Real estate deals a growing focus for FinTRAC

Real estate deals a growing focus for FinTRAC

Canada’s anti-money laundering watchdog is seeing increased reporting of suspicious transactions involving Vancouver real estate as awareness of the warning signs improves, but important blind spots remain. Gérald Cossette, director of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FinTRAC), said Thursday a significant increase in training of real estate professionals about what to look for is bearing fruit.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

CRA crackdown on RE taxes fails to track collection results

Federal tax auditors have identified about $370 million in taxes owing from real estate transactions over a roughly two-year period in B.C. and Ontario, but it is unclear how much of that money has actually been recovered. The agency doesn’t track compliance based on particular audit targets, such as real estate.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Daniels, Diamond team up on Toronto condos, townhomes

The Daniels Corporation and Diamond Corp. will make at least a small dent in Toronto’s affordable housing problem for first-time buyers with the Daniels FirstHome Markham Sheppard condominium community, which recently broke ground. Thirty per cent of the 328 contemporary condo suites and townhouses will be made available as affordable housing.

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Homebuyers’ demands clash with urban policy: Fortress report

A new report says the Ontario government directs growth to locations and built forms that don’t align with market demand, resulting in skewed housing values. “The growth targets may be beneficial from a financial, political and environmental perspective, but they have severe supply implications and major repercussions on housing values,” says The Market Manuscript authored by Ben Myers of Fortress Real Developments.

Property Biz Canada – Newinhomes.com

Ontario still backs rent control, despite condo conversions

The Ontario government is monitoring the housing market in the wake of its expansion of rent control but remains committed to the policy despite news more than 1,000 planned rental units have been converted to condos in the Greater Toronto Area, Housing Minister Peter Milczyn says. Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government extended rent control to all private rental units in the province in April.

Globe and Mail

It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad Toronto market

One Monday evening in late March, Stephen Mandel found himself watching his kids’ swimming class and trying to buy a house at the same time. For an hour, he ran between the pool and the change rooms with his phone glued to his ear, getting updates from his real estate agent and conferring with his wife, Natanya. “We had a signal—two thumbs up or down,” says Mandel.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Globe and Mail

Skyline Apartment REIT exits Hamilton

Skyline Apartment REIT’s $173-million sale of 11 Hamilton apartment buildings to Q Management LP earlier this month fits the company’s historical strategy and will fill its coffers for new investments. “The bulk of our assets exist in secondary and tertiary markets,” said Skyline president Matthew Organ, adding Hamilton has evolved into more of a primary market.

Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

High Park Ave. may be Toronto’s ideal street

Walk south on High Park Ave. in the Junction from Dundas St. toward Bloor St. and you’ll see detached houses rubbing shoulders with humbler semis and walk-up apartments. “You’ve got it all right there,” says Toronto urban planner Sean Galbraith who calls High Park Ave. a rare example of “the missing middle,” a planning term for homes that fall between a single detached house and a mid-rise apartment building.

Toronto Star

The most and least affordable provinces to rent an apartment

Four Canadian provinces have been labelled as having a “severe” affordability problem when it comes to rental housing. A survey from rental site Rentseeker found that rents are too high for incomes in Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Ontario. All other provinces and territories were rated as having “poor” affordability, except for the Northwest Territories (“moderate”) and Nunavut (“satisfactory”).

Huffington Post

New rentals in Metro Vancouver a long time coming

Any new housing development in Metro Vancouver functions as a Rorschach test. To wit, the grand opening of a new mixed-use apartment in downtown Cloverdale in Surrey, B.C., last week. On one hand, it’s a new purpose-built rental building, meaning all 97 units in it will be explicitly for renters for decades to come. But there were nearly 2,000 applications for those 97 golden tickets.

CBC – Vancouver Sun – Globe and Mail – Global News

Comparing Calgary and Edmonton real estate

Demand has increased for new and resale single-family homes in both Calgary and Edmonton this year compared to 2016. Both centres have seen a busier period for new construction of single-family homes in 2017 compared to the same time a year ago, with a slight edge in growth going to the Calgary area.

Calgary Herald

	U.S. hurricanes’ impact on real estate
	The following section of the RENX newsletter is dedicated to news about Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in the U.S. and its impact on real estate.

 

U.S. home sales hurt by Harvey and low supply

U.S. home sales fell 1.7 per cent in August, pulled down by the effects of Hurricane Harvey and a worsening shortage of available properties. The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday sales of existing homes sank last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.35 million. Would-be homebuyers are being limited by a decline in the number of sales listings. 

Winnipeg Free Press

Google reveals Houston flood zones

HOUSTON – … we have a problem. Google Maps has outed us as a city that floods. Anyone using it on their phone can now browse our neighbourhoods to see who got flooded and who stayed flooded. For Houstonians continuing to suffer even today, facing a months-to-years long recovery after Harvey, this is more bad news because it may result in, or perpetuate lower home values.

KHOU

Two co-housing developments sprouting in Alberta

The road to establishing successful co-housing communities can be a long and arduous one, driven by small groups of people passionate about redefining the way they live. Nearly 15 years after the completion of Alberta’s first and only co-housing community, two further developments are finally taking shape. Leading the way is Urban Green, a community in the works in south-central Edmonton.

Globe and Mail – CBC

‘Borrowing binge’ has put economy in precarious position: Report

Moody’s Analytics calls it “mortgage meltdown math”, but the subsidiary of the ratings agency paints an ugly picture of what could happen to the Canadian economy if everything goes wrong in the housing market. A report from Moody’s economist Brendan LaCerda says total outstanding credit to the non-financial sector is well above international averages with the government backing most of Canada’s mortgage insurance.

Financial Post – Financial Post – Vancouver Sun – Maclean’s

Toughen realtor licence renewal testing: OREA

Imagine a course where you couldn’t fail — even if you never showed up to class — a course where, in fact, there actually was no classroom. Those are the courses real estate agents take to renew their registration with the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) — the regulatory body that permits them to practise in the province.

Toronto Star

Four top concerns of U.S. apartment developers

Nothing good lasts forever. Apartment sector experts are scanning the horizon for problems that could hurt their properties, even though apartment rents are still rising and the percentage of vacant apartments is still relatively low. One of the top worries for today’s multi-family investors: Competition from new class-A developments.

National Real Estate Investor

Market Conditions

Prime Lower Mainland still reeling from foreign-buyer tax

A year after the introduction of Canada’s first foreign-homebuyer tax drove Metro Vancouver sales down 44 per cent, the three most popular markets for foreign buyers have yet to recover. West Vancouver, Richmond and Vancouver’s west side – all areas with the highest proportion of foreign buyers prior to the implementation of the 15% tax on Aug. 2, 2016 – are all seeing lower sales now than in 2016.

Business In Vancouver

Manitoba housing records hit new high

Manitoba will set a new record this year for Multiple Listing Service (MLS) sales in a single year, according to the latest forecast from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). “Manitoba and Quebec are the only two provinces expected to set new annual sales records in 2017, while sales in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are on track to come in just short of all-time record levels,” the association said Friday.

Winnipeg Free Press

Fraser Valley apartment sales break monthly record

Fraser Valley Real Estate Board transactions broke another record in June as realtors sold the most apartments ever in a one-month period. In 30 days, 683 transactions were completed, representing 27 per cent of all sales activity. This was an increase of 13.1% compared with apartment sales in June of last year and 12.2% compared with May 2017.

Business In Vancouver

U.S. multi-family leads NOI growth In CMBS

NOI in properties backing CMBS showed slower growth across the major property sectors in 2016, Fitch Ratings said Friday, although a couple of sectors showed slight increases from the previous year. The average of 2.3% improvement for properties securitized within the Fitch-rated US CMBS multi-borrower universe compares to NOI growth averaging 3% in 2015, 3.2% in 2014, 2.5% in 2013 and 2.5% in 2012.

GlobeSt.com – National Real Estate Investor – TheStreet

New Developments

Buyers at cancelled Langara West contest developer’s offer

Vancouver Sun

Mountain condo project launches in Canmore

A new, multi-million dollar condo project in Canmore has sold half of its units just two weeks after launching sales. Spring Creek Real Estate launched sales for the $31-million condo development White Spruce Lodge over Labour Day weekend, seeing 24 buyers in the first three days. The Lodge is part of a vacation rental program.

Western Investor

Seniors Housing

Arup Datta finds niche designing seniors’ residences

Arup Datta has designed projects in Canada and internationally for more than 40 years; 29 of those from his Calgary studio. Those builds have earned Arup Datta Architect Ltd. many awards, the latest of which is featured in the Canadian section of the 2015-16 America’s Property Awards publication. That project is the Walden Heights community senior’s residence for Calgary’s AgeCare.

Calgary Herald

Hamilton to use old City Motor Hotel property for seniors residence

The site of the old, infamous City Motor Hotel is one step closer to becoming a mixed use residential development for seniors. Ward 4 councillor, Sam Merulla announced Friday the city had expropriated the land where the hotel once sat. “I’m just glad that we’re closing this file. It’s one file I’m very proud of,” said Merulla.

CBC

Legal Issues

Illegal Canmore vacation rentals lead to $2,500 fines

The Town of Canmore is cracking down on illegal vacation rentals, and property owners caught breaking the rules are facing fines.  After an awareness campaign this summer, the town began issuing tickets  — three $2,500 fines so far. “You need to have a permit to allow you to rent your house in that short-term fashion,” said Canmore planning and development manager Alaric Fish.

CBC

B.C. regulator penalizes two New Coast Realty agents

A Lower Mainland real estate agent has been suspended for 45 days and must pay $8,000 in penalties after he failed to disclose he was also the owner of a construction company that purchased a multimillion-dollar home and then tried to flip it. The disciplinary decision was one of two released this week by the Real Estate Council of British Columbia involving New Coast Realty.

Globe and Mail – CBC

Phase 1 of the Condominium Act amendments

Condo directors will no doubt have heard about some of the changes being made to condominium legislation in Ontario. This update is to provide a brief summary of where we stand now.. It is important in our view directors have at least a working knowledge of the issues involved, as many changes are due to come into effect in November 2017.

Mondaq

Condominium Management

TO landlords told to turn heat off during heatwave

Despite the unseasonably warm weather, some buildings across Toronto have already turned the air conditioning off and turned heat on. That’s because a city bylaw mandates landlords maintain a minimum temperature of 21 C as of Sept. 15. On Wednesday, city councillors Josh Matlow and Joe Mihavc held a joint news conference at CityHall urging landlords to turn their heating systems off.

CityNews – CTV – CBC

Construction

U.S. homebuilder sentiment falls in September

U.S. homebuilders are feeling less optimistic about their sales prospects, reflecting concerns rebuilding efforts following hurricanes Harvey and Irma will drive up costs for construction labour and materials. Even so, builders’ overall view of the new-home market remains positive. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index slipped to 64 this month.

Globe and Mail

Affordable Housing

U.S. affordable housing developers face new challenges

Affordable housing developers are facing more obstacles to building new projects, even though the need U.S. seems to grow stronger every year. “We believe affordable housing production, that is, the development or preservation of projects financed with Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs), will be at best flat to last year,” says Richard Gerwitz, co-head of Citi Community Capital.

National Real Estate Investor

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

The garage: Bland doesn’t play in Toronto

When Roni Brown and her husband bought an Upper Beach home in 2013, they suspected the garage behind the house needed plenty of work, and their instincts proved to be well founded last year as they set to work restoring the space. The studs were so rotten, recalls Brown, an interior decorator, that when their contractor removed the walls, the garage actually swayed. “It was nasty.”

Globe and Mail

Edmonton rejects effort to subdivide former mayor’s property

City planning officials have blocked a developer’s infill plan for the historic property of former mayor Joe Clarke. The house at 7852 Jasper Ave. is full of mould and needs to be torn down anyway. But neighbours protested a plan to subdivide the property for two narrow homes. On Thursday, city officials ruled in the favour of the residents.

Edmonton Journal

Residents face eviction amid plans to redevelop Songhees land

Residents of a mobile home park on Songhees First Nation land that is poised for redevelopment are distraught and uncertain about their futures after receiving eight months’ notice to leave.  The First Nation, citing a severe housing shortage, plans to build 180 rental units in four buildings on land at Triple Oaks mobile home park.

Victoria Times Colonist

Buying and Selling

Use of the Home Buyers’ Plan drops in Québec

After analyzing exclusive statistics from the Canada Revenue Agency regarding the Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP), the Québec Federation of Real Estate Boards (QFREB) found use of the program is decreasing in the province. From 2002 to 2015, the number of HBP withdrawals declined almost continuously, from 38,880 to 26,910 withdrawals.

Canada Newswire

Other

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