Calgary office towers transformed into condos, apartments

Calgary office towers transformed into condos, apartments

More than one-quarter of downtown Calgary office buildings currently sit empty for a bunch of reasons. One of the ideas rolled around is the conversion of office space into condos or apartments. The owners of the 11-storey Barron Building on Eighth Avenue S.W. — former home to the Uptown Theatre — are giving it a go. Strategic Group plans to gut the building and create 94 rental apartments.

CBC – Property Biz Canada

Anthem proposes five-tower Coquitlam development

A five-tower development proposed to replace the Best Western Hotel on North Road will go to public hearing despite city council having plenty of concerns about traffic in an already congested corner of Coquitlam. Anthem Properties’ latest proposal for 319 North Road calls for 1,519 residential units with five towers ranging from 23 to 44 storeys. That’s an increase from the initial 1,386 units in a plan Anthem put forward July 9. 

Business In Vancouver – Tri-City News

Northview buys six apartment buildings; shifts its focus

Northview Apartment REIT (NVU-UN–T) says it expects its frenetic pace of acquisitions to slow down in the wake of its announcement this week it will purchase six more Ontario apartment properties for $131.9 million. The acquisitions, four buildings in Toronto, plus individual properties in Guelph and London, mean Northview has bought $535 million in property since December 2017.

Property Biz Canada

ONE and Revera partner on retirement communities

ONE Properties and Revera Inc. have entered into a joint venture to develop new retirement communities in urban markets across Canada. “The opportunity to develop a relationship began through discussions about common potential strategic opportunities,” Revera vice-president of property development Mike Brcko told RENX. “Revera and ONE Properties each contribute complementary expertise to the relationship and, as a result, will provide an enhanced offering for our customers and communities.”

Property Biz Canada

Condo prices soaring in Canada’s ski regions

According to Royal LePage, prices in many key winter recreational real estate markets are experiencing healthy year-over-year price appreciation. Across Canada, trends vary based on the region. In Western Canada, the median price of a condominium in winter recreational regions rose at a faster pace compared to detached properties, while the median price for the latter dipped. Condominium prices in Whistler and Mont-Tremblant (Station) increased 26.5 and 30.0 per cent, respectively.

Canada Newswire – Toronto Star – Business In Vancouver

Mountain towns look to strike balance between residents, tourists

City planners, designers, conservationists, academics and community activists met in Canmore last week to talk how to strike a balance between the millions of tourists that pass through mountain towns and the thousands of residents that live and work in them. The Mountain and Resort Town Planners Summit ran Nov. 28 through Dec. 1. Topics included affordable housing, managing growth, living with wildlife and planning across boundaries.

CBC

Vancouver collects $38M via vacant homes tax

The City of Vancouver estimates it will bring in $38 million from the first year of the empty homes tax — $8 million more than initially predicted. So far, about $21 million has been collected. Most of the revenue will be used for affordable housing initiatives — $8 million has already been allocated — but it will also cover one-time implementation costs ($7.5 million) and first-year operating costs ($2.5 million).

Vancouver Courier – CBC – Vancouver Province

Downsizing of Yaletown affordable plan was inevitable

Thirty years ago, a deal between the B.C. government and a private developer earmarked six large lots in Yaletown for affordable housing. They sat empty for three decades, victims of cutbacks. Several weeks ago, the city announced affordable housing would be built on just three of the lots, while the others would hold market housing. Officials claimed victory. However, an old court case suggests this fate was inevitable.

Vancouver Province

Montreal condos lure investors, but many are losing money

High-rise condo buildings popping up in downtown Montreal have become a magnet for investors, but in many cases they’re a losing proposition. While rare a few years ago, high-rise condo buildings of a few hundred units have multiplied in downtown Montreal. In these large towers, some 57 per cent of owners are investors, almost twice the share as in regular condo buildings in the city centre.

Bloomberg

Mortgage regulations ‘overkill’ hitting millennials: Home builders

Canada’s home builders are urging the federal government to loosen mortgage-lending restrictions that have helped cool housing markets this year. Executives at Mattamy Homes Ltd., North America’s largest closely held home builder, said the rules have brought about the desired soft landing and aren’t needed now that interest rates are rising. The Canadian Home Builders’ Association said the rules are hitting millennials and struggling markets like Calgary particularly hard.

Bloomberg – Bloomberg

National vacancy rate dips to 2.4%: CMHC

Canada’s overall vacancy rate dropped for a second year in a row, as demand for rental housing grew at a faster pace than supply, according to the Canada Mortgage Housing Corp.  In its annual Rental Market Survey, the housing agency says that in 2018, the vacancy rate was 2.4 per cent, down from three per cent in 2017. CMHC says demand for rental housing grew at a faster pace than supply.

CBC – Global News – CBC

Ontario push for density has unintended consequences: BILD

Sometimes what we think is a great solution to a problem creates challenges of its own. In 2006, in response to fast-paced growth in our region, the government of Ontario issued “Places to Grow: the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe.” Its intention was to manage growth in a way that would support economic prosperity and a high quality of life in our communities, while protecting the environment.

Toronto Star – Toronto Star – Newinhomes.com

To grow, Winnipeg needs to think big

Winnipeg’s recent civic election campaign was a stark contrast to four years ago. Few progressive ideas were debated, and city-building dialogue was again dominated by potholes and crime. There was a lot of celebration about Winnipeg growing towards a population of one million, but little discussion about how to sustainably manage that growth. In the past year, Manitoba saw an unprecedented number of people moving away.

Winnipeg Free Press – Winnipeg Free Press

Smiths Falls sees a cannabis-fuelled real estate boom

It seemed like fate for Mario Castillo to move his family from Ottawa to Smiths Falls, despite some initial reservations. Castillo, now the regional general manager for Canopy Growth Corp. (WEED-T), says he and his wife had been looking at homes in the Ontario town, about an hour from Ottawa, for nearly five years. They thought Smiths Falls, located on the Rideau Canal, was beautiful.

Globe and Mail

3D-printed homes could help address northern challenges

The Conference Board of Canada‘s new research series on emerging technologies launches with a look at how 3D-printed homes could be considered for Canada’s northern and Indigenous communities. Construction and maintenance costs are all extraordinarily high in the North as building materials must be transported on ice roads or sealifts and scheduled months in advance. This puts quality affordable housing out of reach for many residents.

Canada Newswire

RENX Columnists

Carbon and real estate: Looking for some beachfront property?

What impact will a price on carbon have on real estate? It’s an important question, but it only reflects part of the story. We must also consider the broader issue that carbon pricing is meant to address because that will have an apocalyptic impact on real estate, at least in some areas of the globe.

Read more

Market Conditions

Victoria home sales continue slide on higher rates, new rules

For 12 consecutive months now, monthly real estate sales in Greater Victoria have dropped year-over-year. A total of 498 properties changed hands through the Victoria Real Estate Board in November — down by 25.8 per cent from the 671 properties sold in November 2017.  Last month’s sales are down from October as well, by 16.7 per cent. Single-family home sales slid by 20.8 per cent year-over-year in November.

Victoria Times Colonist

These Hamilton neighbourhoods defied the odds

In a year the housing market in the Hamilton area cooled both for sales and prices, pockets of the city are still surging with high demand, says the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Houses around the Gage Park and St. Clair areas outperformed both on price and number of sales compared to the rest of Hamilton in 2018, said senior market analyst Anthony Passarelli.

CBC

U.S. sales of new homes drop 8.9 per cent in October

Sales of new U.S. homes plummeted 8.9 per cent in October, as the number of newly built, unsold homes sitting on the market climbed to its highest level since 2009. The Commerce Department says new homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 544,000 last month. New-home sales have declined in four of the past five months. In the last year, sales of new homes have dropped 12 per cent.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required) – PR Newswire – PR Newswire

Mortgage and Finance

CMHC’s Q3 profit drops as housing market cools

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. saw its third-quarter profit drop 17 per cent compared with a year ago as the housing market showed signs of cooling. The country’s largest mortgage insurer says it earned $387 million for the three months ending on Sept. 30, down from $467 million in the same period a year earlier. Revenue totalled $1.05 billion in the third quarter, compared with $1.26 billion last year.

CTV – Canada Newswire

New Developments

First tenants move into Ottawa-Gatineau development

Marc-Antoine Massicotte nearly left the nation’s capital, until a new development emerged on the banks of the Ottawa River. The 27-year-old event planner is among the first moving in Thursday to the newly opened “O Condos,” a six-storey condominium at the site of the Zibi development, which spans both the Quebec and Ontario sides of the Ottawa River.

CBC – CBC

Seniors Housing

Seniors need housing options, alliance says

Seniors living in Ottawa need more housing options than retirement homes and long-term care facilities, attendees at a forum heard Friday. According to the Ottawa Seniors’ Housing Alliance, which organized the event at Ottawa City Hall, even seniors earning a moderate fixed income of $40,000 to $70,000 are finding it difficult to locate a suitable place to live, especially after a spouse dies or they decide to downsize.

CBC

Legal Issues

Toronto real estate vulnerable to money laundering

Toronto’s booming real estate market is vulnerable to money laundering because real estate agents aren’t notifying authorities of suspicious property transactions, leading the national anti-money laundering agency, FINTRAC, to step up its audits of the industry. Real estate agents are required by federal law to file “suspicious transaction reports.” From 2013 to 2017, real estate agents and developers made only 197 suspicious transactions reports.

Toronto Star

Affordable Housing

Townhouses missing piece in Toronto’s affordability puzzle

In most of the country, townhouses are an in-between option for home buyers: bigger than the most affordable condo apartments, but smaller and more affordable than the average detached house. When researchers talk about the Greater Toronto Area’s “missing middle,” odds are they are talking about townhouses. It may be surprising to learn sales of new townhouses in the Toronto area are on a two-year slide.

Globe and Mail

Cities, Towns and Urban Issues

Vancouver councillors seek tough action on renovictions

Two Vancouver city councillors want to look at whether the city can withhold building permits or remove business licences from landlords who evict all the tenants in a building to renovate and then rent the units at much higher rates. More than 50 people spoke to council at two sessions regarding a motion from COPE councillor Jean Swanson, which calls for more protections for tenants facing “renoviction and aggressive buyouts.”

Toronto Star – Vancouver Province – Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Buying and Selling

Montrealers frequently looking to buy off-island

If you’re hoping for a newer, move-in-ready home with room for a growing family, it’s pretty slim pickings these days in Montreal. Competition for homes under $500,000 on the island is fierce. In areas like Brossard, Vaudreuil and Laval, it’s not hard to find a nice, newer single family home for the same price as you’d pay for a fixer-upper in the city.

Montreal Gazette – CBC – Montreal Gazette

Toronto home sellers should abandon lofty expectations

Real estate agent Andre Kutyan has some blunt advice for sellers who are sitting on property in the Toronto-area real estate market: The time has come to abandon lofty expectations. Kutyan is encouraging many of his sellers to aggressively reduce their asking prices now in a last-ditch effort to sell before Christmas. “I get pro-active with my listings now,” said Kutyan, of Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd.

Globe and Mail (Subscription required)

Other

Share your ideas on how to increase Ontario’s housing supply

The Province of Ontario wants to hear your feedback on the following barriers in order to develop the Housing Supply Action Plan: The lengthy approval process; the need for different housing types; the high development costs; the challenge of being a landlord; and the lack of innovation. You can share comments and ideas online any time before Jan. 25, 2019. 

Newinhomes.com – Newinhomes.com