Buy a Kitchener condo online with a credit card

Buy a Kitchener condo online with a credit card

If you can buy your groceries or a vacation online with your credit card, why not a condo? A Kitchener developer and a Toronto home development web hub have launched a feature that allows consumers to buy a condo online using a credit card. The purchaser can specify the floorplan, parking and storage locker they want using the BuyNow button on the BuzzBuzzHome website.

Toronto Star

Toronto luxury home sales plummet 58 per cent

Sales of luxury homes in the Toronto area were hit hardest by the slump during the past two months, with the number of high-end detached houses sold plummeting even as prices nudged up. Sales of homes worth more than $3 million fell 58 per cent between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28, according to a report by Re/MAX Integra.

Financial Post – Maclean’s – Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Newinhomes.com

Adi Development Group moving into Toronto condos

Adi Development Group chief executive officer Tariq Adi said he had a simple reason for expanding into the Toronto market: “We got tired of being called the Burlington guys, so we decided to make the move into the city and picked up two high-profile sites.” From its roots in Burlington, a city located along Lake Ontario between Toronto and Hamilton, the company has grown steadily.

Property Biz Canada

Toronto home builders had busiest February since 1948

Toronto developers had one of their busiest months on record in February in another sign its condo market is alive and well even amid a broader slowdown. Builders began work on 5,677 units during the month, most of them multiple-unit projects like condos, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Thursday. That’s the strongest February, and the sixth-highest figure for any month, in records back to 1948.

Bloomberg – CTV News – Canada Newswire

Coquitlam’s first purpose-built rental in 40 years underway

Renters across Metro Vancouver continue to feel the strain of the housing affordability crisis and Coquitlam is no different.  The city, like other municipalities across the province, is looking to reduce the high cost of rental housing and is pushing for more purpose-built rentals. Later this month, the first one in 40 years is set to break ground.

CBC

Owners push back against B.C.’s proposed speculation tax

Cindy Meston bought her downtown Vancouver condo 19 years ago. She estimates she uses it for about five months a year when she returns from Austin, Texas, where she lives and works as a professor. And there begins her reasoning, and a range of others as well, against what the B.C. NDP government is proposing with its so-called speculation tax

Vancouver Province – Financial Post – Vancouver Sun – Western Investor

Vancouver construction costs highest in Canada

A high-quality 2,000-square-foot detached house would cost up to $460,000 in hard construction costs to build in Vancouver and $420,000 in Toronto, but around $300,000 in Montreal, Calgary or Halifax, based on the Altus Group Canadian Construction Cost Guide 2018. Commercial construction costs are not as out of line, but are slightly higher in Vancouver than in the rest of Canada.

Western Investor

2,000 empty Vancouver homes to be taxed

More than 2,000 residential properties went undeclared, have been deemed unoccupied and will be taxed under Vancouver’s empty homes tax. The city had extended its declaration deadline to March 5, to allow homeowners extra time to declare whether their property was occupied or unoccupied during 2017.

Vancouver Sun – Western Investor – Gobe and Mail

Six False Creek lots still empty after three decades

In 1989, after Concord Pacific bought the old Expo lands, the developer agreed to sell six lots at low-cost to city hall for affordable housing. Those properties, which were to provide 600 affordable homes for families and seniors in popular False Creek, are still empty today. Does the new political landscape mean they might finally get built?

Vancouver Pprovince

RBC CEO sounds alarm on flood of foreign cash

Foreign inflows are distorting Canada’s already constrained housing market and aren’t the kind of investment the country needs, the chief executive officer of Royal Bank of Canada said. “We do not need foreign capital using Canadian real estate as a piggy bank,”  David McKay, said at a bank conference in New York hosted by the Toronto-based lender.

Bloomberg

Ban pot smoking in condos, apartments, on balconies: Health unit

The City of Ottawa’s public health agency is recommending banning the smoking and vaping of cannabis inside all condos and apartments, and even on outdoor balconies. Ottawa Public Health‘s (OPH) submissions, attributed to Dr. Vera Etches, the city’s acting medical officer of health, were sent on the last day Ontario solicited public feedback on a number of proposals related to the pending legalization of cannabis.

CBC

CSA proposes changes to syndicated mortgage regime

The Canadian Securities Administrators is proposing regulatory changes that would enhance rules about the risks of investing in syndicated mortgages throughout the country. While there are many legitimate syndicated mortgage investment opportunities, some companies or individuals offering these investments may advertise these products as fully secured or guaranteed as high return.

CTV News – Canada Newswire

‘Hostile design’ makes Calgary unwelcoming modern city

Calgarians should think carefully before adding so-called hostile architecture to their city, a design specialist from Switzerland says. The trend is seeping into urban design, from putting armrests in the middle of benches to prevent people from sleeping there to putting barriers on railings to deter skateboaders. “We stop simply arguing for differences in public space,” Selena Savic, an “unpleasant design” specialist and architect, said.

CBC

Western Wealth sells Phoenix multi-family property

Western Wealth Capital has sold its interest in a community located in Phoenix’s Midtown Melrose District. The Canadian company divested the 41 condominium units in aggregate to Skyline Cos. for $6 million. The transaction represents WWC’s 12th divestment to date. Solterra is a 60-unit gated community located at 4350 N. 5th Ave. Built in 2006, the property offers a mix of one- and two-bedroom floorplans averaging 841 square feet.

Multi-Housing News – Property Biz Canada

U.S. multi-family sector shows no signs of slowing

The U.S. multi-family market is still going strong, despite the large wave of new supply. Investors are adapting their strategies to accommodate the demographic and economic shifts that have led to an increased interest in secondary markets and cities that have showed a slower recovery after the recession. Even though oversupply might seem like an obstacle, experienced investors know how to use the challenge in their favour.

Multi-Housing News – Bisnow – Multi-Housing News – Globest.com

Market Conditions

Hamilton, Burlington home listings hit lowest level in 15 years

The number of homes put up for sale last month was the lowest number of listings for any February in 15 years, the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington said. Sales were down, too. There were 779 homes sold in February, which was 40 per cent fewer than the same month last year, and more than 25 per cent lower than the February sales average over the last decade, according to data.

CBC

B.C. prices outstrip income all the way to Chilliwack

Suggesting young people buy a cheap starter home in the suburbs and later buy in the city, as their parents did, is still valid today — as long as you consider places like Chilliwack and Hope as suburbs of Vancouver. Those are among the few Lower Mainland municipalities with housing prices that appear not to have blown past incomes over the past two decades.

Vancouver Province – Winnipeg Free Press – Globe and Mail

Ottawa’s housing market ‘listings-starved’

Ottawa’s real-estate market is becoming so tight many homeowners are refusing to put their properties up for sale until they can be assured they’ve got someplace else to go. “I’ve been in real estate since 2004,” said Paul Rushforth, principal of the firm that bears his name, “and I’ve never seen such a listings-starved market.”

Ottawa Citizen – Ottawa Business Journal – Globe and Mail

New Developments

Landlords should be responsible for the ‘renovicted’

With housing stretched nearly beyond capacity in Maple Ridge, B.C., some city councillors want to see more policies to support renters who are “renovicted” and want greater responsibility placed on landlords to help those renters. Coun. Craig Speirs says landlords should be required to help tenants find new rental housing if they are forced to move because of rezoning, demolition or redevelopment of the building.

CBC

Fredericton approves luxury apartment building

Fredericton city council approved plans for a brand new luxury apartment building to go up in the downtown later this year. The current multi-unit rental property located at 279 Aberdeen St. will be torn down, allowing developer, Tony George of AJ Investments Ltd., to rebuild the new luxury building. “The place is a dump, really, run down bad — I couldn’t fix it anymore,” George said.

CBC

Vancouver proposes charge stations for new condos

A City of Vancouver proposal to ensure all parking spots in new condo buildings are equipped with charging stations likely won’t boost the selling price of the units. City council on Wednesday is scheduled to vote on a staff recommendation to mandate that the number of electrical charging stations jump to 100 per cent from 20 per cent of all stalls, at a cost of $300 per stall.

Vancouver Sun

Seniors Housing

U.S. senior housing sector suffering from supply glut

The U.S. senior housing sector is suffering from too much stock. The problem, as noted in the Year-End 2017 Seniors Housing Investor Survey by JLL, is developers jumped in and built thousands of units of new senior housing for aging baby boomers, resulting in inventory far outpacing absorption last year, although construction of new units appears to be leveling off.

CoStar Group

Seasonal Homes

N&L saltbox homes turned into vacation rentals

Janet Denstedt and Richard Wharton acquired their first saltbox home in the community of Fogo in 2009. The couple, who were Ontario-based at the time, were on the island, off Newfoundland and Labrador’s northern coast, looking to purchase a vacation property. During a lunch visit to a local restaurant, Wharton started speaking to one of the eatery’s employees who mentioned that her family might have a home for sale.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Taxes and Utilities

B.C. housing non-profits granted tax reprieve

Non-profit housing agencies in B.C. that were facing property-tax increases of tens of thousands of dollars – and the prospect of having to increase rents for some of the province’s poorest tenants – have been given a reprieve after a last-minute scramble to recalculate the way their land is valued. “It is probably one of the largest [property tax] settlements in B.C. history,” said Paul Sullivan, a partner with the appraisal firm Burgess Cawley Sullivan.

Globe and Mail

Legal Issues

Vancouver condo developer step closer to extradition

Longtime Vancouver condo developer Mark John Chandler was briefly taken into custody Thursday morning after a ruling by a B.C. Supreme Court judge moved him one step closer to extradition on criminal charges in the U.S. While Thursday’s extradition hearing concerned Chandler’s alleged conduct a decade ago in California, court also heard details of his more recent real estate dealings in B.C., and of a new, ongoing police investigation.

Vancouver Province – Agassiz-Harrison Observer

ASC finds breaches of Alberta securities laws

The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) has found Arnold Breitkreutz, Susan Elizabeth Way and Base Finance Ltd. (Base Finance) breached Alberta securities laws. The respondents raised more than $137 million from more than 250 investors between 2004 and September 2015. An ASC panel determined the respondents perpetrated a fraud on investors by deceiving investors into thinking they were investing in mortgages held by Base Finance.

Canada Newswire

Condominium Management

Summarizing Alberta condominium legislation’s amendments

The Condominium Property Amendment Act, 2014, SA 2014, c 10 was passed in December 2014 and many of the long-awaited amendments came into force as of Jan. 1, with the remaining amendments coming into force on April 1. The amendments were divided into three categories: improving protections for condominium purchasers, improving day-to-day condominium operations, and establishing a condominium dispute resolution tribunal. The amendments impact both developers and condominium corporations and their boards of directors.

Lexology

Affordable Housing

Manufactured homes the last stand for affordability

Manufactured home parks are offering envious capitalization rates and cash income for park owners, but a series of government measures is making it tougher for those who own the affordable manufactured homes. “There is strong demand for the parks,” said Bill Summers of Lighthouse Realty Ltd. of Abbotsford, who lists and sells manufactured home parks across B.C. and Alberta.

Western Investor

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

Calgary amends secondary suite approval process

City council finally approved changes to Calgary’s onerous secondary suite approval process following years of debate and a marathon public hearing at city hall Monday. Council voted 9-6 to take approvals for secondary suites out of council’s hands and make them a discretionary use across the city. The decision followed a day-long public hearing of council that saw more than 100 Calgarians speak to the issue.

Calgary Herald – CBC – Global News

Buying and Selling

B.C. cancels loan program for first-time homebuyers

For the current provincial government, it was never HOME sweet HOME. The province announced it will cancel HOME — formally the B.C. Home Owner Mortgage and Equity Partnership program — a government loan program that aimed to help first-time homebuyers get into the B.C. housing market. HOME provides loans of up to $37,500 or five per cent of the home’s purchase price (up to a maximum of $750,000) to first-time homebuyers for a downpayment. .

CBC – CBC

Other

Finalists announced for 38th BILD Awards

The finalists for the 38th BILD Awards have been announced. Presented by the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), the Awards celebrates excellence in the Greater Toronto Area’s (GTA) land development and new home industry. Developers, builders, architects, designers, and marketing experts are recognized for the amazing work they do all year, creating new communities, making the GTA one of the best places to live in all of Canada (maybe the world?).

Newinhomes.com – Newinhomes.com

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