Brookfield acquiring major MHC portfolio

Brookfield acquiring major MHC portfolio

NorthStar Realty Finance Corp. (NRF-N) has agreed to sell its 135 manufactured housing communities to an affiliate of a real estate fund managed by Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (BAM.A-T) for $2.04 billion US or about $61,800/pad site. A portion of the purchase price includes Brookfield assuming $1.27 billion of outstanding mortgage notes encumbering the portfolio.

CoStar Group

Freddie Mac launches multi-family index for investors

Freddie Mac has debuted a multi-family index that measures how the relative value of investing in multi-family properties changes over time both nationally, as well as in certain markets. The Multifamily Apartment Investment Market Index (AIMI), combines three measurements — rental income, multi-family property price growth and multi-family mortgage rates.

Globest.com – MultifamilyBiz.com‎

Could Aussie plan work in Canada?

Prices have been cooling in Australia’s hottest real estate markets, a year after a government crackdown on foreign property ownership. While probably not the only factor, the government’s efforts appear to be working, says Benjamin Tal, the CIBC’s World Markets deputy chief economist — who suggests it could be helpful for Canada to look at the example Down Under.

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

Canada a laggard in foreign ownership registry

Canada has still not joined a global move to create a public registry that would disclose the ownership of foreign companies holding property. Britain, France and a handful of other countries each agreed on Thursday to establish public registries of the beneficial owners of foreign companies that own, or intend to buy, property.

Globe and Mail

Montrealers, developer battle over proposed condo towers

The Ville-Marie borough and developer Prével say a plan to build two 20-storey towers will help preserve two former villas and provide new public green spaces in western downtown Montreal. But some residents who attended a public consultation meeting Thursday night say the project will ruin the neighbourhood.

Montreal Gazette – Montreal Gazette

Vancouver’s mid-rise buildings shine

The Vancouver skyline is being transformed with a new generation of residential towers that twist and twirl into the sky. But many of the most striking new developments are lower to the ground. South Creek Landing, a six-storey building designed by Arno Matis Architecture and featuring metal spandrels that angle down the exterior, in a big ‘L’ shape.

Vancouver Sun

Activists call for Burnaby to save older apartment buildings

Martin Lenin Fernandez has worked for eight years to bring his two sons to Burnaby from his native Nicaragua. They finally arrived last month and just as the family was getting settled into his one-bedroom apartment, they were evicted, the latest victim of plans to replace dozens of four-storey rental apartments with large multi-storey condo towers.

Global News

B.C. pledges funds for low-income rental housing

The province and Capital Regional District have agreed to invest up to $60 million in new rental housing for low-income families and individuals. Housing Minister Rich Coleman confirmed Monday the B.C. government will match contributions by the district. The CRD approved a plan in December to borrow $30 million for affordable or supportive housing projects if the province matched it.

Victoria Times Colonist

Kelowna offers incentives to developers to ease rental woes

Developers in Kelowna are taking advantage of incentives designed by the city to encourage rental housing at a time when new units are desperately needed. Kelowna city council recently finalized purpose-built rental housing agreements with six developers. Each will construct one building, for a total of 329 units. The city provided grants to each project, totaling $286,000.

BCBusiness

Alberta adopts new measurement standard

After a CBC investigation found a Calgary woman’s home was actually 20 per cent smaller than advertised, the Real Estate Council of Alberta has announced new guidelines for home measurement. The council announced Friday the approval of a new “residential measurement standard” real estate agents will be required to follow when listing the size of a home.

CBC News

The limits of democracy in Ontario condos

We often think democracy is the ultimate decision-making process in condominium corporations in Ontario. True, but it is not that simple. The first challenge to the general tenet that majority rules the governance of condominiums is that numerous decisions require a varying degree of approval from the owners.

Lexology

Introducing Oshawa’s University Towns

The success of Podium Developments and Building Capital‘s University Studios — which sold out in two weeks  — has underlined the continuing demand for student housing in college towns throughout the Greater Toronto Area and beyond. Podium and Building Capital are teaming up once again to bring a new residential development called University Towns to Oshawa.

Urban Toronto – Newinhomes.com

Student housing earning investors’ respect

A trio of recent transactions demonstrates the growing clout of student housing among a wide range of investors ranging from private-equity funds and REITs to international pension funds and other institutional investors.

CoStar Group

Chinese developers eye youth apartment concepts

Some mainland Chinese developers are shifting their attention towards mini apartments aimed at young professions, converting land that was originally designated for commercial and office use. In April, a project in Shanghai featuring 203 fully furnished studios apartments, some as small as 215 square feet, initiated its pre-sale marketing activities.

South China Morning Post

U.S. apartments still favoured property type

Apartment property performance in 2015 continued to outperform even the strong performance seen in 2014 and 2013, according to the latest financial data collected on thousands of multi-family complexes. And the net operating income performance for the property sector may still head higher. 

CoStar Group – Commercial Property Executive – Commercial Property Executive

Fire destroys 665-person work camp

The Alberta government is taking a second look at its plan to allow people to return home to Fort McMurray after explosions damaged some homes in the city and a raging wildfire spread north toward oil sands plants. The fire overnight destroyed a 665-room work camp north of the city and two other camps are threatened by the flames.

Victoria Times Colonist

Oil sands camps evacuated

Oil sands camps north of Fort McMurray have been ordered to evacuate once again over the threat from a resurgent wildfire, forcing about 8,000 workers to leave the facilities. A wildfire that destroyed whole sections of Fort McMurray earlier this month has forced workers to leave all camps up to Fort MacKay, around 54 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.

CBC News – National Post – Globe and Mail – Toronto Star

The great escape

From the first puffs of smoke to the harrowing evacuation, this is the story of how the Fort McMurray fire happened, the heroic battle to fight back the flames and what it all means for the devastated city.

Maclean’s – Toronto Star – Globe and Mail – Reuters

New housing registry opens for evacuees

Finding a temporary home could now be a click away for people displaced by the Fort McMurray wildfire. Capital Region Housing Corporation, the City of Edmonton, the Alberta Residential Landlord Association and Yardi Canada Ltd. have produced a central housing registry through RentCafe. 

CBC News – Global News – Edmonton Journal

Alberta insurance rates set to rise

Insurance rates in Alberta are likely to rise again, continuing an upward trend following costly natural disasters. A report released Friday by credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s predicted insurance rates in Alberta would increase following the fire, in part because there are more catastrophic losses claimed in Alberta from natural disasters.

Calgary Herald – Globe and Mail – CBC News

Evacuees collide with landlords, insurance companies

When Natalie Vargola fled her Fort McMurray Beacon Hill home, she thought she should take a picture in case she never saw it again. She had the same thought when she was forced to abandon her car when it ran out of gas on Highway 63. Twenty-four hours later, some of her worst fears were confirmed: almost all of Beacon Hill was gone, her basement apartment likely incinerated and she was homeless.

Edmonton Journal

Alberta government releases damage surveillance app

The Alberta government has released an app that will give Fort McMurray residents a bird’s eye view of their properties in the wake of a destructive wildfire that forced the evacuation of over 90,000 people. Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larivee cautioned structures that appear to be standing should not be considered undamaged.

CTV News – Toronto Star – CBC News

Lac La Biche opened doors to 12,000 evacuees

On a warm spring night, with blue sky reflecting in the waters of Lac La Biche and the sun still shining brightly, a conservative and a socialist sat together across a table at a Legion in northern Alberta and had a drink. The self-described socialist, Lars Olson, was one of more than 80,000 people displaced by the Fort McMurrray wildfire.

Globe and Mail – REMonline.com

RENX Columnists

Fort Mac: The real work is about to begin

The fires are out in Fort McMurray. The real work is just beginning. Thanks to the heroic efforts of firefighters, residents and area businesses, about 85 per cent of the northern Alberta community has survived Canada’s most devastating wildfire. Still, more than 2,400 structures have been destroyed and most of those are homes.

Read more

Market Conditions

Vancouver builders having trouble making a profit

Single-family lots in East Vancouver are gradually densifying through city bylaws that allow legal suites and laneway houses, but builders say the ever-increasing cost of Vancouver real estate is making it harder to find properties and turn a profit. “It looks like every minute house prices are going up, $5, $20, $100,” said Jas Jawanda, owner of JDL Homes.

Business In Vancouver

Demand for U.S. seniors housing stalls

Success in the property markets occasionally brings about its own downfall in the form of overbuilding and the steady returns brought to investors by seniors housing in recent years may well lead to oversaturation of some markets by the fourth quarter of this year, experts say. New development is at an all-time high, at 5.8 per cent of existing supply.

National Real Estate Investor

RENX Market Summaries

New Developments

Basement suites booming in Saskatoon

When Wendy Wawryk and her husband Eugene decided to build their dream retirement home in Saskatoon’s Evergreen neighbourhood, they started by coming up with a list of requirements. One of them was a basement suite.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Newest housing trend rooted in agriculture

Feeding off the continuing interest in eating fresh, local food, developers are ditching golf courses and designing communities around farms, offering residents a taste of the pastoral life — and tasty produce, too. The latest incarnation of harvest homes is The Cannery, a community designed around a small farm in Davis, Calif.

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Fitness club to be torn down for Montreal condo project

Now that a long-running Beaconsfield fitness club has officially closed for good, the structure is expected to be demolished to make way for a residential housing project. About a year ago, club operator Mark Kaneb sold the property to a numbered company headed by a Laval-based promoter who also owns K. F. Construction Inc.

Montreal Gazette

Ground broken for Regina seniors complex

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Tuesday at the construction site of Green Falls Landing, a $75-million project billed as be “the single-largest, private-sector investment in seniors housing in Regina.” The 268-suite project in southeast Regina is also groundbreaking for the developer, Revera Inc., one of Canada’s leading seniors’ care and housing companies.

Regina Leader-Post

Taxes and Utilities

Will peer-to-peer electricity change energy>

Imagine you and a handful of your neighbours all get together and decide your electricity bills are too high. Using smart grid technology, it may be possible for residents to balance energy demand on their own, completely autonomous from the larger network. Under these setups, connected users would share system costs.

Newinhomes.com

Natural Disasters

Most Manitoba evacuees can return home

Evacuation orders for Beresford Lake and Wallace Lake were to be lifted Tuesday, Manitoba officials have announced. Residents and cottagers forced to evacuate Caddy Lake and West Hawk Lake, and the Ontario community of Ingolf, have been able to return this morning, provided they have identification which verifies they have a home or cottage in the affected area.

Winnipeg Free Press

Wildfire prompts evacuation order in NE B.C.

An evacuation order has been issued for residents in the vicinity of a wildfire in northeastern British Columbia. The 150-square-kilometre Beatton Airport Road fire is burning about 45 kilometres north of Fort St. John. The fire flared up four weeks ago and is 45 per cent contained, though a recent spate of hot and dry weather has led to more activity.

Globe and Mail

Fox Creek receives warning from Alberta Wildfires

Residents of Fox Creek should be prepared to evacuate the town, Alberta Wildfires warned Monday night, after a shift in wind direction threatened to bring a fire burning north of the city closer. A two-hour evacuation notice will be issued if the fire threatens the town. 

Edmonton Journal – Global News – CTV News

Legal Issues

Vancouver realtor accused of making threats

A Vancouver realtor has been accused of threatening a businessman after he denounced her for encouraging a bidding war on a house she is trying to flip for a client – in a deal he worries could lead to tax evasion. He reported the May 2 incident to the real estate industry regulator and Vancouver police, which are both investigating.

Globe and Mail

Affordable Housing

Affordability called biggest risk facing cities

Housing affordability is the biggest threat to cities, Mahdi Mokrane, head of research and strategy for Europe at LaSalle Investment, told delegates. Mokrane said a lack of affordable residential property was a risk for major global cities, he said at the IPE Real Estate Global Conference & Awards in Amsterdam.

IPE Real Estate – IPE Real Estate

Small houses

Micro-housing eyed for vacant Victoria lot

A vacant city lot currently used for parking is being eyed for Victoria’s first micro-housing project. City staff are recommending the non-profit MicroHousing Victoria be allowed to apply for a temporary-use permit to build small dwellings for six people on a vacant, city-owned lot and are seeking authorization to negotiate the terms of a lease for the site.

Victoria Times Colonist

Buying and Selling

Regulators warn about unlicensed brokers

He’s been described by an Alberta judge as “a scoundrel” who preys on vulnerable people, fined more than 100 thousand dollars in administrative penalties and found in civil contempt of court for refusing to stop conducting real estate deals. Now, former Calgary businessman Derek Johnson says it’s finally time to change careers.

CBC News

B.C. unveils new rules to limit ‘shadow flipping’

For the first time in almost two decades, B.C. will require real estate purchasers to disclose citizenship details starting next month, as Metro Vancouver’s red-hot housing market fuels concerns about foreign investment. The new requirements go beyond the data that are supposed to be collected for Canada’s anti-money-laundering agency.

Globe and Mail – Winnipeg Free Press – Vancouver Sun – Business In Vancouver

Other

Ottawa-area home builders honoured

Two members of the local housing industry — Amsted Design-Build and Corvinelli Homes — captured national honours at the Canadian Home Builders’ Association annual awards in Kelowna,. Amsted took the prize for a whole-house renovation under $250,000, while Corvinelli won top honours in the production home category for a detached home under 1,500 square feet.

Ottawa Citizen