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John Clark AACI | Vice President, The Regional Group of Companies Inc.

The need to make tax rebates for vacancies fairer for everyone

John Clark Commercial Taxes National Mar. 24 2017
There is a perception among some municipal officials that commercial property owners, by and large, would rather have a tax rebate than a paying tenant. That is, of course, not the case. But Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson expressed these sentiments

Where is your lottery ticket to fund retirement?

John Clark Commercial Investors National Mar. 13 2017
Personal saving in Canada appears doomed to join such fading skills as cursive writing and knowing how to dial a rotary phone. But just whose fault is it, anyway? According to Marissa Sollows, senior education coordinator with the New Brunswick

A fairer way to implement property assessments?

John Clark Commercial Taxes National Feb. 16 2017
Last week, I took part in a stakeholders meeting with Ontario’s Municipal Property Assessment Corp. (MPAC) on how the process of determining, implementing and appealing a property’s assessment might be improved. We all must pay our fair share of taxes.

Volatility strikes the latest round of commercial property assessments

John Clark Commercial Taxes Ontario Feb. 2 2017
Property values go up and property values go down. It’s the nature of the beast, driven by the vagaries of market demand or lack thereof. But every property has two values – its sale price, determined by what a buyer

Canada at the mercy of every twitch and grunt in 2017

John Clark Commercial Investors National Jan. 12 2017
I wrote last time how we begin the year with no shortage of uncertainty. It’s time for cautious investors to tread carefully and even the most daring to check and recheck their facts before signing on the dotted line. The

A new year christened by economic contradiction

John Clark Commercial Market Trends National Jan. 9 2017
We are finishing 2016 awash in contradiction. Just consider the following: Irrational housing trends Prices in Vancouver’s housing market have jumped by 40 per cent this year. The price of a typical single-family home has hit $1.5 million, about 20 times

A railway boom for Ontario and Quebec is long overdue

John Clark Commercial Mixed-Use Ontario Dec. 9 2016
Shortly after the Liberal win in the last federal election, I wrote about how today’s infrastructure builds become tomorrow’s real estate investments. It’s what happens after the construction workers go home that truly matters. I’ve also touched many times on

We can’t afford to keep treating public infrastructure as a public asset

John Clark Commercial Development National Nov. 30 2016
The Liberals want to create an “infrastructure bank.” We won’t get the full details until the 2017 budget, but we do know this much: This bank will operate at arm’s length from government. It will focus on what it considers

The healing circle comes to Ontario’s Assessment Review Board

John Clark Residential Legal National Nov. 6 2016
It’s possible that the single largest source of conflict between taxpayers and government is assessment for property taxes. Challenging a property assessment that you consider unfair has traditionally been a confrontational process, but it doesn’t have to be. Nor should

Ontario’s vacancy rebate: Emergency rations for geese that lay golden eggs

John Clark Residential Rentals Ontario Oct. 16 2016
Last year, the City of Ottawa handed out more than $11 million in property tax rebates on vacant or partly vacant commercial properties in the municipality. It’s not the only one. Since the late 1990s, commercial property owners across Ontario

Would you like a $1.7M property taxes refund?

John Clark Commercial Taxes Ontario Sep. 28 2016
If your MPAC assessment doesn’t have you seeing red, maybe it should. You may recall a few posts back I coined the phrase “red building.” This label applies to any building that, due to its age, operational inefficiency or lack

A close look at that assessment notice could be worth tens of $1,000s to your bottom line

John Clark Commercial Taxes Ontario Sep. 10 2016
If you operate a business in Ontario you pay property taxes. Mark Oct. 18 on your calendar. That’s when Ontario’s Municipal Property Assessment Corp. (MPAC) will mail out commercial property assessment notices for its 2017-2020 cycle. If this feels like

Is the driverless car bringing a shakeup to real estate?

John Clark Commercial Design National Aug. 26 2016
Self-driving, driverless, autonomous – call it what you will, but a car on the road without a driver behind the wheel has long left the realm of science fiction. Let me state one thing up front – I’m skeptical and

Making buildings greener doesn’t have to be rocket science

John Clark Commercial Sustainability National Jul. 28 2016
For years, my brother complained about the heat in the summer cottage. I’d suggested that using a soaker hose to dampen the roof would turn the whole roof into a big air conditioning unit. He finally agreed to give it a

Will Brexit drive U.K. investors to Canada’s REITs?

John Clark Commercial Market Trends National Jul. 13 2016
Pundits have already been talking about how Brexit – that exercise in political gamesmanship gone horribly wrong – might fan the flames of Canada’s housing market, but what about commercial real estate? It’s been a few weeks now since not

A ‘tsunami of inheritances’ more likely to be a recipe for disaster

John Clark Commercial Investors National Jun. 28 2016
Surging home prices and soaring consumer debt are not problems you can solve simply by throwing money at them, even if some leading economists seem to think so. I read with interest a story recently that suggested a “tsunami of

Why do public planning projects go off the rails?

John Clark Commercial Development National Jun. 8 2016
It’s been called “local obstructionism” but better known by the somewhat pejorative term “Not In My Back Yard” or “NIMBYism.” It’s a shroud of righteousness worn by some people who resist almost any change and the ambiguity of the unknown.

Fort Mac: The real work is about to begin

John Clark Commercial Natural Disasters Alberta May. 16 2016
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,

Irrational exuberance in Gastown

John Clark Residential Investors National Apr. 27 2016
Again and again, people make the same kind of investment error. We saw it in Holland during the 1600s, when rampant market speculation drove the prices for the most sought after tulip bulbs to six times the average annual salary.

MPAC’s new online system has a few bugs

John Clark Commercial Taxes Ontario Apr. 18 2016
Dear MPAC, Kudos on catching up with the digital age by turning the annual Property Income and Expense Return from a pile of paper to a digital submission form. If only your team had made this move with a little

The MPAC deadline: Pay attention now, or pay me later

John Clark Commercial Taxes Ontario Mar. 30 2016
If you are a commercial landlord in Ontario, don’t forget about the return you’re expected to file by March 31. This would be the 2016 Property Income and Expense Return, for MPAC, Ontario’s Municipal Property Assessment Corp. (And if you’re

Do future hospitals need to be so big?

John Clark Commercial Development National Mar. 9 2016
“A more than $2 billion investment in a 21st-century hospital is a significant city-building initiative that will ensure the citizens of Ottawa continue to receive the best care possible for generations to come in an environment that promotes wellness, learning

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