Fiera funds buy 5 Brantford ind. buildings for $118M

RENX  Commercial  •  Industrial, Apartments  •  Ontario, Toronto / GTA

Fiera Real Estate has acquired a portfolio of five industrial buildings comprising about 940,000 square feet of space in Brantford, just west of the Greater Toronto Area. Two Fiera funds invested $118 million in the acquisitions.

Developers bullish, but GTA multifamily land prices flat

RENX  Residential  •  Apartments, Condominiums  •  Toronto / GTA

While developers remain bullish on the long-term prospects of the Greater Toronto Area high-rise residential market, land prices for future development are surprisingly flat. Those are two key findings from the the Q1-2021 GTA High-Rise Land Insights Report.

Vancouver office-space sector readies for boom: JLL

Commercial  •  Business In Vancouver

“COVID put the brakes on an incredibly active market and there was a pause in momentum for the leasing in the new builds,” JLL’s Mark Chambers said of Vancouver’s office sector. He expects plenty of pent-up demand to arise post-vaccinations.

Real World of Real Estate › Podcast: Evolution and repositioning of office towers with Epic Investment, JLL

Gerald Tostowaryk:

CAPREIT acquires 5 Mtl. apt. buildings for $30.6M

Residential  •  Globe Newswire  •  RENX

CAPREIT (CAR-UN-T) announced it has completed the acquisition of a portfolio of five apartment buildings spread over two properties located in the west end of Montréal, aggregating 154 residential suites. CAPREIT paid approximately $30.6 million for the two properties.

KingSett proposes 31-, 33-storey T.O. res towers

Residential  •  Urban Toronto  •  RENX

KingSett Capital is proposing to redevelop 1319 Bloor West, directly adjacent the Barrie GO rail corridor, with residential towers of 31 and 33 storeys with a total of 634 units alongside retail. The development also connects directly to the adjacent Bloor-Lansdowne GO Station.

Sponsored by Trez Capital Supporting real estate owners and developers through economic uncertainty with bridge lending

Trez Capital offers unique debt financing solutions for real estate projects across Canada and the U.S. Since 1997, Trez Capital has paved the way for developers and investors to continue to succeed . . .

Consultant to advise Laurentian on selling real estate

Commercial  •  Northern Ontario Business

Insolvent Laurentian University has issued a request for quotations for the services of a consultant related to its upcoming review of its real estate holdings, which aims to study how these assets can be “monetized.”

Montreal seeks to relaunch Chinatown

Residential, Commercial  •  La Presse

Restaurants closed, rare clientele, absent tourists, acts of racism linked to the origin of the pandemic, real estate pressure . . . Chinatown is going through difficult times and the City of Montreal is preparing to unveil a plan of action to relaunch it.

Calgary growth plan sent to province for final say

Residential, Commercial  •  CBC  •  Winnipeg Free Press  •  Airdrie Today

The Regional Growth Plan passed at the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board (CMRB) level on May 23, after years of meetings, studies, and contention between urban and rural municipalities involved. The growth plan now rests with the provincial government.

Five ways for smarter growth in Hamilton

Residential, Commercial  •  Hamilton Spectator

10 largest project starts in Canada

Residential, Commercial  •  Daily Commercial News

The accompanying table records the 10 largest construction project starts in Canada in April 2021. Also included is the latest trend graph on starts. This looks at 12-month moving totals of the civil and non-residential building categories in Canada.

The Innovators: BentallGreenOak’s Sonny Kalsi

Commercial  •  Bisnow

After the tumultuous events of last summer, BentallGreenOak CEO Sonny Kalsi knew he had to do more. So, he led an initiative to put in place a target in which two-thirds of new hires had to be minorities or women.

Korean LPs commit $290M to BGO U.K. fund

Commercial  •  Korea Economic Daily  •  RENX

A BentallGreenOak U.K.-focused real estate debt fund has received $290 million Cdn in commitments from three South Korean institutions, including the Korean Teachers’ Credit Union. The blind pool fund is investing in loans of office buildings and logistics and data centres.

CPP commits $77M to Indian retail JV with Phoenix Mills

Commercial  •  Mingtiandi  •  CPP Investments media release  •  IPE Real Assets

CPP Investments and longtime Indian partner The Phoenix Mills Limited will develop a retail centre in Alipore, Kolkata with a potential leasable area of one million square feet. CPP will commit $77 million US.

Costco sales rise as pandemic boom continues

Commercial  •  Canadian Grocer  •  Globe Newswire

Other food retailers may be lapping the impacts of pandemic sales gains from last year into negative comps, but Costco (COST-Q) is seeing no such slowdown. The retailer’s third-quarter earnings were up 21.7 per cent year-over-year.

GTA rental rates show signs of levelling

Residential  •  REMI Network

GTA rental rates appear to be levelling off, according to Bullpen Research & Consulting and TorontoRentals.com. So far in 2021, average GTA rental rates have decreased by less than one per cent.

Stress test changes worsen housing shortfall: Analyst

Residential  •  Toronto Star  •  CTV

At least 10 per cent of the Canadian housing shortage is probably due to mortgage rules, including the mortgage stress test, housing analyst Will Dunning said in a report released this month called Not Enough Places to Live.

How Toronto, Vancouver condo buyers differ

Residential  •  Toronto Storeys

In Toronto, high-rises soaring 60 storeys and higher are not unusual. In Vancouver, BakerWest reports it’s townhomes that are particularly on trend and the most sought-after, with single-family and subdivision build-lots also being in hot demand, and high-rises warming up.

Home inspectors call for legislation to protect buyers

Residential  •  CBC

Home inspectors in Ontario are sounding the alarm. Some say that in today’s hot real estate market, more and more buyers are being pressured to make offers on homes without full home inspections.