B.C. real estate activity slumps by $7 billion

B.C. real estate activity slumps by $7 billion

B.C. realtors report March sales were off almost 22 per cent from 2016 and blame the shortfall on a lack of new supply hitting the market. Across the province, the British Columbia Real Estate Association said active listings in March dropped 18.1 per cent from a year ago and the average price of a home sold dropped 10.5 per cent to $690,597.

Financial Post – Business In Vancouver – Vancouver Sun – Better Dwelling

RED Talks to Vancouver: build, baby, build

Build more housing faster was the chorus from speakers at the recent RED (Real Estate Development) Talks in Vancouver. San Francisco pro-development advocate Sonja Trauss said it doesn’t matter what kind of housing is built as long as there is more of it, and soon. Truass founded the upstart, 500-member San Francisco Bay Area Renters’ Federation two years ago.

Business In Vancouver – BuzzBuzzNews

Rental stigma? Not in Vancouver or Toronto, experts say

Any stigma associated with renting an apartment versus buying a condo in high-cost housing cities has disappeared, Vancouver Real Estate Forum panelists concluded at an April 11 session. “People are deciding rental is not just a stepping stone. Rental is an end game,” said Dan Sander, director of Hollyburn Properties.

Property Biz Canada – Globe and Mail – Financial Post – CBC

Tougher rent control puts new supply at risk: Ont. owners

If Ontario expands rent controls to include units built after 1991, it will douse a renewed interest in building purpose-built rentals set to help ease the Toronto region’s tight vacancy situation. Clamping down on rental increases in newer buildings puts 9,000 units and $2.7 billion in potential investment at risk, said Jim Murphy, Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario CEO.

Toronto Star – CBC – Newinhomes

Landlord group wants stricter limits on growing marijuana

The Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations says the federal government should change its proposed marijuana legalization bill to ban people from growing plants in rented homes or multi-unit buildings. Under the Cannabis Act, people over the age of 18 would be able to grow as many as four marijuana plants in their homes.

CBC – CBC – Canadian Apartment

Ontario considers housing tax for non-resident speculators

Seeking to tame a roaring housing market in greater Toronto, the Ontario government is considering a speculation tax on home purchases by non-residents. While details are not yet available, the province is “looking at it intently,” according to a senior official who spoke with The Globe. The tax was one of a number of approaches recently studied.

Globe and Mail – Toronto Star – Globe and Mail – CBC

More TO housing rules risk ‘market whiplash’: LePage

Concerns government is going to slap more rules on the housing market, particularly aimed at Toronto’s residential sector, appears to be growing among the real estate industry. Royal LePage joined the chorus of those repeating Ottawa and its provincial counterparts should tread cautiously before considering everything from rent control to a tax on foreign investors.

Financial Post – CBC – CBC – CBC

Victoria proposes 15 per cent levy on foreign buyers

Greater Victoria municipalities will have a chance to weigh in on whether a foreign buyers tax should be introduced on residential real estate sales. Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps had proposed the Capital Regional District ask the province to levy a 15 per cent foreign buyers tax should the percentage of foreign purchasers reach 10 per cent in consecutive months.

Victoria Times Colonist

Effectiveness of Vancouver’s empty-homes initiative questioned

Vancouver’s empty-homes tax, which rolled out last month, will likely do little to increase the supply of rentals in a city with a near 0% vacancy rate, according to housing analysts and tenant advocates. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson estimates there are 10,800 homes sitting empty in the city “and likely thousands more under-occupied.”

Business In Vancouver

Calgary awash in vacant condos and houses

Alberta’s boom and bust economy has left Calgary with record numbers of newly built homes and condos that sit vacant as a massive stockpile of housing goes up for sale at the end of a recession. More than 2,000 new housing units were unoccupied in the Calgary area last month, the biggest inventory on record, according to the CMHC.

Financial Post

Kids and condos still don’t mix in Alberta

Michael Janz and Sally Tang hide two-month old Miles when they walk between their car and their suburban Edmonton condo. Janz and Tang live in an adult-only condo in the last province to allow developers, condo boards and landlords to discriminate on who is allowed to live where based on age, except seniors.

Financial Post – Metro – Edmonton Journal

Richmond Hill Canada’s hottest housing market

Housing prices in the GTA have ballooned by 20 per cent over the last year, with Richmond Hill and Oshawa showing the largest gains, according to Royal LePage. The survey found home prices in Richmond Hill and Oshawa have risen by 31.5 per cent and 28.2 per cent, respectively.

CBC – Globe and Mail – Winnipeg Free Press – Regina Leader-Post

Toronto market has spread bidding wars as far as London

London, Ont.’s red-hot housing market meant realtor Angela Wilson couldn’t take a holiday on Good Friday. She and her business partner, her mother Linda, were out at a model home before noon, ready to meet with potential buyers. And in London, there are more buyers than ever — so many there aren’t enough houses to meet the demand.

Financial Post

Canadians should not fear a housing market correction: CIBC

CIBC chief economist Avery Shenfeld won’t say whether the housing market is on the verge of a correction. Shenfeld, fellow economists Andrew Grantham and Nick Exarhos say the bigger question is whether a crash in the housing market could bring the whole economy down in Canada, in a similar way to what happened in the U.S.

Vancouver Sun – Globe and Mail – CBC – Globe and Mail

U.S. seniors housing still awaiting pick-up in demand

Bridgewater Capital recently announced plans for Mill Creek Place, an active adult community of townhomes on 38 acres in Staten Island, N.Y., with easy ferry access to Manhattan. In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Canadian developer Jean Francois Roy is aiming to develop the Riverwalk Residences of Las Olas, envisioned as a luxury high-rise rental development for seniors.

National Real Estate Investor

RENX Columnists

A boom for rental as owners cash out of homes

Today, millions of Canadians have been blessed with unprecedented wealth due in large part to one key financial asset: their homes. Home ownership in Canada is at an incredible 67.3 per cent according to the last census, which speaks to how entrenched the concept of owning rather than renting a residence is in our society.

The Strategic Broker

Market Conditions

March home sales hit record high: CREA

The Canadian Real Estate Association says home sales last month hit a record high. The association says home sales over its Multiple Listings Service system increased by 1.1 per cent in March to top the previous monthly record set in April 2016. Sales were up on a month-over-month basis in more than half of the local markets measured.

Globe and Mail

As uncertainty sets in, TO homeowners are cashing out

Sarah Blakely recalls feeling some trepidation when she and her husband shelled out more than $300,000 for a modest 1 1/2-storey house in a less-desirable part of Toronto. Seven years later, they found themselves on the right side of a hot housing market, with values tripling in a ‘hood suddenly considered up-and-coming for young families seeking detached homes.

Maclean’s – Toronto Star – Globe and Mail – Better Dwelling

Quebec enjoys best first quarter in five years

The Québec Federation of Real Estate Boards’ (QFREB) most recent residential real estate market report indicated 21,494 sales were concluded in the first quarter of the year, a six per cent increase compared to the first quarter of 2016. That marked the 11th consecutive quarterly increase in sales and the best start to the year since 2012.

Canada Newswire – Canada Newswire – Canada Newswire

Vancouver two-bedroom rent increases again: PadMapper

Vancouver rent is higher than in any other major Canadian centre, and it got even more expensive to rent a two-bedroom apartment in April, according to PadMapper’s latest rent report. The average rent for a one-bedroom unit remained stable at $1,900, where it has been since January; for a two-bedroom home, average rent increased 2.2% to $3,200.

Business In Vancouver

Record March for Winnipeg resale market

Winnipeg’s resale-homes market is on the rebound heading into the critical spring selling season. In its monthly sales report, the Winnipeg Realtors Association (WRA) said 1,111 properties changed hands last month.  The $326 million in transactions also represented a new milestone. It marked the first time in the WRA’s 114-year history March sales topped the $300-million threshold.

Winnipeg Free Press – Canada Newswire

New Developments

Calgary approves hiving off portion of golf course for housing

The latest proposal to redevelop a Calgary golf course has been approved by city council.  The owner of The Hamptons Golf Club wants to sell off a portion of the course and had asked city council to approve a rezoning of that land for 64 new housing units.

CBC

Eight-storey Ottawa development gets committee’s nod

Montreal-based developer Canderel received has support from Ottawa’s planning committee to construct a new eight-storey Amica retirement residence in the Glebe, despite concerns ever-taller buildings are appearing on Bank Street. The two-hour debate at Ottawa City Hall featured concerns about height and parking.

Ottawa Business Journal – CBC

Renovation, Repair and Maintenance

New bill to regulate Ontario home inspectors

Home inspectors in Ontario are lauding new legislation that would require them to be licensed, have insurance, and abide by a code of ethics — and potentially face discipline if they don’t. The Putting Consumers First Act will impose new rules upon one of the few real estate professionals that have not been historically subject to provincial regulation.

CBC

Natural Disasters

Six years after flooding, a Manitoba FN weighs its return

Diane Sinclair wants to give her daughter a proper resting place, but it’s a wish that seems impossible for the Lake St. Martin mother. “It’s like a sponge,” says Sinclair of the saturated earth where her daughter is buried without a headstone. The young mother was the first to die after the evacuation but not the last.

CBC – CBC – CBC – Winnipeg Free Press

Legal Issues

Transparency advocates raise alarm over anonymous ownership

When Avigilon (AVO-T) CEO Alexander Fernandes and his wife, Irene, spent $8 million on their downtown Vancouver penthouse and another million renovating the 6,000-square-foot space, part of the appeal was security doors that encased the elevator in the unit. 

Business In Vancouver

Urbancorp buyers in court seeking damages

Prospective homebuyers who signed contracts and put down deposits with Toronto developer Urbancorp were again in court Thursday, hoping an Ontario Superior Court judge would rule they can go after the troubled builder for damages. In April 2016, nine companies with the UrbanCorp group that were building condo and freehold house projects across the city filed for bankruptcy protection.

CBC

Construction

Home builders embracing prefab

Manufacturing plants in Alberta once prefabricating wellsite accommodation and office space for the oil and gas industry now sit empty. Meanwhile, the province’s residential-construction industry continues to struggle in a buyer’s market where costs, quality and competitive timescales are critical to survival. Industry leaders say it’s a combination that could change the face of modular construction in Canada.

Globe and Mail

Affordable Housing

Race is on to build GTA affordable housing

With up to 1,000 Toronto Community Housing (TCH) units expected to close by the end of 2017, housing issues will be front and centre at city hall later this week. At that time, Mayor John Tory’s executive committee will be presented with plans to shutter some housing units while investing in the redevelopment of other buildings.

CBC

Port Coquitlam introduces coach homes

Port Coquitlam became the latest B.C. city to allow for coach homes or laneway houses, following the lead of communities on the North Shore, the City of Vancouver and Coquitlam. Councillor and acting mayor Brad West says decreasing affordability in the city was the impetus for the move.

CBC

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

CityHousing Hamilton selling 100 houses

Hamilton’s largest social housing provider wants to shorten the waiting list by building more townhouses and apartments. But when families are housed, there’s less chance it’ll be in a house. CityHousing Hamilton (CHH) will sell 100 single and semi-detached houses over the next few years, including 47 ready now. Those 47 alone should generate $14 million.

CBC

Other

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