Housing boom transforming Kelowna

Housing boom transforming Kelowna

For many years, a condo site in downtown Kelowna, B.C., had sat unfinished – an eyesore and reminder of the 2008 recession and collapse of a formerly booming market. In 2012, Chinese developer Jingon, based in Richmond, bought the property for $3.8-million and announced plans to build a tower called Grace.

Globe and Mail

Alberta’s industrial work camps in a low-price oil era

When Horizon North Logistics Inc. went to name the new camp placed on the site of its Blacksand Executive Lodge – a 665-room facility completely destroyed by the Fort McMurray fire – the choice was clear: Phoenix. But having risen from the ashes, how busy the Phoenix camp will be in the months ahead is an open question.

Globe and Mail

Green builders extend help to Fort McMurray

When Fort McMurray rises again from the ashes of the wild fires that tore through the city in May, it could be greener and more sustainable than before. Built Green Canada and the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) are both offering to help make the Northern Alberta city’s buildings sustainable as rebuilding in Fort McMurray gets underway.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Vancouver becomes Canada’s first ‘city of millionaires’

A strong housing market is making Canadians wealthier, on paper, as the value of their homes outstrips a rising amount of debt. Household debt across the country grew by 4.1 per cent last year to an average of $133,170 while average household net worth increased slightly more.

Globe and Mail

Wealthy Chinese immigrants come for better housing, not money

Chinese business-class immigrants aren’t coming to Canada to have better careers or earn more money. In fact, they expect to do worse economically. Instead, their primary motivation is to find better homes for their families, even if that means making less money or not working at all, says a new UBC study.

Globe and Mail

Foreign-buyer tax to spur Vancouver housing correction, TD warns

Vancouver house prices could drop 10 per cent by the end of next year, as the introduction of a new tax on foreign buyers helps speed up a market correction, Toronto-Dominion Bank economists warned in a new report. House sales in the Vancouver region will fall 3 per cent this year and more than 22 per cent next year.

Globe and Mail

Council approves Brander Gardens luxury condo plan

A plan by cardiologist Dennis Modry to turn his $6.6-million top-of-the-bank property into a 46-unit luxury condo development won council approval Monday.  The proposal calls for six four-storey luxury condo buildings on a 3.2-hectare site along the edge of the river valley.

Edmonton Journal

Builder proposes mixed-use development for the Glebe

Milito Investments is asking the city for permission to build a five-storey mixed-use building at the corner of Bank Street and Clemow Avenue in the Glebe.

The proposed mix-used building

The development plan filed with the city calls for 321.7 square metres of retail space on the ground floor with 14 apartments on the other floors.

Ottawa Business Journal

Canadian investors trade North Miami apartment portfolio

Canada’s Econo-Malls Management Corp. just cashed out its chips on a North Miami apartment portfolio, selling five buildings in the city for $18.2 million.  The sale includes 233 apartments housed in five buildings constructed in the 1960s and ‘70s, according to county records.

The Real Deal

How a low-flying, spy plane sets apartment rents

CNBC’s Diana Olick looks at the novel way CoStar is gathering commerical real estate information: By using low-flying, military-style reconnaissance planes with cameras.  The company’s CEO Andy Florance says its multimillion dollar investment compiles about twice the info of its competitors.

Multifamily Executive

Carless renters pay for parking they don’t use

Many residents of American cities can’t escape the high cost of parking, even if they don’t own cars. Thanks to policies like mandatory parking requirements and the practice of “bundling” parking with housing, carless renters pay $440 million each year for parking they don’t use.

Corporate Knights – Taylor and Francis

Pets are a strike against hopeful tenants

It’s one of the most horrible routines for the Vancouver branch of the BC Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, one that’s devastating for staff who regularly deal with it. But they know it’s worse for people on the other side of the counter, pressed into an emotionally excruciating situation by being a renter with a pet in Vancouver.

Globe and Mail

Canadian housing affordability deteriorates the most in six years

Soaring housing prices in Vancouver and Toronto continued to squeeze housing affordability at the national level in the second quarter, even though affordability was close to historical norms in most other Canadian markets, according to the Housing Trends and Affordability Report issued today by RBC Economics Research.

Canada Newswire

Bosa launches competition for affordable housing ideas

Bosa Properties is proud to announce its partnership with the internationally recognized XPRIZE competition to address the complex socio-economic issues surrounding affordable housing. Bosa Properties is implementing this initiative by sponsoring an Affordable Housing Visioneers Team.

Canada Newswire

House explosion has turned Mississauga street into a ghost town

On the days that it doesn’t rain, Pietro Galea drives home to water his garden. The 80-year-old Italian immigrant hobbles up to the house – now fenced-off – where he and his wife Maria have lived for nearly 40 years. Behind the bungalow where they raised six children, his tomato and zucchini plants thrive.

Globe and Mail

RENX Columnists

Market Conditions

Victoria property sales continue record breaking pace

A total of 883 properties sold in the Victoria Real Estate Board region this August, an increase of 19.2 per cent compared to the 741 properties sold in August last year. “For the sixth consecutive month, we have a sales record with more sales than any other month of August on record,” says Mike Nugent, President of the Board.

Marketwired

5,000 jobs gone in four months: Vancouver Home Builders

People who build homes in Metro Vancouver say they are bracing for serious losses over the next few months. New B.C. property tax for foreign buyers hurts province, say insiders Bob de Wit, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association, is predicting the loss of 5,000 jobs in the region by the beginning of December.

CBC.ca

Vancouver home sales plunge for second straight month

It’s too early to say for sure what long-term impact a new tax on foreign buyers has had on Canada’s most expensive city for housing. That seemed to be the general consensus after August sales figures, released Friday by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, showed sales had dropped 22.8 per cent from July alone.

Financial Post

Calgary condo prices fall to levels similar to 2013

The divide between detached houses and other segments of Calgary’s depressed real-estate market continued to widen last month. August numbers released Thursday by the Calgary Real Estate Board shows the estimated price for a typical condo in the city was down 0.76 per cent from July to $274,900.

Financial Post

Apartments and attached housing lead Calgary decline

While Calgary home sales were down year-over-year for a 21st consecutive month in August, with the biggest pains felt in the condo apartment and attached categories, according to the latest report from the Calgary Real Estate Board. Overall, home sales were down 4.6 per cent from August 2015.

Calgary Herald

Regina’s housing still among the most affordable: RBC

Housing affordability deteriorated slightly in the second quarter in Regina, but remained near the long-term average, which is among the most affordable of Canada’s 14 major cities, according to Royal Bank of Canada’s latest housing affordability report.

Leader Post

Renovation, Repair and Maintenance

Owning a heritage house brings cost along with the beauty

Heritage homes offer soul, character and good bones. But owning and renovating one comes with caveats. A heritage designation, bestowed by federal, provincial or municipal governments, protects the features of a property that are of special heritage interest. What that means for owners of heritage homes is that any plans for repair or alterations must be approved by a committee, generally at the city level.

Globe and Mail

Condominium Management

Condo owners do not own their view

I read an article that you wrote in 2014 stating that condo owners do not own their view. In our case, there is a movement afoot to lop off existing trees or remove them entirely so that they have an unobstructed view. Could the condo board decide to go ahead with this, or would it need approval from the owners?

Edmonton Journal

Other

Retiring CEO at Calgary UDI improved professionalism

After more than three decades, home building industry icon Donna Moore is moving on. Her resignation as co-CEO of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association – Urban Development Institute Calgary Region Association was announced earlier this month.

Calgary Herald

	RENX has surpassed 9,265 Twitter followers
	Follower Erik Mitchell is a syndicated mortgage specialist at FDS, Canada’s leading distributor of syndicated mortgage investments in real estate developments.
	Follow RENXca, the most comprehensive news feed on Twitter for Canadian real estate professionals.