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Value: Weighed and Measured
John Clark AACI | Vice President, The Regional Group of Companies Inc.

Can affordable housing and rapid mass transit co-exist?

John Clark Residential Public Transit Ottawa May. 22 2018
Rapid mass transit is often regarded as the prescription for cities suffering from traffic congestion. A way for urbanites to give up the expense of owning a vehicle. But that convenience comes with a price – land values around transit

Who bears the costs of crumbling heritage buildings?

John Clark Commercial Redevelopment National May. 3 2018
It isn’t much to look at – a two-storey brick rectangle like many that dot Ottawa and date from 1940s and ’50s. But it has raised plenty of stink lately at both the municipal and international diplomatic levels. That’s Ottawa,

Don’t let the failures spook us from new technology

John Clark Commercial Proptech National Apr. 24 2018
Media buzz these days about driverless vehicles gleefully fixates on the failures and the bloodshed as much as it does on the successes and the potential. But, is an emphasis on perceived risks to public safety a red herring? I

Hot housing markets suffer corrections . . . always

John Clark Residential Market Trends National Apr. 12 2018
Lemmings get a bum rap. The cute little Arctic rodents don’t jump into the sea in a fit of mass suicide. They can swim. The problem is when they try to swim too far. Reaching too far to buy into

With rapid transit expansion, today’s outliers are future darlings

John Clark Commercial Public Transit National Apr. 3 2018
Earlier in the year, I wrote a piece about the draw of the urban core for the kinds of businesses which traditionally flocked to suburban business parks, but what about that big swath of real estate in the middle? It

Speculative foreign real estate buying: Chronic issue or red herring?

John Clark Residential Transactions National Feb. 14 2018
In this column a couple of years ago, I asked the question “are we at risk of becoming tenants in our own country?” Some would have us think so, at least in overheated urban markets like Toronto and Vancouver, but

Major real estate deals thanks to quantitative easing?

John Clark Commercial Transactions National Jan. 16 2018
When Ottawa experienced the largest commercial real estate deal in its history last fall, one of the insiders noted in a media interview the strategy of many investors right now is to “own very core assets in core markets.” This

Recognize when home ownership is too costly

John Clark Residential Market Trends National Jan. 2 2018
Do you like it? Can you afford it? Will you be able to maintain it? These are the criteria that should drive the decision to purchase a home. Don’t buy on the grounds you are making an investment that will

What’s so clever about smart cities?

John Clark Commercial Development National Dec. 5 2017
Infrastructure Canada is taking applications from municipalities across the country for its Smart Cities Challenge. CATA, the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance, says Canada must seize the “opportunities to build on our leadership in urban transformation.” Toronto’s waterfront is about to

Is volunteerism an answer for cash-strapped municipalities?

John Clark Commercial Labour National Nov. 16 2017
When municipalities are short of operating capital to maintain infrastructure and services, we traditionally have had two choices: settle for reduced services and maintenance, or pay more in taxes and user fees. But what about a third option? Reduced services

What the federal economic update means for real estate

John Clark Commercial Taxes National Nov. 7 2017
Judging by last week’s economic update, the Liberals remain focused on two areas that have a big impact on real estate: family and infrastructure. Families with a stable financial situation are more inclined to commit to a big purchase. Moves

Is in-store retail an investment opportunity?

John Clark Commercial Strategy National Oct. 19 2017
Ottawa has a locally owned and operated toy store called Playvalue Toys. Several years ago, this retailer opted to relocate from a central urban location to the edge of the western suburbs. And by “edge,” I am referring to what

Carbon tax: Pain can bring opportunity if we’re smart

John Clark Commercial Strategy National Oct. 3 2017
It’s not going to be smooth sailing cutting our reliance on fossil fuels, but with change comes the incentive to try something new and better. I attended a tax conference last week that featured the federal Liberals’ impending carbon tax

What happens when insurers say, ‘Enough’?

John Clark Commercial Market Trends National Sep. 14 2017
On the West Coast, where it’s only a matter of time before the Big One, or more than one, hits and swamps the Pacific Rim with a tsunami, most people choose not to purchase earthquake insurance. Is there a lesson

Too hot or too cold – MPAC struggles to find the Goldilocks zone

John Clark Commercial Taxes Ontario Aug. 31 2017
I don’t want to sound like sour grapes here, but there needs to be a better time to be asking a property owner for a once-a-year income and expense return. I’ve written many times about how important it is for

The only thing driving Canada’s housing market? Supply and demand

John Clark Residential Market Trends National Aug. 9 2017
I read a story in the Financial Times recently with a rather misleading headline, “Covered bonds: The European link to Canada’s house price boom.” Europeans who have used covered bonds to invest in the Canadian residential mortgage market are doing

Why Ottawa’s housing market steers a steady course

John Clark Residential Market Trends Ottawa Jul. 27 2017
Earlier this spring, the Ontario government announced several measures intended to curb the excesses of the residential real estate market in the Greater Toronto Area and Golden Horseshoe. In June, the Toronto Real Estate Board reported a 37 per cent drop

Where diversity is embraced, real estate will thrive

John Clark Commercial Market Trends National Jul. 13 2017
Have you ever heard of Vanuatu? It’s a South Pacific Ocean nation made up of roughly 80 islands that stretches 1,300 kilometres. Total population is around 265,000. But even Ni-Vanuatu (that’s what you call someone from Vanuatu) have immigrated to Canada.

If you thought railways had a major impact on RE . . .

John Clark Commercial Development National Jun. 22 2017
It took only 30 years for the railway to reshape the British landscape, the British economy and the very fabric of British society. But as profound as that change was, it came at a glacial pace by today’s standards. The

Suburban development issues need serious solutions

John Clark Commercial Development National Jun. 8 2017
Ottawa may have a reputation as a city that still thinks it’s a town, but as anyone who visits soon realizes, it has major sprawl. That makes it an expensive construct for a municipal government to service and maintain. The

‘Water frontage’ and ‘river view’ still great selling points?

John Clark Residential Green Buildings Ontario May. 23 2017
Some 1,200 homeowners in the Ottawa-Gatineau area are facing costly repairs if not outright reconstruction in the wake of this year’s record flooding. Other areas across the region and the country have fought their own battles against rising waters. I

Big city working, small town living: Best of both worlds

John Clark Residential Market Trends National Apr. 18 2017
What is it going to take to motivate people to return to small town Canada? I’ve written before about the hollowing out of communities across the country outside our handful of growing metropolises. Towns and smaller cities continue to suffer

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