Sales, leasing, new buildings: Big Q4 for Ottawa office

RENX  Commercial  •  Office  •  Ottawa

The Ottawa office market might be a beta, or secondary, market in size but it was an alpha in investment activity and leasing during the final quarter of 2021. The market saw major acquisitions, new building deliveries and positive absorption.

Toronto, Vancouver office vacancy rates ease: CBRE

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)  •  Waterloo Region Record  •  Edmonton Journal

Office vacancy rates in downtown Toronto and Vancouver are ebbing for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic as tech companies and others seek more space in anticipation of a recovery in activity in the country’s downtown cores.

Oulahen proposes 42-,  37- and 26-storey res towers

Residential  •  Urban Toronto

Oulahen Team Realty Inc. has submitted a revised proposal for 42-,  37- and 26-storey residential towers near Sheppard-Yonge Station at 48 Avondale Ave. in Willowdale. The Turner Fleischer Architects-designed proposal would include a total of 1,137 residential units and 501 parking spaces.

Pure acquires Northlea’s $312M GTA industrial portfolio

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial  •  Toronto / GTA

Pure Industrial has acquired a portfolio of 13 industrial properties in Toronto, comprising over 900,000 square feet, for $312 million from  Northlea Corporation.

Major B.C. landowners are cutting their property taxes

Residential  •  Vancouver Sun

In recent years, B.C. owners of large, high-value properties have increasingly hired specialists to appeal property assessments. This volatility has resulted in municipalities refunding hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars in tax revenue.

Winnipeg approves three-building multires complex

Residential  •  Winnipeg Free Press  •  RENX

Ironclad Developments‘ proposal for Amber Corners – three six-storey multiresidential buildings with a total of 304 units – has been approved in Winnipeg. The buildings will include a fitness centre, sauna and steam room and occupy most of the approximately four-acre lot.

The Legal Corner › Parties should specify rent consequences when force majeure triggered

Robins Appleby LLP:

Toronto’s net-zero GHG plans outlined during ULI forum

Residential, Commercial  •  Sustainable Biz Canada

The City of Toronto has set “very ambitious” goals for decarbonization and getting to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions during the next 20 years, senior managers told attendees at an Urban Land Institute (ULI) Toronto district council webinar last week.

Google pays $1 billion for London office building

Commercial  •  New York Times  •  CNBC

Google said Friday it would spend $1 billion to purchase a London office building, making it the owner of another high-priced piece of real estate as the internet giant bets on an eventual return to office for its global employees.

Record number of Manhattan office leases top $100/SF

Commercial  •  Bisnow

Tenants signed six leases with starting rents of $200 per square feet or more in 2021, says a JLL report, a price point rarely seen in New York. The 164 leases signed at $100-plus starting rents were also a New York City record.

Singapore REITs double overseas investment to $12B

Residential, Commercial  •  Bloomberg

Foreign acquisitions by REITS in Singapore jumped to an all-time high of 61 last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The total value of such deals also more than doubled from 2020 to $12.3 billion.

Blackstone allocates $1B to reduce single-family rents

Residential  •  Bisnow  •  Canada Newswire

Home Partners of America, a single-family rental company acquired by Blackstone in 2021 with more than 17,000 houses, has unveiled a $1 billion program called Choice Lease. It will provide tenants who meet an income threshold a 10% discount on monthly rents.

EQ3 opens a supersized flagship in Winnipeg

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Winnipeg’s EQ3, a designer, manufacturer and retailer of furniture and home goods, has opened the doors to its new flagship at the city’s CF Polo Park Shopping Centre. It’s the brand’s largest store at 45,000 square feet.

B.C. $15M fund to help hard-hit large hotels

Commercial  •  Business In Vancouver

The B.C. government’s new Tourism Accommodation and Commercial Recreation Relief Fund will distribute up to $15 million to B.C.-owned large accommodation providers employing more than 150 people, and Indigenous-owned large accommodation properties employing more than 100 workers.

More sprawl is not the answer to high home prices

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

OPINION: Building and maintaining highways, bridges, sewer lines and electrical grids to serve low-rise sprawl communities is ruinously expensive. Equipping them with decent transit systems is next to impossible. They just don’t have the population density to make it worthwhile.

OPINION: Where does Hamilton grow from here?

Residential  •  Hamilton Spectator

In 2021, Hamilton was caught in a great debate over whether to expand the urban boundary to accommodate 236,000 future residents. With council’s decision to not expand the boundary against the advice of its own staff, where do we grow from here?

2021 home sales top previous high by 20 per cent: CREA

Residential  •  Toronto Star  •  Canada Newswire  •  CBC

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) says annual home sales reached a new high in 2021, eclipsing the previous record set in 2020 by about 20 per cent. About 667,000 residential properties changed hands in 2021, 30 per cent more than the 10-year average.

Vancouver apartment rents soar 13.2% Y-O-Y: Bullpen

Residential  •  Vancouver Sun  •  Bloomberg  •  Daily Hive

Rent for one-bedroom apartments in Vancouver rose 13.2 per cent, more than in any other major Canadian city over the past year, according to the most recent National Rent Report from Rentals.ca and Bullpen Research and Consulting.

Housing advocates push for increased regulation of landlords

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Jim Dunn, Senator William McMaster Chair in Urban Health Equity, says we regulate daycares run out of people’s homes. It follows that we should also regulate landlords, particularly since Canadians are overwhelmingly reliant on the private sector for rental housing.

B.C. baby boomers aren’t downsizing

Residential  •  BC Business

Predictions that older homeowners will crash the real estate market by cashing out have yet to come true. In Vancouver and elsewhere, don’t look for them to call the movers any time soon.