Co-living the next disruptor or niche market?

Co-living the next disruptor or niche market?

Six years after WeWork took the office market by storm, the New York-based startup set its eyes on co-living. WeLive launched early last year with locations in Lower Manhattan and Arlington, Va., and the company has plans to expand to as many as 14 cities in the coming years. WeLive turns the traditional multi-family rental model on its head.

Building Design & Construction

Canada’s brand new apartment buildings

Today’s generation of new apartment buildings looks nothing like its dated predecessors. Built to emulate high-end condominiums but with the services and amenities of upscale hotels, these extraordinary vertical communities boast beautiful designs and common spaces to die for. Here’s a look at some of the new, state-of-the art apartments emerging in cities across Canada:

REMI Network

Strong economy buoys Halifax apartment market

A growing population and an improving economy have contributed to a strong apartment market in Halifax over the past few years. “Halifax, along with London and Edmonton, has seen the biggest amount of new apartment construction,” said SVN Rock Advisors Inc., Brokerage chief executive officer Derek Lobo, who specializes in purpose-built apartments.

Property Biz Canada

Toronto sellers frustrated as buyers tack on demands

Some home sellers in Toronto are finding buyers are trying to renegotiate deals just days before closing. In this rapidly cooling real estate market, some buyers seem to be regretting how much they agreed to pay. In other cases, buyers aren’t able to secure financing because the home they are buying is not worth the price agreed to.

CTV – Toronto Star – Globe and Mail

Toronto has more housing than you think

Between 2011 and 2016, the number of households in Toronto rose to 2.14 million, an addition of about 146,200, according to census data. Supply of new houses exceeded real household demand by almost 30,000 over those five years. That throws cold water on the argument the city’s affordability crisis won’t be resolved unless the government introduces measures to help increase supply.

Bloomberg

Toronto sets record low for mortgage delinquencies

Toronto real estate’s soaring prices helped set a new record low for mortgage delinquencies. Numbers from Equifax Canada show fewer and fewer people are falling behind on their mortgage payments in the city. While it sounds like a good thing, the rate at which it declined is highly indicative the city has reached a real estate bubble.

Better Dwelling

Rosenberg: Toronto slowdown good for economy

The recent dramatic drop in home sales across the Greater Toronto Area is good for Canada’s economy — and may show the economy is finally moving away from a dependence on the real estate sector, according to Gluskin Sheff (GS-T) chief economist David Rosenberg. “I think it’s actually going to be a positive development,” Rosenberg told BNN. 

BNN – BNN – CBC – Financial Post

Ontario needs to boost supply of rental units: FRPO president

As political leaders from across the province gather in Ottawa this week for the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference, one critical subject should be high on their agenda: how to increase the supply of rental apartments. A housing affordability and supply challenge has left Ontarians with a serious lack of choice when it comes to finding housing.

Ottawa Citizen

Home construction on pace for best year since recession

Canadian home construction is on pace for its best year since the 2008-’09 recession, with builders showing no sign of being slowed by rising interest rates or fears of a housing correction. Home construction picked up last month, driven by B.C. and Alberta. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts rose to 222,324 units in July, up from 212,948 in June.

Toronto Star – Bloomberg – CBC – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Vancouver new home prices make biggest jump since 1990

Just as Toronto’s housing market is beginning to slow down, Vancouver’s is roaring back to life. New home prices jumped 1.5 per cent in June, and have gained five per cent since March, data released Thursday by Statistics Canada show. That’s the biggest three-month increase since 1990. Prices for existing homes gained 11 per cent in the five months through July.

Bloomberg – CBC – Better Dwelling – BuzzBuzzNews

For many young Canadians, home won’t be a house

It’s probably time for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to tell his young followers the “Canadian dream” no longer comes with a lawn. Last week, Statistics Canada reported a big drop in the issuance of building permits for single-family homes in cities with populations greater than 10,000. Municipalities in June granted permissions for such structures at the slowest pace since April 2009.

Maclean’s

Ontario realtors lobby for revised ‘double-ending’ ban

The Ontario Real Estate Association is calling on the province to modify its plans to ban agents from representing both buyers and sellers in property transactions, instead recommending a new model that would allow realtors to work for both sides in a neutral role. The OREA, which represents roughly 70,000 realtors, said an Ontario government proposal is too severe.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Laval clamps down on multi-storey condo construction

Laval Mayor Marc Demers plans to lay out major restrictions on the new construction of residential condo towers between six and 25 storeys on 82 per cent of the city’s territory. For Demers, the plan marks the end of an era of “improvisation and construction initiatives according to the needs of the promoters.” The new measures will limit buildings over six storeys to the “downtown” area.

CBC

Proposed city charter gives Edmonton, Calgary more powers

A proposed city charter includes new rules allowing Edmonton and Calgary to raise taxes on derelict or polluted properties, cut red tape and create tribunals for parking and transit tickets. Alberta’s two largest cities have been working with provincial governments since 2012 to develop a charter allowing them to address issues such as transit, affordable housing and climate change.

Edmonton Journal – Global News

Alberta’s lakefront properties’ prices soar amid bidding wars

With demand outweighing supply, the cost to buy a lakefront recreational home in some parts of Alberta has risen more than 80 per cent in the past two years, according to Royal LePage’s Canadian Recreational Property Report. The 2017 report states lakefront properties on Wabamun Lake, 65 kilometres west of Edmonton, averaged $516,900 over the year ended May 2017, up from $280,000 over May 2015.

Globe and Mail – Business In Vancouver

RENX Columnists

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

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 well.

Value: Weighed and Measured

Market Conditions

Resales drop again in July: CREA

Resales of Canadian homes fell 2.1 percent in July from June, the fourth straight monthly decline, as the cooling of Toronto’s housing market continued, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Tuesday. It said actual sales, not seasonally adjusted, were down 11.9 per cent from July 2016. Home prices were up 12.9 per cent from a year earlier, according to the group’s home price index.

Reuters – CBC – Huffington Post Canada

Investors turn to insurers amid housing fears

Investors are losing enthusiasm for Canada’s banking stocks as a slowdown in the country’s housing market dents banks’ growth prospects, and they see insurance companies as a better bet to benefit from higher interest rates. Home sales in Toronto plummeted more than 40 per cent in July from a year earlier and prices were down nearly 19 per cent from April.

Reuters

No summer break for sizzling Winnipeg resale homes market

Winnipeg’s sizzling resale homes market showed no signs of cooling last month, although one industry official said that’s about to change. A total of 1,438 properties were sold through the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS), the Winnipeg Realtors Association (WRA) said Tuesday. That marked the second-highest July total in the association’s 114-year history.

Winnipeg Free Press

Manhattan’s peak leasing season whimpers

For Manhattan landlords, Christmas usually comes in July, a month when demand for apartments surges and rents go up. Not this year. Leasing costs in the borough dropped 1.9 per cent from July 2016, the first decline for the month in at least five years, according to a report by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

Bloomberg – The Real Deal – Business Insider

New Developments

University of Winnipeg spearheads mixed-income residential project

The University of Winnipeg is hoping to duplicate the success of the city’s first truly mixed residential complex — the 102-unit Downtown Commons — by building another one less than a block away. The proposed new tower would be similar in size to the original 14-storey, $30-million tower and would be built on property the university recently acquired.

Winnipeg Free Press

Related Companies unveils plans for One Hudson Yards

Related Rentals announced the launch of leasing at One Hudson Yards, a collection of high-design luxury rental residences with a curated collection of art, wellness, and lifestyle amenities and services. The 33-storey building – of which Oxford Properties is a partner – features 178 apartments that range from one- to three-bedrooms with one four-bedroom home on the penthouse level.

Building Design & Construction

Greybrook to launch townhome community in Richmond Hill

Greybrook Realty Partners Inc. has announced closing of financing that will enable construction of a new community of freehold townhomes in Richmond Hill. The deal is worth $48.3 million for purchasing and development of 420 townhomes. Several development properties by Greybrook  are projected to result in the completion of more than 8,000 ground-related homes in the Greater Golden Horseshoe region.

Daily Commercial News – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada – Property Biz Canada

Seniors Housing

Boomers not moving into retirement homes until their 80s: Report

Millennials hoping for a break in the housing market as seniors move into retirement homes may have to wait a while, says a new report. The “tsunami” in demand for retirement and nursing homes will not happen until the boomers reach their 80s, said the report by Toronto-based real estate consultants Altus Group.

Financial Post

Renovation, Repair and Maintenance

Broker opportunity awaits with condo insurance

The condo market is booming in cities across Canada. Developers have realised the sky’s the limit when it comes to this thriving trend with condos offering considerable bang for their buck. But there is a problem among condo owners – many of them completely misunderstand their insurance needs.

Insurance Business

Condominium Management

Surrey condo residents rise up against strata

Some residents of a Surrey condo building are rising up against their strata council after they say they were issued $40,000 in fines in a single month — including a $200 fine for cardboard that wasn’t disposed of correctly. Errol Polvah grew tired of residents receiving fines for all kinds of mistakes that are associated with condo living.

Global News

Construction

Multi-family developers cater to occupants’ mobility needs

Mobility, whether on two wheels, four wheels or more, is on the minds of multi-family developers and designers. This is according to a recent survey of 215 architects, designers, builders, and developers in the U.S./Canada multi-family construction sector, by Multifamily Design + Construction. The need of bicyclists for secure storage is being met by 66.5 per cent of respondents.

Building Design & Construction – Huffington Post Canada – GlobeSt.com

Losani Homes embracing smart home automation

Losani Homes is one of the most prolific homebuilders in southern Ontario, particularly in Hamilton and the surrounding areas. With so many new home communities in the works and a history of offering smart home features to their buyers, we decided to pick their brain about the use of smart home technology in the new home industry:

Newinhomes.com

Affordable Housing

Pacifica Housing gets creative to meet affordable-unit needs

Agencies that specialize in affordable, supportive and subsidized housing might have to start thinking and acting a little differently if they intend to meet the increased demand for housing in the region, according to the executive director of Pacifica Housing. Dean Fortin said new ideas are needed, which could include not-for-profit agencies taking a more entrepreneurial approach.

Victoria Times Colonist

Small houses

Shipping container companies get creative with small spaces

From the inside, Satesh Narine and Maria Madsen’s new garage suite looks like a regular apartment, with two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living area, laundry machines and modern kitchen. Strategically placed furniture and a space-saving table make the tiny home seem bigger, but the suite’s real secret lies in the walls made from three shipping containers.

Edmonton Journal

Regina company marking 150 with 13 small homes

A Regina-based home design company is celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday by designing 13 new small homes, reflecting the distinct character of each province and territory. John Robinson, architectural engineering technologist and partner with Robinson Residential Design, came up with the concept to create a small house for each region.

CBC

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

Dodgy landlords taking advantage of asylum seekers?

A tenants’ rights group in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood is warning of a spike in cases of landlords taking advantage of asylum seekers. Quebec’s Immigration Ministry reports more than 700 asylum seekers have recently found permanent housing as part of a recent wave of migrants arriving at Quebec’s border with the United States.

CBC – CTV

Buying and Selling

Five new condos first-time buyers should know about

With the recent news the average new condo unit in the GTA costs $627,000, we imagine there are many first-time buyers out there feeling like there is no possible way of getting into the market. As of the end of June 2017, the average price per square foot in the new condo market was $742. Don’t let these numbers scare you.

Newinhomes.com

The 10 most expensive homes for sale in B.C.

B.C. had a bit of a cool-down in the real estate sector earlier in 2017, but Greater Vancouver remains the most expensive housing market in the country, with prices on the rise again across all residential properties. The West Coast’s appeal still fuels one of the most exclusive housing markets in Canada, according to Point2Homes.com.

BCBusiness

‘Beverly Hillbillies’ mansion for sale

Jed Clampett is about to find that real estate is where the real money’s at. The house that was featured as the setting for The Beverly Hillbillies is for sale — and it’s boasting the most expensive real estate price tag in the country: $350 million. The 10.3-acre estate includes a 25,000-square-foot main house and a 5,700-square-foot guesthouse.

Fortune

Other

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