Alberta developer receives creditor protection

Alberta developer receives creditor protection

The Walton International Group Inc. and numerous related companies that form part of an organization administering 105,000 acres of land for development projects across North America has received creditor protection from a Calgary judge. The applicants are part of Calgary-based Walton Group, made up of hundreds of trusts, corporations and partnerships in Canada, the U.S. and Germany.  

Financial Post – CBC – Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Calgary Sun

Home Capital’s troubles threaten CIBC’s bid for PrivateBancorp

Home Capital Group Inc.’s (HCG-T) troubles are jeopardizing CIBC’s (CM-T) US$5 billion takeover of PrivateBancorp Inc. (PVTB-Q), with a shareholder advisory firm urging investors to oppose the deal, citing the impact of the embattled alternative-mortgage lender as one of the reasons. CIBC has seen its stock price fall in recent weeks, in part due to Home Capital. 

Bloomberg – Financial Post – Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Financial Post

Vancouver pre-sale condo market ‘incredibly robust’

Metro Vancouver’s pre-sale condo market remains “incredibly robust” with demand showing no signs of abating for the rest of 2017, says the co-president of McNeill Lalonde & Associates (MLA) Canada, a new property marketing powerhouse formed by the joining of MAC Marketing Solutions and BLVD Marketing Group.

Property Biz Canada – Globe and Mail

Victoria backs off on foreign buyers tax

Victoria will not go ahead with a foreign buyers tax after all, even though the tax was given a tentative green light at an earlier committee meeting. During a council meeting on Thursday, councillors voted four to four (Councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe didn’t vote due to conflict of interest). The tie nullified the proposal.

CBC – Victoria Times Colonist

RE the new crutch of Canada’s economy

Two things happened last week that were a reminder of just how vital real estate has become to Canada’s economy. On Friday, Statistics Canada released gross domestic product data that showed February was a banner month for sectors linked to housing. A day earlier, the Ontario government released a budget that projects land transfer taxes will surpass $3 billion in the current fiscal year.

Financial Post

Toronto’s five decades of condo growth, mapped

A half-century ago, condominiums were an obscure, novel concept in home ownership. Made legally possible in 1967, the notion of owning a suite, and then paying fees to maintain common areas, was seized on by governments as a solution to a crisis in affordable housing in the late 1960s. It did not work.    

Globe and Mail – Toronto Star – Newinhomes.com

Ontario moves to toughen oversight of syndicated mortgage investments

The Ontario government will shift regulation of syndicated mortgage investment products to the Ontario Securities Commission in a move to toughen oversight of a rapidly growing industry that has faced investor complaints about its practices. The province announced it will transfer responsibility for the syndicated mortgage sector away from the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO).

Globe and Mail – Financial Post

Opportunity lost in Fort Mac rebuild: Insurance expert

Fort McMurray is missing an opportunity to make itself more fire-resilient as it rebuilds, an insurance expert says. “As they rebuild those homes, they’re rebuilding them largely the same way they were, with the same materials that burned,” said Bill Adams, a vice president with the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

CBC – Global News – CTV – Globe and Mail

Fort Mac reviewing municipal response to wildfire

Fort McMurray municipal leaders are launching a review into the response to last May’s wildfire, after maintaining most of the year it wasn’t necessary. Mayor Melissa Blake says the review will examine the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo’s shortfalls. “We are starting from the very get-go including the evacuation that we have followed,” she said. 

CBC – CBC – CBC – CBC

Wood-frame buildings could fill ‘missing middle’: Carras

It’s great to see all three levels of government are finally starting a dialogue on the Toronto housing market and contemplating a co-ordinated introduction of new policies to help solve problems in the market — many of which arose from policy conflicts. But it’s highly unlikely to expect an overnight solution to the many complicated and highly political problems.

Toronto Star

Expect construction boom near LRT stations: RE/MAX

The opening of the Confederation Light Rail station will lead the construction of residential homes along its route, according to a study released Tuesday by RE/MAX. The real estate giant said  it is seeing increased interest from homebuilders who are eager to start construction projects near LRT lines which would allow families to access downtown areas through public transit.

Ottawa Citizen – Ottawa Business Journal – Victoria Times Colonist – Canada Newswire

Fox Harb’r: Luxury golf, homes in N.S. village

When it comes to homebuying, the Nova Scotia village of Wallace, on the far side of the Wentworth Mountains, might not be the first place that springs to mind. But thanks to the ambition of a local boy who did well the village is home to Fox Harb’r Resort, arguably Atlantic Canada’s top golf destination and housing development

Property Biz Canada

Market risk remains ‘strong’: CMHC

Canada’s federal housing agency says evidence of overvaluation has moderated in the country’s real estate markets, but the agency is still maintaining a “strong” overall risk rating. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) says evidence of overvaluation at the national level has been downgraded to moderate, from strong.

Toronto Star – CBC – Financial Post – Business In Vancouver

The path to real estate bubble panic

Canada’s red hot housing market — fuelled primarily by soaring prices first in Vancouver, and now in Toronto— has drawn many a bubble warning from some real estate watchers. But there were others who once talked down bubble fears. However with prices in Canada’s largest city climbing at more than 25 per cent a year, bubble warnings have surged, too.

Maclean’s – Maclean’s

B.C. renters form new union to protect against evictions

Vancouver’s increasingly stressed renters have formed a new tenants’ lobby group aimed at fighting for more protections from eviction and for more housing. The Vancouver Tenants Union attracted about 250 to its founding meeting Saturday, where a mix of people talked about the sense of uncertainty, lack of safety and fear they are living with every day.

Globe and Mail – CBC

Market Conditions

Toronto prices may be headed for a tumble: Fitch

Massive gains in house prices across the Greater Toronto Area could be coming to an end with a correction even in the cards, says a leading U.S. Ratings agency. Fitch Ratings believes the province’s 16-point plan to create affordability in the Greater Golden Horseshoe may derail the market.

Financial Post – Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Toronto Star – Maclean’s

Vancouver micro suites renting for $1,700 a month

New micro suites, or micro condos, are under construction in Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood, which is made up of the Downtown Eastside and the False Creek Flats. These new apartments , which will be available starting Aug. 1, are only 400 square feet and the rent is $1,700 a month.

Global News

Ottawa condo slump raises questions about vacant properties

Gary Davis is upset the empty land across from his home is being used as a temporary parking lot — against City of Ottawa rules and an official vision for the neighbourhood as pedestrian and cycling friendly. The dispute between residents, including the Civic Hospital Neighbourhood Association, and developer Mastercraft Starwood is heading to an Ontario Municipal Board hearing in June.

CBC

New Developments

Step Ahead building Edmonton’s first shipping-container apartment

Step Ahead Properties‘ three-storey Edmonton apartment building is under construction using second-hand shipping containers. The city’s first multi-family sea-can accommodations are being made of 48 steel containers pre-fabricated into modules at a Calgary factory, hauled north by truck, lifted into position by crane and welded into place at the Westgate Manor complex.

Edmonton Journal – CBC

Taxes and Utilities

Justice for renters over owners: Opinion

Commentary on Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s recent announcement of housing initiatives has focused on rent control and real estate tax on speculative properties. However, buried among the initiatives is a measure that redresses an injustice in Ontario’s property taxation that renters have had to bear: a proposal the multi-residential sector be taxed at the same rate as residential.

Ottawa Citizen – Ottawa Citizen – Financial Post

Comparing the Ontario and B.C. non-resident taxes

Ontario recently moved to dampen red-hot home prices that have gone up more than 30 per cent in the Toronto area with a 15 per cent “non-resident speculation tax.” Chatter is focused on what Toronto might have drawn on from the way B.C. implemented its 15 per cent “additional property transfer tax” in Metro Vancouver for foreign buyers last July.

Vancouver Sun – Newinhomes.com

Natural Disasters

Hamilton homeowners can apply for flooding grants

Hamilton city council has declared an April 20 rainstorm that flooded parts of Dundas a disaster, unlocking thousands in compassionate grants for homeowners who suffered losses. With the compassionate grants, residents can receive up to $1,000 to help cover damages from the rainstorm. The city has established the grants through the Residential Municipal Disaster Relief Assistance Program.

CBC

Flood damage costly to southwestern Manitoba

The spring melt may have started more than a month ago but people in southwestern Manitoba are still feeling the effects of the high water, and will be cleaning up millions of dollars in damage for the foreseeable future. In the municipality of Two Borders, Reeve Debbie McMechan estimated the carnage of this spring’s flooding could top $4 million.

CBC

Legal Issues

Montreal landlord fined for condo listed on Airbnb

Montreal landlord Gerry Galiatsatos is joining a growing chorus of voices who say Quebec’s law to regulate online home-sharing services such as Airbnb “is clearly not working.” Galiatsatos was shocked to learn his Saint-Henri condo, which he rents out, was listed on Airbnb. In the last several months, his tenants rented out the condo unit at least 65 times.

CBC

Affordable Housing

Interest-free loans to first-time home buyers coming to N.S.

A Housing Nova Scotia offer of interest-free loans for first-time, low-income home buyers is a “step in the right direction” but may not get many takers, says ACORN, a national organization of low- and moderate-income families. MLA Joanne Bernard said the program removes a hurdle for those who find it difficult to save up for a down payment.

CBC – Newinhomes.com

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

Ottawa seniors look to co-housing

A group of Ottawa seniors are a step closer to building their own co-housing community. The concept of co-housing was developed in Denmark in the 1960s. It centres around the idea of creating “neighbourhoods that combine the autonomy of private dwellings with the advantages of shared resources and community living,” according to the Canadian Cohousing Network.

CBC

TO homeowners want more money for expropriation

Some Toronto homeowners are battling the city over the expropriation of their townhouses, saying the amount the city is offering isn’t close to market value and doesn’t cover their moving costs, legal fees or the inconvenience of being kicked out. Michael Pritchard and his brother Steve bought their three-storey townhouse nearly seven years ago.

CBC

Torontonians escape high rent by living on Lake Ontario

By day, Alys Esmond sells real estate in Canada’s hottest housing market. By night, she retreats to a 40-foot boat on Toronto’s shoreline, where she eats dinner with her partner and adult son, plays with her 100-pound German shepherd, and climbs into her queen-sized bed — all in the belly of her ship.

CBC

Richmond recommends farmhouse size restrictions

Richmond city council has voted to move ahead with proposed changes that would cap the size of a farmhouse on half-an-acre to just under 11,000 square feet. Monday night’s 7-2 vote followed months of public consultations around the issue of mega-homes being built on the Agricultural Land Reserve. City Coun. Carol Day is against the updated guidelines. 

CBC

Other

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