Toronto condo rents skyrocket; supply ‘critically low’

Toronto condo rents skyrocket; supply ‘critically low’

Rents for condominiums in the Toronto area skyrocketed in the second quarter amid a slump in leasing activity and a severe lack of supply. Average rents rose 11.2 per cent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year, hitting $2,302 for an average unit of 732 square feet, according to Urbanation Inc., a firm that collects and analyzes data on the Toronto condo market.

Montreal Gazette – Globe and Mail – Bloomberg – Globe Newswire

Toronto condo starts hit 30-year high

Canadian housing starts surged in June to one of the highest levels over the past decade, driven by new condominium developments in Toronto that reached a 30-year high for the month. Housing starts jumped 30 per cent to an annualized 248,138 units, Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. said Tuesday. Multiple-unit urban starts were up 46 per cent, with a 231 per cent increase in Toronto for that segment of the market.

Bloomberg – Newinhomes.com – Globe Newswire

Graywood condos give Toronto Midtown West new look

For a long time, St. Clair Avenue West in Toronto’s Midtown West neighbourhood was an area largely devoid of development. During the past 10 years, the area found itself ignored by developers in favour of more desirable — at the time — surrounding neighborhoods like The Junction, Corso Italia and The Stockyards. That began to change when Graywood Developments launched the six-storey SCOOP condominiums at 1771 St. Clair West in 2016.

Property Biz Canada

Vancouver condo costs as much as a house four years ago

Buyers looking to get their hands on a condo in Greater Vancouver will need to shell out almost as much as they would have to buy a house four years ago. That’s according to data gathered by real estate agency Royal LePage. The agency’s second-quarter National House Price Composite found a standard condominium in the region now sells for about $692,452.

Global News – Financial Post – Bloomberg – Winnipeg Free Press

Vancouver home sales plunge 38%: BCREA

Stricter mortgage qualification legislation continues to play a part across Greater Vancouver and the province as a whole, according to new data from the British Columbia Real Estate Association. Total home sales in the city were down 37.6 per cent year-over-year in June, with 2,467 units sold. By comparison, 3,953 sales were recorded in the same period last year. Year-to-date, the number of units sold was down 25.5%, from 19,641 to 14,626.

Business In Vancouver – Vancouver Sun – Global News – Toronto Star

Canada housing prices show signs of stabilizing: Reports

Canadian home prices rose in June from May, pushing prices just barely above their 2017 peak, while new home prices were flat again in May, according to separate reports on Thursday that signaled a housing market swoon may be stabilizing. The Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index showed prices increased 0.9 per cent on a monthly basis as prices rose in 10 of the 11 markets surveyed.

Globe and Mail

Tariffs could add more than $10,000 to condo prices

Trade tariffs may soon nudge even condo prices out of reach for many. The tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump and the countermeasures they have triggered around the world are pushing up material costs for the Canadian construction industry, said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. “It’s mainly steel and to a lesser extent aluminium and softwood lumber,” he told Global News in a phone interview.

Global News

Toronto’s 17% surge leads Canada’s biggest gain in home sales

Canadian home sales rose in June at the fastest pace this year, led by a 17 per cent surge in Toronto, a sign the market may be regaining strength. Transactions climbed 4.1 per cent from May after touching a five-year low, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported Monday from Ottawa. Benchmark prices fell 0.1 per cent on the month and advanced 0.9 per cent from a year earlier.

Bloomberg – Toronto Star – Canada Newswire – Newinhomes.com

Toronto’s detached house prices make comeback: RE/MAX

The popularity of Toronto’s leafy Little Italy and Trinity-Bellwoods neighbourhoods has helped those downtown pockets achieve the best quarter-over-quarter price increases in the Toronto area this year. Detached houses in those hip urban areas were up 17 per cent in the second quarter of the year averaging $1.88 million, compared to the first three months when they averaged $1.6 million, according to a Re/MAX report published Thursday.

Toronto Star – Canada Newswire – Toronto Star – Newinhomes.com

Montreal reigns supreme for pricey real estate

Montréal has continued to stake its claim as the country’s trending real estate hotspot, with sales of million-buck-plus homes rising 24 per cent year over year, according to Sotheby’s 2018 Mid-Year Top-Tier Report. It found sales of $1 million-plus homes in Vancouver fell 19 per cent in the first six months of 2018, compared with the same period in 2017, with the decline led by detached houses.

Victoria Times Colonist – Calgary Herald

Montreal incomes among Canada’s lowest — as home prices grow

Montreal is a city whose median incomes rank with the lowest in Canada and the U.S. It’s also the only one of Canada’s three biggest cities not yet afflicted by a housing crisis — through prices are growing. In June, you could still buy a single-detached home there for just over $325,000 — in Vancouver, that kind of house would likely go for closer to $1.5 million.

Global News – Canada Newswire – Canada Newswire

Half of prospective homeowners favour fixed-rate mortgages

Seventy-seven per cent of Canadian homeowners have fixed-rate mortgages, but only 54 per cent of those planning to become homeowners would go that route, according to the results of a new CIBC poll. The finding comes in spite of the fact 83% said they value “predictability and stability over risk” when it comes to their finances. As well, 72% of those polled predicted interest rates would increase over the next 12 months.

Business In Vancouver – Canadian Mortgage Trends

Rental-only zoning not coming to B.C. any time soon

In the two months since the B.C. government passed legislation allowing municipalities to zone areas of land for rental-only housing, no city has taken up the offer. “We’re going to be monitoring this closely over the coming months and years so that it’s meeting the needs of local governments,” said Eric Nicholls, manager of planning and land use for the ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

CBC

Change ‘outdated’ zoning policies: Victoria urban planner

Despite record construction activity in downtown Victoria, the city’s housing crisis persists, and one affordable housing organization is pushing to make zoning policy changes a priority in the upcoming municipal elections. Todd Litman, an urban planning consultant with the Victoria Transport Institute who’s part of the advocacy group, Cities for Everyone, described finding family-friendly, affordable housing as “Victoria’s greatest challenge.”

CBC – Victoria Times Colonist

Student vs. multi-family housing

Multi-family housing and student housing have many similarities. Not only do they share many of the same building methods and construction types, but design team members skilled in multi-family housing often adjust well to student housing. However, there are specific and distinct differences that make student housing a unique challenge. There are nuances between unit, building size, and organization.

Building Design & Construction

RENX Columnists

A primer on REITs, MICs, funds and SPV investing

In this article we will be discussing different types of pooled investments including Private Direct Investing via Asset Specific Pools, REITs, MICs and Investment Funds. As its name suggests, a pooled investment vehicle, sometimes called a pooled fund, is raised by pooling small investments from a large number of individuals.

Read more

Market Conditions

Luxury housing in U.S. flying high

Luxury home sales and prices are surging, according to the realtor.com June 2018 Luxury Home Index. The Index reveals $1 million plus home sales are up 25 per cent, despite the fact it costs on average 4.6 per cent more to enter the high-end market this year compared to last year. The index analyzes the entry-level luxury price tier, defined as the top five per cent of all residential sales, in 91 U.S. counties.

PR Newswire

Seniors Housing

Canadian seniors eager to stay in current home

Much to the chagrin of realtors across the country, 93 per cent of Canadians aged 65 plus feel it is important to stay in their current home throughout their retirement, according to an IPSOS survey conducted in June, commissioned by HomeEquity Bank. Yet as the Canadian population ages, many homeowners are feeling pressured to sell the home they love to help finance their retirement.

Canada Newswire

Taxes and Utilities

Nanaimo seeks to dodge new speculation tax

Nanaimo officials met B.C. Finance Minister Carole James last week to try to convince to province to exempt the city from the imminent speculation tax. The contentious tax is expected to come into effect this fall.  Targeted at urban centres, the speculation tax will cover properties not occupied by the owner as a primary residence for more than six months a year or not occupied by a tenant.

Victoria Times Colonist

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

B.C. neighbourhood declares ‘war on fun’

A Vancouver Island neighbourhood has been accused of declaring a “war on fun” after it passed a bylaw banning all outside play from the street, prohibiting children from activities such as chalk drawing, bike riding and hockey. Homeowners at Artisan Gardens, a small housing development in the municipality of Chemainus, manage the shared roadways into their quiet cul-de-sac through a council.

The Guardian – CBC

Tenant involved in rent strike served eviction notices

An eviction battle between a landlord and one of the tenants who helped lead a successful rent strike at a Parkdale residential building is headed to the Landlord and Tenant Board. Mark Farquharson has received two eviction notices in a span of four months, in which landlord Nuspor Investments accuses him of being verbally abusive to its staff and interfering with the safety of the staff or other tenants.

Toronto Star

Parkdale tenants blame agent for loss of rooming houses

Real estate agent Nick Brewerton has been dubbed “The Man Who Sold Parkdale” by a campaign launched by an anonymous group of tenants. “We are calling for an end to displacement realty — the practice of selling affordable homes at inflated prices which push new landlords into forcing out old tenants in order to increase rents,” reads the campaign’s website.

CBC – Toronto Star

Buying and Selling

How are millennials affording new GTA homes?

Let’s face it: with the Altus Group statistics released by BILD for May noting the benchmark price for new single-family homes was $1,144,191 and for high-rise $758,370, one has to wonder how first-time buyers are making their way into the market. I mean, the down payment alone, even at five per cent, is daunting. These days, do millennials have 10s of thousands of dollars stashed away? 

Newinhomes.com

Ottawa tests real estate firms’ new virtual reality service

Ottawa mayor Jim Watson dropped into an Ottawa real estate firm Wednesday morning to get a glimpse of the industry’s new virtual reality technology that is allowing potential buyers to “explore” available properties without leaving their home. Watson told reporters he typically visits local business once every couple of weeks to “see new technology and new ideas that are helping to reinvent our city.”

Ottawa Citizen

Oilers owner selling $1.9-M hand-crafted log cabin

Who wants to live like a billionaire? Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz is selling his luxurious Pigeon Lake, Alta.,  cottage for $1.9 million. The gated waterfront getaway at 67 Silver Beach Rd. in the Mulhurst Bay area, which according to land titles records Katz owns with Katz Group executive John Karvellas, is described in a new listing by real estate agent Larry Hahn as “spectacular.”

Calgary Herald

Other

Ontario company builds prefab homes from recycled cars

It’s big in here. Stand at the front of the factory – where raw steel is coiled, snakelike and awaiting transformation – and it’s difficult to see the far wall. It’s clean in here, too. Walk anywhere and there’s only the odd bit of shiny detritus to justify the safety boots and, unlike in a woodshop, the big steel-shaping machines aren’t coated with layers of sawdust.

Globe and Mail

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