTA sales up 2.9 per cent year-over-year

Greater Toronto Area realtors reported 6,455 sales through TREB’s MLS System in September – up 1.9 per cent over September 2017. The average selling price for September sales was up by 2.9 per cent year-over-year to $796,786. The MLS HPI composite benchmark price was up by two per cent year-over-year. New listings entered into TREB’s MLS System in September amounted to 15,920 – down by 3.1 per cent compared to September 2017.

Globe Newswire – Bloomberg – CBC

Mortgage and Finance

BCSC tightens mortgage and investment exemptions

The BC Securities Commission (BCSC) is cracking down on registration exemptions for private mortgage investments. Some industry experts are hailing the move as a win for investors, while others claim the new restrictions on the small but growing market of prospectus-exempt mortgage investment entities (MIEs) could add unnecessary red tape to financing new developments – thereby constricting at least one avenue for creating more affordable housing.

Business In Vancouver

New Developments

Reliance withdraws Victoria proposal at last minute

Reliance Properties has withdrawn its application to transform the Northern Junk property at the foot of the Johnson Street Bridge and it won’t be considered until after the Oct. 20 municipal election. The Vancouver-based company withdrew its rezoning application from Victoria council’s agenda at the last minute after the Downtown Residents Association sent a letter to the city criticizing the proposal.

Victoria Times Colonist

Victoria neighbourhood plan put on hold due to resistance

Victoria’s plan to fast-track 10 new neighbourhood plans has hit a roadblock in Gonzales where city planners have met pushback over proposals to shape how the area will grow. After two years of community meetings, workshops, surveys, draft plans, revisions, more drafts and more meetings, councillors have agreed to throw in the towel on the Gonzales neighbourhood plan, putting it indefinitely on hold.

Victoria Times Colonist

Natural Disasters

Initial Hurricane Florence damage averaged $3,000 per household

Though Hurricane Florence made landfall at a weaker strength from initial expectations, powerful winds and widespread flooding has caused significant damage to homes throughout the Carolinas. Porch, a leading home improvement marketplace, has released a new analysis that estimates homes in the region sustained an average $2,9191 of damage per home, or $180,978,000 in total.

PR Newswire

Legal Issues

Rent-striking tenants ordered to pay Minto Group

Rent-striking tenants of a Flemingdon Park apartment building in Toronto were ordered to pay months of skipped payments — or risk being evicted — at a hearing before the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) on Monday. Residents from the Minto Group building went on strike on Aug. 1 over the state of disrepair in their units and a rent increase above the provincial limit of 1.8 per cent.

CityNews

Developer pleads guilty to Jasper condo scam

A developer of what was supposed to be a $700-million luxury golf resort just outside Jasper National Park admitted Thursday to defrauding a number of people who invested in condominiums tied to the project. Marie Laframboise, 61, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of defrauding 24 people of money that exceeds $5,000. Laframboise took money from people who thought they were putting down deposits on condos to be built.

Edmonton Journal

Affordable Housing

U.S. affordability drops to lowest level in 10 years

ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s premier property database, released its Q3 2018 U.S. Home Affordability Report, which shows the U.S. home prices in the third quarter were at the least affordable level since Q3 2008 — a 10-year low. The report calculates an affordability index based on percentage of income needed to buy a median-priced home relative to historic averages.

PR Newswire – PR Newswire

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

Rosemont trying to save its 561 tiny shoebox homes

They seem like mirages, picturesque relics from another era. Single-story “shoebox” homes, built at the turn of the 20th century, dot the Montreal cityscape, squeezed between duplexes and triplexes. But there are fewer than there used to be, and if the rampant condo craze and Montreal’s ever-surging real estate market had the last word, there would be fewer still. So Rosemont is doing something about it.

Montreal Gazette

Buying and Selling

CREA will post past sales data without a password

The Canadian Real Estate Association says it will soon be adding historical sales data to its realtor.ca website. The industry group said Thursday the information will be included along with new listings and be accessible without a password. CREA spokesman Pierre Leduc says the data will only be posted if the regional real estate board requests it be uploaded.

Regina Leader-Post

Other

What I learned from TREB and BILD poll results

October is here and everyone’s talking about the municipal election. In order to stress the importance of addressing housing affordability, I’m highlighting a few findings from the recent Ipsos polls commissioned by the Building Industry and Land Development Association and the Toronto Real Estate Board.

Newinhomes.com – Newinhomes.com

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