Calgary developers to pay for new infrastructure

Calgary developers to pay for new infrastructure

In the thick of the 2013 election, the idea Calgary city council could pass a bylaw forcing developers to pay the full cost of new infrastructure costs would have been unthinkable. Even more unthinkable would be passing it unanimously and with industry support as happened on Monday, with Mayor Naheed Nenshi saying “I cannot overstate how important this is.”

CBC News – Calgary Herald

Residential towers part of barracks plan

Two residential towers, 18 and 30 storeys, are part of the proposal in a recent development permit application made to the City of Calgary for Currie Barracks. Dan Diebolt, vice-president of development for Vancouver-based Embassy Bosa, said the project is for about one million square feet of buildable space including 130,000 square feet of retail.

Calgary Herald

Vancouver apartment site listing draws global interest

The Goodman Report listing for Southview Gardens has received the largest click-through Mark Goodman has seen since becoming a partner at the family-run real estate business in 2002. “I’ve never been inundated like I have on this offering,” Goodman said of the listing for the southeast Vancouver townhouse/apartment rental complex the company emailed on Jan. 4. 

Property Biz Canada

Homeowners, buyers can expect more rate hikes

Falling government-bond yields are usually good for homeowners in Canada because mortgage rates tend to follow suit. Not this time. Three of Canada’s biggest lenders have raised mortgage rates and more increases are expected as new regulations, a weak economy and higher costs prevent banks from capitalizing on lower borrowing rates in the debt market.

Financial Post – Buzzbuzzhome.com – Globe and Mail

Chinese controls on capital could affect Canadian market

On Friday, Financial Times’ Gabriel Wildau reported China is moving to step up capital controls in an effort to stem the flood of cash out of the country. It will be interesting to see if other countries begin to follow suit, which could reduce the amount of cash seeking safety in the world’s developed countries.

CBC News – Saskatoon StarPhoenix – Vancouver Sun

Foreign investors putting money on Winnipeg

Vimal Kumar does not intend to move to Winnipeg, but that didn’t stop the Michigan IT specialist from buying a condominium in one of  the most talked-about downtown projects – the proposed 45-storey SkyCity Centre tower. Kumar is one of a growing number of out-of-province investors who are snapping up condos in Winnipeg.

Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg housing starts highest since late 1980s

Winnipeg builders were banging out new rental apartments at the fastest pace in nearly three decades last year, which helped boost overall housing starts to unexpectedly high levels. Year-end data released Monday by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. show there were 1,651 new rental starts last year in the Winnipeg Census Metropolitan Area (CMA).

Winnipeg Free Press – Financial Post – Calgary Herald – Business In Vancouver

Vancouver calls for new taxes to curtail soaring prices

For the second time in less than a year, the City of Vancouver is floating the idea of two taxes that could calm Metro Vancouver’s superheated housing market. The levies include a luxury tax aimed at wealthy buyers and a speculation tax to keep owners from driving up prices through quick resales.

Vancouver Sun – Vancouver Province – CBC News – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Co-ownership in Vancouver on rise due to surging prices

With housing prices in Metro Vancouver flying out of reach for local incomes, real estate professionals say an increasing number of families are pooling resources to get into the market. Co-ownership allows families or friends to own and live in the same residence.

Vancouver Province

Property assessments to hit Vancouver renters hard

While owners of single-family homes in Vancouver had the most immediate sticker shock from this year’s property value assessments, apartment building values have also increased sharply, and that will likely put even more upward pressure on rents. Vancouver’s vacancy rate is currently 0.6 per cent.

Business In Vancouver – Winnipeg Free Press – Vancouver Sun

Metro Vancouver market sets sales record

It didn’t matter that last year listings in Vancouver were below their historical averages — buyers gobbled properties that were available at a record pace, purchasing $38.4 billion of real estate in 2015. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reports home sales hit their highest annual total in recorded history with 42,326 transactions.

Financial Post – Vancouver Sun – Vancouver Sun – News1130

Toronto housing market caps a record year

Toronto’s housing market has just capped a record year. And the industry believes it would have been even better had more homeowners wanted to sell. The Toronto numbers released Wednesday morning and the Vancouver statistics reported Tuesday show yet again why those two cities are the focus of bubble speculation, though few see a meltdown in the making.

Globe and Mail – Financial Post – Globe and Mail – Newinhomes.com

Edmonton realtors project sales decline in 2016

The Realtors Association of Edmonton projects an overall decline of 2.3 per cent in sales in 2016. The association’s forecast calls for residential sales to dip below 17,000 units for the year, down from 17,298 in 2015. Steve Sedgwick, association chair for 2016, said single-family home sales are expected to drop by 2.5 per cent, and condo sales by 2.7 per cent.

CBC News – Edmonton Journal – Edmonton Journal – Globalnews.ca

U.S. apartment vacancies rise for first time in six years

Sky-high rents and falling vacancies have characterized the U.S. apartment market for the past six years, but that is suddenly changing. The share of apartments available for rent rose for the second straight quarter at the end of last year, the first time that has happened since 2009, according to real estate data firm Reis.

CNBC – CoStar Group

Many factors in U.S. multi-family strength

From a recovering economy reducing the need for doubling up to high single-family-housing prices and young seniors entering the apartment market, multi-family is still one of the strongest sectors in real estate, Gerson Law Firm’s principal Gordon Gerson tells GlobeSt.com. We spoke with Gerson exclusively to get his take on the multi-family lending market.

Globest.com – Globest.com – Globest.com

RENX Columnists

A perfect storm of social trends

In the current economic situation, the market for most things, including real estate, has changed dramatically. Five interconnected social trends had been developing at their own pace, but have seemingly been accelerated by market conditions.

Read more

Garbage in, garbage out

GIGO stands for “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” It’s an informal concept common to mathematics and computer science. The quality of the output is determined by the quality of the input. I’d like to discuss how this concept applies to the world of commercial real estate. Read the story in Capital Commentary, December 17, 2015. Contributed by Adam Powadiuk, Business Development Manager, First National Financial LP

 

Market Conditions

Foreign buyers driving luxury home market

Sales of homes worth $1 million or more heated up in Toronto and Vancouver last year as the low loonie fuelled demand from foreign buyers, a new Sotheby’s International Realty Canada report says. The report says 11,112 homes worth $1 million or more were sold in the Greater Toronto Area last year — an increase of 48 per cent over 2014.

Toronto Star – Business In Vancouver – Financial Post – Calgary Herald

Latest reports:

* Montréal Census Metropolitan Area, Greater Montréal Real Estate Board (GMREB), Canada Newswire

* Ottawa, Ottawa Real Estate Board, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Business Journal

* Regina, Association of Regina Realtors, Regina Leader-Post, Regina Leader-Post 

* Saskatoon, Saskatoon Region Association of Realtors, Saskatoon StarPhoenix

* Calgary condos, Calgary Real Estate Board, Calgary Herald

* Okanagan, Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board, Global News

* Vancouver condos, Vancouver Sun

* Surrey, BC Assessment, Business In Vancouver

* Greater Victoria, The Condo Group, Victoria Times Colonist, Victoria Times Colonist

RENX Market Summaries

	REITs & REOCs – Third-quarter 2015 report
	RENX has prepared a table with a convenient list of the companies and a summary of links to their reports that will be updated quarterly. Fourth-quarter results will be available at the end of January, 2016. Canadian REITs & REOCs – Third-quarter 2015 report

 

Mortgage and Finance

It may not be time to lock in just yet

Banks have started shaving the discount available on variable rate mortgages, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to lock in your mortgage just yet. Royal Bank of Canada raised rates across the board last week and part of the shift included a drop in the discounting of its variable mortgage tied to the prime lending rate.

Financial Post – – Mortgage Broker News

New Developments

Calgarians fighting proposed apartment tower

The architect behind a controversial 66-unit apartment tower told an appeal board Thursday the proposed building’s east and west facade are windowless because of building code restrictions. Sixty-seven residents of surrounding apartment buildings are opposing the proposed 12-storey tower, saying the tower would destroy their river views and negatively affect their mental health.

Calgary Herald – CBC News

Apartments coming to Exchange District

Work will soon get underway on what is believed to be the first rental-apartment complex ever built within Winnnipeg’s Exchange District National Historic Site. Retired photographer-turned-developer Albert Cheung plans to construct a new six-storey, 64- or 65-unit apartment complex on a surface parking lot he owns at the end of Market Avenue in the East Exchange District.

Winnipeg Free Press

Seasonal Homes

The secret to owning U.S. property

Buying vacation property south of the border may not be quite as appealing as it was a couple of years ago. “If you are just looking for a property deal you are probably too late as the housing market has already rebounded and the Canadian dollar has dropped against the U.S. greenback,” says Cleo Hamel, a senior tax specialist with American Expat Taxes.

Winnipeg Free Press

Renovation, Repair and Maintenance

Kirkland won’t transform abandoned labs into housing

Kirkland, Que., has abandoned a plan to rezone the defunct Merck-Frosst laboratory into a residential development. Developer Broccolini came up with the proposal last year to transform the former research lab into townhouses and condominium towers. However, residents were fiercely opposed to the idea of having new neighbours.

CTV News – CBC News – Global News – Montreal Gazette

Taxes and Utilities

Calgarians question tax assessments

The city of Calgary made its property assessments public Tuesday, and many homeowners want to know why, if the local economy is plunging, the perceived value of their homes isn’t as well. Ed Cocciardi, who lives in the Tuscany area of Calgary, said he was surprised when he saw his assessment.

CTV News – Calgary Herald

The new way to profit on Vancouver real estate

A Vancouver planner and developer says the B.C property tax deferral program is allowing wealthy home owners to make even more money. Michael Geller also admits he’s first in line to take advantage of the situation. Geller says he’s deferred all his Vancouver property taxes over the last six years — about $60,000.

CBC News

Natural Disasters

Bands, Manitoba tackle flooding issues

Several Interlake First Nations have banded together to sign a memorandum of understanding with the province to tackle flooding issues on Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin. The historic MOU is the first time seven Interlake First Nations have come to the table with the province.

Winnipeg Free Press – Globe and Mail

Construction

Proposed steel container home for Steeltown

For most of the 50-odd years since the first modern metal cargo containers chugged out of a New Jersey port bound for Texas, the big, dumb boxes got no respect from anybody outside the transportation industry. Then, starting in the 1990s, architects, artists and designers discovered them, and they became chic.

Globe and Mail

Affordable Housing

U.K. housing crisis hits 1960s levels

More than half of the people living in private rented accommodation say they are struggling to pay for it. A YouGov poll of more than 4,500 for housing charity Shelter indicates 53 per cent were finding it hard to pay their rent, and a further three per cent were falling behind on payments.

The Guardian

Buying and Selling

Silence of the Lambs house a tough sell

A Pennsylvania couple is struggling to sell a house used as the home of psychotic killer Buffalo Bill in the 1991 film “The Silence of the Lambs.” Scott and Barbara Lloyd listed the house last summer, but they’ve dropped the asking price from $300,000 to $250,000.

Winnipeg Free Press

Playboy Mansion on the block

The Playboy Mansion is up for sale but longtime resident Hugh Hefner wants to stay put. Playboy Enterprise announced the West Los Angeles estate, the backdrop of many film shoots and wild parties, was listed on Monday for $200 million. The five-acre property features 29 rooms, a game house, home theatre, wine cellar and the famous swimming pool.

Montreal Gazette – Montreal Gazette

Big Fat Deal: The good life in Kelowna

Address: 4 – 180 Sheerwater Court, Kelowna
Price: $10,500,000
MLS: 10108859
The skinny: Five-bedroom, nine-bathroom, 11,500-square-foot lakefront Kelowna home on 2.5 acres.
The bling: It’s a new year and you’ve made a promise to treat yourself well. And what better investment than a house with everything you need to live a good life and—more importantly—look good living it? 

BC Business

Other

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