Crown enters Ottawa market; acquires Carling Executive Park

RENX  Commercial  •  Office  •  Ottawa

Crown Realty Partners has purchased its first Ottawa property, Carling Executive Park, from QuadReal for $56.5 million. Carling Executive Park is comprised of three buildings erected between 1982 and 1985 that encompass 288,763 square feet on a 4.16-acre site in West Ottawa.

Workplace 2.0 the future of public offices

Commercial  •  Ottawa Citizen  •  Ottawa Citizen

Public Services and Procurement Canada, responsible for housing an estimated 260,000 workers across the country, is pursuing a dramatic drop in the footprint of federal buildings, as much as 30 per cent smaller. The feds currently have 1,500 owned or leased buildings.

Fraser Valley attracting Metro Vancouver industrial

Commercial  •  Business In Vancouver  •  RENX

Six new projects planned for West Abbotsford will boost the amount of strata industrial space in the local market by nearly 80%, according to Frontline Real Estate Services. The largest is Beedie’s Mason Corporate Centre at just under 168,000 square feet.

The People Space › People Space: Chilcott to head Sun Life Global Investments

Don Wilcox: Managing Editor

Downtown T.O. office vacancy rate hits record low

Commercial  •  Urban Toronto  •  RENX

The latest quarterly office market report from CBRE states the downtown Toronto office market vacancy rate has dropped 20 basis points (bps) measured quarter-over-quarter, reaching a new record low of 2.4 per cent.

CPPIB tops $400B in assets for first time

Commercial  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board eked out a 1.1 per cent return in the quarter ended June 30, but it was enough to allow it to report for the first time the country’s pension fund had more than $400 billion in assets.

SNC-Lavalin completes Highway 407 sale

Commercial  •  Canada Newswire  •  Canada Newswire  •  CBC

SNC-Lavalin (SNC-T) announced it has completed the sale of the 10.01% stake of 407 International Inc. to a company controlled by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). SNC-Lavalin received on closing the base purchase price proceeds of $3.0 billion.

Home sales rise for fifth straight month

Residential  •  CBC  •  Canada Newswire  •  Vancouver Sun

Canada’s housing market is showing signs of coming out of the slumber it had been in since mortgage stress tests were implemented last year, as sales and prices have started to rise again, the Canadian Real Estate Association says.

Catalyst declined request to extend offer: HBC

Commercial  •  Winnipeg Free Press

The special committee of the Hudson’s Bay Co. (HBC-T) board says Catalyst Capital Group has turned down a request to extend a deadline for its offer for a roughly 10.7 per cent stake. The bid is set to expire on Friday.

Four Canadian REITs with high returns on capital

Commercial  •  SmallCapPower  •  RENX  •  RENX

Canadian Apartment Properties REIT (CAR-UN-T), Dream Global REIT (DRG-UN-T), Granite REIT (GRT-UN-T) and Allied Properties REIT (AP-UN-T) have generated some of the highest annual returns on capital.

REIT second-quarter financial results

Commercial  • 

Automotive Properties REIT, (APR-UN-T), Canada Newswire

Boardwalk REIT, (BEI-UN-T), Canada Newswire

Inovalis REIT, (INO-UN-T), Canada Newswire

REOC second-quarter financial results

Commercial  • 

Dundee Corp., (DC-A-T), Globe Newswire

Invesque Inc., (IVQ-U-T), Canada Newswire

Sienna Senior Living Inc., (SIA-T), Globe Newswire

Skyline Investments, (SKLN.TA), Globe Newswire

StorageVault Canada Inc., (SVI-X), Globe Newswire

Metro fast-tracking store technology

Commercial  •  La Presse  •  Canada Newswire

Metro Inc. (MRU-T) will fast-track the deployment of technology such as self-service checkouts and electronic shelf labels to its stores in an effort to lower labour costs, CEO Eric La Fleche said Wednesday during a conference call with analysts.

Cushman & Wakefield tapped for HQ at $1B Dallas campus

Commercial  •  CP Executive

KDC has selected Cushman & Wakefield (CWK-N) to handle property and facility management at Pioneer Natural Resources’ headquarters, a 1.2-million-square-foot build-to-suit project near Dallas. The firm will also provide Pioneer with moving services when the tenant relocates in October.

China’s property investment slows as curbs tightened

Commercial  •  Reuters

China’s property investment slowed to its weakest pace this year in a sign the housing market’s resilience may be waning as Beijing toughens its crackdown on speculative investments and holds back on new stimulus.

Protests, trade war pummel Hong Kong real estate

Commercial  •  CNN

Weeks of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong are battering shares in the city’s property developers. About $56.9 billion US has been wiped off the market value of the nine largest Hong Kong real estate companies since April, according to Refinitiv data.

Empty-home tax returning inventory to rental market

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

New taxes designed to push homeowners into renting out all or part of their empty homes are achieving the goal in B.C. Lower Mainland property managers and realtors say they’re seeing an increase in the renting business.

Home sales across B.C. up 12.4%

Residential  •  Vancouver Courier

With home sales making a significant year-over-year jump in the Lower Mainland in July, residential transactions for the whole of B.C. followed suit, according to stats released Tuesday by the B.C. Real Estate Association (BCREA).

Housing market suddenly risks overheating again

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Canada faces the threat of a here-we-go-again scenario as the housing market perks up and interest rates promise to remain low. Most housing markets are now stable, but froth could reappear if rates continue to fall, Bank of Montreal warns.

Vancouver last in global ranking of luxury real estate

Residential  •  Globe and Mail (Sub. required)

Vancouver has come in dead last in the latest global ranking of luxury real estate by consultants Knight Frank. Toronto, in turn, managed to move up two spots, to No. 13 from No. 15 in the Knight Frank measure of luxury housing.