Lax oversight of syndicated mortgages hurting Ontario investors

Lax oversight of syndicated mortgages hurting Ontario investors

Arlene McDowell began investing in syndicated mortgages in 2012 and continued to commit more of her money as the initial eight-per-cent payments rolled in.  The syndicated mortgage market grew to $6 billion in 2016, from $3.7 billion two years earlier, according to the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO).

Financial Post

Ontario investors lost $1B in syndicated mortgages: Lawyer

More than $1 billion of investors’ money has likely been lost in syndicated mortgage investments in Ontario, according to a Toronto real estate lawyer. On Monday CBC News reported more than 120 Chinese investors in the Greater Toronto Area were set to lose nearly $9 million in these kinds of investments, but David Franklin says that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

CBC

FRPO: Rent controls could be ‘very damaging’

The Ontario government’s rent control proposal, announced in its Fair Housing Plan, could stall the construction of new purpose-built rental apartments in the Greater Toronto Area, according to those involved in the sector.

Property Biz Canada – Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – Financial Post – Toronto Star

Nobu ignores TO housing bubble with new condo project

Nobu isn’t worried about a Toronto housing bubble. The company best known for high-end sushi and celebrity cachet is poised to enter the frothy residential real estate business in Canada’s largest city just as a growing chorus of economists warn soaring home prices aren’t sustainable and a crash looms.

Bloomberg

Builders look toward rental properties: BILD

After years of being dormant, the purpose-built rental market is starting to come to life again as more developers consider building housing intended for lease. But there are still many challenges. We need more rental homes in the GTA as one measure to help deal with our housing supply shortage and affordability problems.

Toronto Star – Maclean’s

Condo investors could be placed in negative-cash-flow corner

An Urbanation Inc. report suggests condominium investors in Ontario may turn away from long-term investments because of new rent control rules that could force them into a negative cash flow situation. Urbanation says as it stands, with a 20 per cent down payment on units completed in 2017, most investors end up with carrying costs that just equal market rents.

Financial Post

Graywood Developments finds right site for Calgary launch

Stephen Price, chief executive of Toronto-based Graywood Developments, says he looked for some time for the right property on which to introduce his company to the Calgary residential market. The former GWL Realty Advisors executive knows our city well and his research staff supported his belief in Calgary’s economic strengths and potential.

Calgary Herald

Will Ontario move send more foreign buyers to Montreal?

Because Ontario is joining B.C. with its own foreign-home buyer tax, will overseas investors move one province over to Montreal? Desjardins senior economist Benoit P. Durocher recently mulled this question and two other top economists now suggest the levy will have some impact on Montreal real estate. “At the margin, yes,” replies CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal.

BuzzBuzzNews – Canada Newswire – Financial Post – 660 News

Victoria council votes for foreign buyers tax

Victoria city council has given a tentative green light to the implementation of a foreign buyers’ tax similar to the one approved for Metro Vancouver in August 2016. The successful vote, made with council sitting as a committee of the whole, passed five to three. It will go to a second formal vote at a later city council meeting.

CBC – Globe and Mail – Victoria Times Colonist

Vancouver’s presale condo market reaches fever pitch

Vancouver’s presale condo market is in need of regulation and transparency, say realtors whose clients are being routinely shut out of the frenzied market. The presale market is the “wild west” of the industry, says realtor Steve Saretsky, who posted a blog post recently, titled “Vancouver Pre Sale Condo Ponzi Scheme.”

Globe and Mail

Richmond to crack down on short-term rentals

Richmond, B.C., is one step closer to cracking down on short-term rentals like Airbnb. By the end of the month, residents won’t be allowed to rent out an entire dwelling for 30 days or less and short-term rentals of suites, coach houses or laneway houses won’t be allowed.

CBC

RBC seeks to Join Canada mortgage-bond fray

Royal Bank of Canada (RY-T) is the latest Canadian firm to explore a sale of bonds backed by uninsured residential mortgages. The bank is testing investor interest in a deal that would bundle mortgage loans to borrowers with credit ratings just below prime, known as “alt-A” mortgages, according to Tim Wilson, chief financial officer of Equitable Group Inc.

Bloomberg

TO bubble burst will hurt many: Fairfax’s Watsa

Prem Watsa, head of Fairfax Financial Holdings Inc. (FFH-T)  said the Toronto property market is in a bubble that will end with pain for banks that financed the growth. “Most banks can’t survive a 50 percent drop in real estate values,” Watsa said Thursday. “It’s going to come down, and a lot of people are going to get hurt.”

Bloomberg – CBC – Globe and Mail – Globe and Mail

Ontario’s growth plan to blame for house prices: Report

The Ontario government’s 2006 growth plan for residential land development has spurred soaring increases in house prices in the Toronto region by limiting construction of new low-rise family homes, according to a report from the Centre for Urban Research and Land Development at Ryerson University to be released Tuesday.

Globe and Mail – Toronto Star – Financial Post – Newinhomes

Inside NYC’s most famous apartment building

For years dubbed the “most famous apartment building in New York City,” the Dakota has a spot in cultural history — film, celebrity, art, and otherwise —wholly unique in the world of architecture and even more unique in the world of urban dwellings. It is regarded as the city’s first luxury apartment building.

Architectural Digest

Market Conditions

How Canadian housing compares to Australia, N.Z.

Credit rating agency Moody’s rates Canada, New Zealand and Australia as three of the four advanced-economy nations (Sweden is the fourth) most exposed to a housing correction, putting their broader economies at risk. Within the three Commonwealth nations, six cities have gained global attention because of rapid increases in home prices.

Globe and Mail

Regina condo prices plummet

The price of a home in Regina is continuing to rise, but the same can’t be said for condos. According to the Royal LePage House Price Survey, the median price of a condo declined 11.3 per cent to $241,382. The report blamed an oversupplied market that resulted from a rush in construction activity primarily aimed at condos. 

Regina Leader-Post – Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Vancouver housing crash unlikely in the near term: RBC

Affordability in Vancouver has improved slightly following the implementation of the foreign-buyer tax in August, but it remains a “major vulnerability” in the city, according to an RBC report released Monday. This doesn’t mean a crash is likely, however, because the city’s employment situation is solid, according to the report.

Business In Vancouver – Globe and Mail – Windsor Star – Business In Vancouver

Canadian investors look to L.A.

As if housing market prices in Toronto aren’t sufficiently discouraging, a celebrity pad in Los Angeles can be comparable in price to some homes in the downtown core. A Hollywood Hills house owned by Oscar-winning Dallas Buyers Club actor Jared Leto, for example, is currently listed for sale at $1.9 million US.

CBC – Toronto Star

U.S. multi-family continues string of profitable ROI

Apartment profits continued their string of strong performances last year, according to the latest full-year financial data. The combined 2016 net operating income at 4,362 conventional multi-family complexes reporting year-end numbers totaled $5.2 billion, according to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-back securities data.

CoStar Group – GlobeSt.com – Reuters – Reuters

Mortgage and Finance

How much money do you need to rent in cities across Canada?

VIDEO: Preet Banerjee calculates how much income you need to rent an apartment across Canada.

Globe and Mail

Renovation, Repair and Maintenance

Home inspectors feeling burn of Ontario’s hot housing market

Home inspectors are taking a substantial hit amid the frenzied bidding for houses taking place in Toronto and the surrounding regions. In desperation to come up on top in bidding wars, many home buyers are forgoing conditions that may make their offer less appealing to a seller. One of the first conditions to go is a home inspection.

Globe and Mail

Natural Disasters

A year later, Fort Mac residents report uneven recovery

The story of Fort McMurray a year after the wildfire is really — to steal a title from Charles Dickens — a tale of two cities. In one city, Alberta’s oilsands hub is the embodiment of its slogan Fort McMurray Strong, a blue-collar community again the image of industry and progress.

Ottawa Citizen – Edmonton Journal – Calgary Herald

Legal Issues

Vancouver landlord wins fight with tenant

A landlord-tenant dispute that started over an alleged rodent infestation has ended in a victory for Vancouver property management company Hollyburn Properties. Tunde Zalaba and her daughters, 15-year-old Cintia Szabo and 10-year-old Zsofia Szabo, moved into the Marpole district apartment in June 2014.  In March 2016, the family reported mice in their home. 

CBC

Affordable Housing

Toronto Community Housing CEO steps aside

The interim chief executive officer of Toronto Community Housing has stepped down “for personal reasons,” the chair of the organization’s board said Tuesday. Greg Spearn’s departure from the top job at Canada’s largest social housing provider was not voluntary, according to two sources.

Toronto Star – CBC

Buy now while Montreal’s still affordable

Montreal’s real estate market is about to become a game of musical chairs, and anybody who doesn’t get a seat soon could be left standing, permanently. It might be easy to remain complacent about your ability to buy a house in Montreal.

Montreal Gazette

Fewer condos: Greater Vancouver Board of Trade

One of the keys to unlocking Metro Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis is a focus on building more space for middle class families, the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade says. In a report issued this month, the board offered up seven suggestions for how the region could improve its “D” grade in affordability and economic competitiveness.

CTV – Business In Vancouver – Globe and Mail – Business In Vancouver

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

Abandoned Canmore condo project faces bulldozer

One derelict and abandoned condo project stands along Canmore’s Kananaskis Way as a reminder of what can happen when developers go belly up. “The owners are in discussions with the Town regarding the demolition and redevelopment of the property,” Richard Williams, junior planner with the Town of Canmore, wrote in an email to the Rocky Mountain Outlook.

Western Investor

Buying and Selling

‘Double-ending’ under scrutiny in Ontario

Trying to buy a home in a red-hot market can appear next to impossible. But if a real estate agent is behaving unethically, it could cost you tens of thousands of dollars — or even the house of your dreams. Help could be on the way in Ontario thanks to an impending review of unethical behaviour by real estate agents.

CBC – CBC

Canadians dipping into RRSPs to pay for first home

It has been more than two years in the making, but moving into their new home can’t come soon enough now for Daniel Sabourin and Julia Zhang. The Winnipeg couple took advantage of the federal Home Buyers’ Plan, which allows individuals to borrow up to $25,000 each from their RRSPs for a down payment on their first home.

Winnipeg Free Press

Ontario to query citizenship, residency for RE purchases

Homebuyers in Ontario now have to provide more information about their citizenship and place of residence when they buy a piece of real estate anywhere in the province. The government first announced the news in last fall’s economic statement, but the new rules came into effect on Monday.

CBC

Other

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