Vancouver homebuyer ordered to repay bank

Vancouver homebuyer ordered to repay bank

China’s Citic Bank has won a landmark ruling in a Canadian court, which ordered a mainland national to comply with a Chinese judgment and repay the bank $9.7 million Cdn plus interest, the bank says was spent in part on Vancouver real estate. The rare ruling could open the “floodgates” for the pursuit of illicit Chinese funds in Canada.

Business In Vancouver – CBC

B.C.’s empty home problem moving beyond Vancouver

Empty homes aren’t just a Vancouver problem anymore. They are a problem throughout B.C. – some municipalities more than others. New data from Statistics Canada’s 2016 census shows the story varies from region to region, with Delta seeing a major increase and New Westminster enjoying a significant drop.

Globe and Mail

Quebec regulations stifling apartment renovation: Group

Due to current regulations, it takes 41.7 years to recover renovation costs compared to seven or eight years in the 1980s, says a group that represents Quebec’s 25,000 landlords. That figure surpasses the lifespans of the renovations, said Hans Brouillette, director of communications and public affairs at the Corporation de propriétaires immobiliers du Québec (CORPIQ).

Property Biz Canada

One in four Van. homes could be gone by 2030: UBC

An architecture professor at the University of British Columbia says about a quarter of detached homes in Vancouver could be torn down in just over a decade. Joseph Dahmen has created a tool that forecasts how many homes could be demolished in the city by 2030 – victims of the recent surge in property values.

CTV

More B.C. stratas may consider packing it in

Recent changes to B.C.’s Strata Property Act allow for strata owners to dissolve their strata corporation on an 80 per cent vote for voluntary windup, which has spurred developer interest in older strata properties for redevelopment purposes. Prior to the July 29, 2016, change in the statute, the requirement was unanimous approval.

Western Investor

Foreigners heavily invested in Canadian market

One puzzle around the run-up in Canadian home prices is the extent to which foreign money is the driver.  But they needn’t look far. Just ask the banks. The nation’s lenders have more than doubled their external debt since the end of the recession – an amount in excess of $500 billion, according to international investment position data released by Statistics Canada.

Bloomberg

Trump tower residents increase terrorism insurance coverage

In the weeks leading to today’s official opening of the Trump Hotel, residents of the 69-storey tower voted to increase insurance coverage for terrorism in light of local and global events. The vote speaks to the enduring controversy Trump brand continues to attract.

Vancouver Sun – Vancouver Sun – Globe and Mail – Bloomberg

Winnipeg bright spot in Prairie multi-family rentals

Winnipeg has emerged as the big-city bright spot for residential landlords with a rental vacancy rate a fraction of that in most large cities of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The vacancy rate in Manitoba’s capital is now 2.8 per cent, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), virtually unchanged from a year ago.

Western Investor

B.C. has no plan for housing foreign students: Critics

The B.C. government boasted Monday it had lured far more foreign students per capita than anywhere else in Canada — 130,000 — claiming they inject $2 billion each year into the economy, creating 29,000 jobs. What Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson didn’t say about the B.C. Jobs Plan, however, is it has virtually no strategy to house foreign students.

Vancouver Sun

First-time buyers making record down payments

The common assumption is first-time buyers are deteriorating, but a survey from Mortgage Pros Canada might indicate otherwise. The national mortgage industry association’s chief economist William Dunning’s report notes first-time buyers have a record amount of equity in their homes, and apparently borrowing for a down payment has always been normal in Canada.

Better Dwelling

Toronto lawyer jailed over condo fraud case

A Toronto real estate lawyer has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison after pleading guilty of defrauding condominium buyers of over $2 million. Meerai Cho was charged in August 2014, with 25 counts each of fraud over $5,000, possession of property obtained by crime and breach of trust.

Toronto Star – CityNews – CBC

TO housing boom helps Ontario cut deficit forecast

Ontario’s housing boom is filtering into government coffers, swelling tax revenue and leading to a smaller-than-expected budget deficit for Canada’s most populous province. Ontario now sees a $1.9 billion deficit for the fiscal year ending March 31, after reducing its reserve by $600 million, down from $4.3 billion projected in the 2016 budget.

Bloomberg

Landlords taking over U.S. housing market

As rising home prices, slow new home construction, and demographic shifts push homeownership rates to 50-year lows, the U.S. is increasingly a country of renters—and landlords. Last year, 37 per cent of homes sold were acquired by buyers who didn’t live in them, according to tax-assessment data compiled in a new report published by Attom Data Solutions and ClearCapital.com Inc.

Bloomberg

Lendlease to offer rented property to co-investors

Lendlease is developing a “residential-for-rental” asset class to offer for co-investment with capital partners in the U.S and U.K. Addressing analysts and investors at the Sydney-based group’s first half results, ending Dec. 31, chief executive Steve McCann today said: “Residential-for-rent provides exposure to a new asset class for us.”

IPE Real Estate – IPE Real Estate

Luxury loses In positive U.S. multi-family market

Post-recession, apartment real estate has been the sector to watch as rents escalated and development was relatively controlled. Entering 2017, the industry buzz revolves around overdevelopment within certain markets and classes, and rents beginning to show declines. Nonetheless, interest in the U.S. rental market is expected to continue to increase over the next few years. 

GlobeSt.com – GlobeSt.com

RENX Columnists

Homeownership a wise goal for all Canadians

Over the past few years, demographics regarding homeownership in Canada have changed, especially for those entering the marketplace – largely because of rising home prices. The great news is that first-time buyers are still finding ways to become owners, just a little later in life.

Read more

Market Conditions

Soaring rents ‘squeezing younger people out’ of Toronto

Young people who would like to build lives in Toronto are choosing to leave rather than pay the city’s ever-increasing rents. For 27-year-old Arthur Gallant, that’s meant moving from Etobicoke, to Burlington, to Hamilton in search of an affordable apartment for himself and his mother. “You can only move so far west until you hit water,” he said.

CBC

Toronto may need a Vancouver-style cooling: RBC

Toronto may need to consider Vancouver-style measures to address a “dangerous mix” of factors that are fuelling the region’s overheated housing market, the chief executive of Canada’s largest bank warned on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada CEO Dave McKay said he has grown increasingly concerned about the country’s largest housing market.

Globe and Mail – Financial Post – Toronto Star – Toronto Star

Windsor marking breaking records: Realtors

Windsor real estate is booming as the population grows and the unemployment rate dips, according to local realtors. “2016 was a record year for the local housing market, and that strong momentum looks set to continue into 2017,” Kim Gazo, president of the Windsor-Essex County Association of Realtors, wrote in a recent report.

Windsor Star

Are slowing retail sales an omen for housing?

A Conference Board of Canada report concluded record household debt levels will slow domestic consumer spending. The past 17 years has seen a close relationship between retail spending and housing prices. If it holds, this might be bad news for indebted homeowners.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

U.S. home prices rise at fastest pace in a year

U.S. home prices rose in December from a year earlier at the fastest pace in 11 months, as prospective buyers bid against each other for a limited supply of available property. The Standard & Poor’s CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased 5.6 per cent, the most since January 2016.

Globe and Mail – Winnipeg Free Press – Reuters

Saskatoon’s apartment vacancy rate soars past historic high

Four years ago, Grant Spurdle’s apartment building in Varsity View was filled to capacity, with 63 tenants paying good money for a suite within easy walking distance of Broadway Avenue, the University of Saskatchewan and Saskatoon’s downtown core. Now the family-owned building’s vacancy rate is up to 12.5 per cent. 

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Toronto’s runaway market heading for paralysis: Economists

Toronto’s real estate market is heading toward a state of paralysis, says Chris Kapches, president and chief executive officer of Chestnut Park Real Estate Ltd. Kapches says the shortage of listings prompted house hunters to head out in force in January. They were also making quick decisions. Properties for sale sold in 19 days, on average.

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

B.C. plans for a slower housing market

The B.C. government is anticipating double-digit declines in B.C. housing starts and property transfer tax revenue, and increased revenue from its foreign buyers’ tax, over the course of the next year. A projected slowdown across the B.C. housing market is expected to leave the province with $483 million less revenue from its property transfer tax in 2017-18.

Business In Vancouver – Globe and Mail

Mortgage and Finance

What $2,400 per month gets you in Toronto

Have you got $2,400 to shell out for rent every month? It’ll get you pretty far in Toronto, snagging you either a high-end personal pad or an entire house, depending on the neighbourhood. We rounded up some eye-catching options from across the city. Keep in mind, these prices and details are all based on online listings.

CBC – CBC – CBC – CBC

New Developments

Vancouver church plans condo tower

A Vancouver church’s plan to develop its land, including building a condo tower, is drawing the ire of some, but also the support of others who believe in increasing density in single-family neighbourhoods. The Dunbar Ryerson United Church wants to leverage the valuable lots to fund much-needed repairs to the 89-year-old stone church.

Vancouver Sun

The latest Olympic Village condo community

With its presence well established in the popular and vibrant Olympic Village in False Creek, Pinnacle International has made a name for itself as a developer that appeals to young families and downsizers — those looking for spacious homes in a neighbourhood with retail, restaurants and leisure a walk away.

Vancouver Province

Renovation, Repair and Maintenance

Tenant’s medical marijuana grow-op costs landlord insurance

Longtime landlord Darryl Spencer was left scrambling for insurance after discovering a tenant was growing dozens of medical marijuana plants inside and outside his rental house in Kamloops, B.C. When the landlord told his insurance company about the perfectly legal grow-op, his coverage was cancelled, leaving him with no insurance, few rights and a big cleanup bill. 

CBC

Taxes and Utilities

Fort Mac homeowners to be compensated for drywall duties

Canada will slash anti-dumping duties on U.S. drywall imports after a trade panel ruled maintaining levies imposed last fall would harm consumers and businesses, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced Monday. At the same time, some of the roughly $12 million collected since the duties were imposed in September will go toward a compensation package for residents.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Gentrification hits Hamilton tax bills

For the first time in decades, lower city wards have the largest property assessment increases of anywhere in Hamilton. And residents are having trouble paying.  Because of the reassessments, wards 1 through 4 — from the west end to east Hamilton — will see some of the highest property tax increases for the next four years.

CBC

Ontario eyes electricity market overhaul

The Ontario government, facing soaring hydro prices, is pursuing a fundamental overhaul of the province’s electricity market in an effort to keep rates as low as possible. The province is considering a “technology-neutral” bidding process to replace the current approach, in which the system operator issues contracts from specific power sources such as natural gas, wind or solar.

Globe and Mail – Toronto Star – Globe and Mail

Natural Disasters

High River homes auctioned for pittance

High River homes that were worth millions before being ravaged by the 2013 flood have recouped just under $3 million for the province following a public auction. Last month, Alberta Infrastructure launched an auction for 26 homes — 25 in High River and one in Sundre — with no reserve bids in hopes of recovering some of the cash used to purchase dwellings.

Calgary Herald – CBC

Legal Issues

Developer faces fine for allegedly letting tenants in early

The developer of an eight-storey Halifax apartment building will be fined for allegedly allowing tenants to begin living there almost two months before an occupancy permit was granted. The building in this case, Boss Plaza Residences in Fairview, is being built by United Gulf Developments Ltd.

CBC

Affordable Housing

Homelessness in a ‘state of crisis’: Lower mainland mayors

Lower Mainland mayors say homelessness has reached a “state of crisis,” with more than 4,000 in need of housing and more than 70 homeless camps in operation. Metro Vancouver’s homelessness task force released a report Monday that called for an action plan and 3,000 more units of transitional housing built by the end of 2019. 

Globe and Mail

Small houses

Tiny house wave arrives in Hamilton

Four hundred square feet is 2 1/2 times the size of a parking space. It’s the size of an average two-car garage and 1/10th the size of a tennis court. But for two Hamilton agencies, it’s the magic size for a partial solution to Hamilton’s affordable housing crisis, particularly when it comes to homeless women.

CBC – Ottawa Citizen – Regina Leader-Post

Family of 4 ditches home for ‘morphing’ condo

It took three years for Grant Martens to purge most of his worldly possessions to fulfil his dream of living in a morphing condo. Martens, along with his wife and two teenage daughters, decided to leave their 2,700-square-foot Eaton’s catalogue home in Rosetown, Sask., for an 800-square-foot condo in Saskatoon.

CBC

Buying and Selling

What kind of home will $770K buy?

With the price of a detached home in Vancouver well beyond the reach of most families, we took the average price of a home in Toronto — $770,000 — and set out to see what kind of property that could get you in cities across Canada. Our survey showed the size and quality of a home selling in that price range varies widely by postal code.

CBC

Millennials buying homes with parental help: HSBC

While slightly more than a third of Canadian millennials now own a home, nearly two-fifths of them had help from parents to get into the market, says a new global study from HSBC. HSBC found 82 per cent of non-homeowner Canadian millennials intend to buy in the next five years, but only half have set an approximate budget.

Globe and Mail – CNBC – Canada Newswire

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