OMERS reported in talks to sell Teranet for $3 billion

OMERS reported in talks to sell Teranet for $3 billion

Canadian pension plan Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System has been talking with major U.S. and Canadian private equity firms about selling land registry company Teranet in a deal that could fetch about C$3 billion, according to people familiar with the situation.

Reuters

Canadian RE investment in U.S. reaches all-time high

Canadians looking for more affordable homes are increasingly looking south of the border for real estate investment, according to a new report. Foreign investment in U.S. real estate surged 49 per cent year-over-year for the 12-month period ending March 2017, according to new data released by the U.S.-based National Association of Realtors.

BNN – Financial Post – Business Insider – CBC

Devimco begins construction of Montreal’s l’Hexagone 2

Construction has begun on L’Hexagone 2, Devimco’s second residential rental project in Montreal’s Griffintown neighbourhood. The 22-storey building is part of Devimco’s District Griffin project, which is mostly comprised of condominiums in the former industrial neighbourhood south of downtown. The building will be next to the original 15-storey L’Hexagone which has 257 rental apartments.

Property Biz Canada

Feds take developers to court over presale flippers

The federal government is taking the property developers behind the Marine Gateway project on Marine Drive and the Residences at West on southeast False Creek to court, probing for information on buyers who flipped their presale contracts before construction was completed to verify compliance with the Income Tax Act.

Business in Vancouver

CRA tax shift collides with municipal rental incentives

A push by Metro Vancouver municipalities to increase rental density in single-family neighbourhoods could soon collide with tougher enforcement of the capital gains tax exemption on principal residences.  Vancouver, North Vancouver, Coquitlam and Port Moody now or will soon allow from two to four rental suites to be contained on a detached housing lot, through rental suites and laneway houses.

Business In Vancouver

Vancouver launches affordable rental pilot program in Cambie corridor

The City of Vancouver has announced details of a pilot project that will test the feasibility of requiring all new rental buildings in the city to include at least 20 per cent below-market rental units. The regulations will be tested in the Oakridge “municipal town centre,” an area along the rapidly densifying Cambie corridor that the city has identified as a prime hub for new development.

CBC – Vancouver Sun – CBC

The new ‘strange reality’ for Fraser Valley real estate

These are strange times indeed for real estate south of the Fraser River, marked by low inventory, a townhouse and apartment boom outpacing the detached market, an uncertain political climate and bidding wars as far away as Chilliwack – all of this on the heels of a 2016 that broke sales records dating back to 1921.

Business In Vancouver

Van. one-bedroom rent hits another record high in July

Vancouver’s already-expensive rent has broken yet another record, according to PadMapper’s latest report. In July, the average rent in Vancouver for a one-bedroom apartment increased 2.5 per cent, reaching $2,090. This was the first time rent for this home type jumped higher than the $2,000 mark since PadMapper started tracking this data across Canada.

Business In Vancouver

Toronto condo prices soar 28%, pass half-million mark

Forget single-family homes: Even condos are moving out of affordability range for Toronto’s middle class. The average condo in the region sold for $532,032 up 28 per cent in the second quarter of this year, and an increase from $415,454 in the same period of 2016 according to Toronto Real Estate Board report.

Huffington Post

Hamilton ready for world-class high-rise condos says Lamb

A double high-rise condominium and multi-use project proposed for the CHCH television property in Hamilton will introduce a new era of quality and hipness to the city, says its developer. The CHCH building, originally constructed as a private residence and completed in 1850, is said by developer Brad Lamb to be in “amazing shape.”

Daily Commercial News – Property Biz Canada

Hamilton condo tower development in receivership

The Connolly condo tower project is now in receivership, throwing into doubt a project that knocked down most of a historic Hamilton church, but left only rubble in its place.  The project will be sold off in a bidding process. The Connolly is about 75 per cent sold — but it isn’t yet clear what will happen with those units.

CBC – CBC

	B.C. wildfires’ impact on real estate, residents
	The following section of the RENX newsletter is dedicated to news about the wildfires in British Columbia and their impact on real estate.

 

Wildfire situation remains stable, some new blazes

A spate of wildfires in the Interior have led to province-wide state of emergency being declared in British Columbia. Follow along for our latest updates on the efforts to combat the blazes that forced 45,000 from their homes with maps for located hot spots and affected communities.

Vancouver Sun – CBC

Tens of thousands of displaced B.C. residents go home

Tens of thousands of anxious British Columbia residents who were forced to escape raging wildfires have returned home in recent days as firefighters made progress and conditions improved. About 20,000 people remained displaced on Monday, but that number was down significantly from 45,000 last week.

Vancouver Sun – Vancouver Sun

Fort Mac rebuilding faster than expected: CMHC

Fort McMurray is rebounding more quickly than expected from the loss of 2,500 homes in a devastating wildfire last year, with one-third of destroyed houses now under reconstruction in the northern Alberta city. A new report by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says rebuilding has started on a total of 844 homes that were destroyed by fire in May 2016.

Globe and Mail

Tool kit offers softer approach to high-density living

It’s easy to feel lonely and crowded at the same time in the type of towers going up across Edmonton’s most-populated neighbourhoods. Meeting a neighbour in a cramped elevator is uncomfortable, socially awkward and, once inside a condo unit, only pigeons walk by the window.

Edmonton Journal – BC Business

Club Intrawest timeshare must pay millions in GST back taxes

In a decision that will likely affect owners of timeshares with properties located in Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal last week substituted its own decision in the case of Club Intrawest v. Canada. The decision refers GST assessments back to CRA, for reassessment of GST for services supplied in Canada in relation to vacation homes situated in Canada. It means the timeshare owners may be assessed for those back taxes.

Canada Newswire

U.S. apartment markets improve, but still subpar

All four indexes of the National Multifamily Housing Council’s latest quarterly survey of apartment market conditions remained below the break-even level of 50 for the fourth consecutive quarter, thus indicating continued softening conditions, NMHC said Thursday. However, all four indexes represented an improvement over the previous survey, conducted in April.

GlobeSt.com – GlobeSt.com

Market Conditions

City census shows Calgary’s housing glut highest in decades

Data released by the City of Calgary reveals a glut of housing that hasn’t been so big in three decades, perhaps longer. In its latest census, the city reported that more than 23,600 housing units are vacant, up by 2,700 over last year’s levels, pushing the vacancy rate to 4.76 per cent, its highest peak in recent memory.

Calgary Herald

Vancouver housing start plunge ‘a surprise’

Vancouver’s new housing sales have been on a blistering pace over the past two years and the inventory of new condos has fallen to historic lows. So, it was a surprise to some when housing starts plunged through the first half of 2017, dropping by 80 per cent in the first six months compared with the same period in 2016.

Business In Vancouver

Toronto’s falling house prices signal a return to sanity

House prices have been falling in Toronto. Yes, falling. To many people, that comes as a rude shock. Prices rose for so long that it seemed as if it were the natural state of affairs. The idea took hold that Toronto was somehow unique, its housing market immune to corrections and crashes.

The Globe and Mail – CBC

London market showing no signs of cooling

Canada’s raging housing market appears to be finally slowing down, but it’s a different story in London, Ont., where the average home price sits at $335,000, a 19.7 per cent increase from the same time last year. “We’ve broken records every month of 2017 since we started keeping them in 1978,” said Jim Smith, president of the London St. Thomas Association of Realtors.

CBC

Mortgage and Finance

Canadians managing mortgages despite soaring debt load

Canadians may be shouldering near-record household debt but homeowners have been managing it better than those than don’t own property, according to the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. Mortgage delinquency rates and credit scores improved in Q4 2016 from Q3 and those with a home loan were less likely to default or file for bankruptcy, the CMHC said.

Bloomberg

Morneau: Housing rules slowing unsustainable markets

Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Tuesday measures put in place by federal and provincial governments to cool the housing market are slowing markets in regions where activity had been rising at an unsustainable pace. The Canadian government late last year introduced tighter mortgage lending rules to discourage consumers from taking on too much debt.

Reuters – Victoria Times Colonist

New Developments

Wesley Tower amenities designed with the future in mind

We just received new details about the amenities at Wesley Tower in Mississauga, and as usual, Daniels has exceeded expectations! The 43-storey condo, designed by Rafael & Bigauskas Architects, will rise at Confederation Parkway and City Centre Drive in the 23-acre master-planned community, Daniels City Centre.

New in Homes – Property Biz Canada

Seasonal Homes

Western Canada’s cheapest recreational properties

A day’s drive from Metro Vancouver can lead to lakefront acreages for less than $40,000, according to exclusive data provided to Western Investor’s annual Recreational Investment Report by Niho Land and Cattle Company and its subsidiaries, LandQuest Realty Corp., and Landcor Data Corp., which tracks all B.C. real estate title transactions on a weekly basis.

Western Investor – Western Investor

Renovation, Repair and Maintenance

Cleaning homes contaminated with fentanyl slow, dangerous

When decontaminating a house laced with fentanyl where a dose equal to two or three grains of salt could kill, there is no room for error, says the co-owner of Trauma Scene Bio Services Inc. “Two grains of salt could possibly kill you, three for sure will,” said Mike Wiebe, whose company specializes in cleaning up crime scenes.

Edmonton Journal

Taxes and Utilities

Ontarians pay highest hydro rates: Study

The price of electricity grew significantly faster in Ontario than everywhere else in Canada over the past decade, according to a report by the Fraser Institute. The study, which used data from Statistics Canada, shows from 2008 to 2016 residential hydro costs in Ontario rose 71 per cent, while the average increase across Canada totalled 34 per cent. 

CBC

Natural Disasters

Edmonton residents frustrated by flood mitigation work

The city’s multi-million-dollar flood mitigation plan for Mill Woods is overkill, an Edmonton resident says. Last summer, drainage pipes under the street in front of Willy Jabs’ house were replaced with much larger ones. Those new pipes were part of a $57-million city initiative that began in 2015 and extends until 2020.

CBC

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

Ottawa moving toward regulating Airbnb

Ottawa City Council is taking the first steps towards implementing regulations on Airbnb and other short-term rental services. Council recently approved a motion to prompt a bylaw review. Christy Allen, a condominium lawyer with Davidson Houle Allen, applauded the move.

Ottawa Business Journal

Other

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