WEEK OF MARCH 11 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE
According to CMHC, in order to achieve housing affordability Canada will need to build 5.8 million homes by 2030. A new Task Force Blueprint Report makes 140 recommendations to achieve the goal.
read moreINFRASTRUCTURE OR NON-PROFIT RENTAL BUILDINGS? HOW SHOULD TORONTO SPEND PROVINCE’S $114 MILLION HOUSING “REWARD”
Following the Ontario government recently “rewarding” the City of Toronto with $114 million for exceeding its Housing Action Plan targets by 51 per cent, conversations surrounding how the money should be spent have begun. Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford believes this newly available funding should go towards city infrastructure. “There are a couple things the province outlined that we could do with the money, but we need to be investing this in the infrastructure to enable growth,”...
read moreTWO FORMER SAINT JOHN SCHOOLS TO BE TURNED INTO MORE THAN 100 APARTMENTS
After remaining tight-lipped for months about plans for two former Saint John school buildings, a Fredericton-based developer is now revealing details. Erik de Jong, president of City Line Holdings, said the schools represent about a third of the roughly 340 new housing units planned for Saint John in the coming years. City Line bought the former St. Patrick’s School, on the city’s west side, and the former St. Vincent’s High School, on Cliff Street in the shadow of St....
read moreRENT UP 10.5% NATIONWIDE BUT STAGNANT IN MANY ONTARIO MARKETS, INCLUDING HAMILTON AND OSHAWA
The average asking rent for all property types in Canada increased 10.5 per cent annually to $2,193 per month, the fastest annual growth since September 2023 according to Rentals.ca and Urbanation’s latest National Rent Report. Compared to February 2022, just before the onset of interest rate increases by the Bank of Canada, average asking rents in Canada have increased by 21 per cent, translating to a $384 per month increase nation-wide. “The rapid rate of rent growth in Canada is...
read moreNDP WANTS RATE HIKES CAPPED AT FIVE PER CENT. NO CHANCE UCP WILL AGREE
The UCP will almost certainly squash an NDP bill that comes up in the legislature next Monday. It calls for rent control, a constant no-no over decades of conservative governments. But the UCP needs to think hard about some form of relief from rent hikes that often hit double digits and hundreds of dollars a month.NDP Leader Rachel Notley calls the proposal “a very modest form of rent oversight.” The private-member’s bill, from NDP MLA Janis Irwin, would tie rent increases to the rate of...
read moreWEEK OF MARCH 4 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE
Headlines this week are a hodgepodge of stories with one underlying theme – past government policies have created the housing crisis of today and the policies now being enacted are furthering issues both short and long term.
read moreWILL RENTAL HOUSING PRICES DROP IN 2024?
An ongoing boom in apartment construction has helped slow down rental inflation — but renters shouldn’t expect prices to drop dramatically from their pandemic-padded highs. That means affordability will remain the dominant narrative in rental housing in 2024. The combination of a pandemic economic rebound, a longtime shortage of rental housing stock and high interest rates on mortgages created a perfect storm for rental prices to spike beginning in 2021 and peaking last spring, inflation data...
read more‘BOTTOM STILL ISN’T FALLING OUT OF THE ECONOMY’: WHAT ECONOMISTS MAKE OF THE GDP DATA
The Canadian economy hung tough in the final quarter of last year, expanding one per cent on annualized basis after contracting in the third quarter, Statistics Canada said on Feb. 29. Here’s what economists are saying the latest gross domestic product numbers could mean for inflation and interest rates. ‘Sea of red’: Douglas Porter, BMO Economics Setting aside the increase in exports and consumer consumption, the fourth quarter was mostly “a sea of red,” said Douglas Porter, chief economist...
read moreCOVID MADE HOUSING UNAFFORDABILITY “CONTAGIOUS”
Our recently released Rental Market Report (PDF) attracted significant attention. It underscores what Canadians have been experiencing for the past several years — there simply is not enough affordable housing in most areas of the country. Canada is facing the lowest national vacancy rate since the 1980s at 1.5% and a sharp increase in rents of 8%. This is well above the historical average of 2.8%. These numbers are very concerning and paint a sobering picture of our current reality. Even in a...
read moreHEAD OF MAYORS’ GROUP PUSHES BACK ON POILIEVRE, SAYS CANADIAN CITIES ‘NOT GATEKEEPERS’
Mayors are community builders, not gatekeepers, Canada’s municipal governments said Monday as their spokesperson pushed back against language that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre often uses to attack city leaders. Scott Pearce, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, was speaking at a news conference in Ottawa ahead of the spring budget to call on the federal government for more infrastructure money. When asked about Poilievre’s proposed housing plan, Pearce...
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