ASH REIT to buy student accommodation across Ontario
Alignvest Student Housing Inc. has announced an investment in high-quality student housing across Ontario. The REIT aims to consolidate Canada’s high-quality student housing sector which is says is fragmented. It has been focused on this aim since its inception in June 2018. Alignvest is in conversations with several property owners across the country and this latest deal doubles its asset base, enabling it to make economies of scale. It will add more than 3,300 PBSA beds to the REIT’s assets,...
read more2019 Residential Tenancies Act Seminars
Date and Time: Apr 2, 2019 8:00am to May 2, 2019 12:00pm Location: Toronto, London, Hamilton, Scarborough and Ottawa FRPO will once again hold the ever popular Residential Tenancies Act seminars throughout April and May. In the last couple of years, there have been many changes in our industry. This year’s event will focus on residential tenancies in a hot rental market. Topics include ‘hot button’ issues such as rent strikes, Cannabis Act impacts, renting to roommates, rules about obligations...
read moreCanada’s inverted yield curve signals holding pattern for Poloz
Canada has joined the U.S. in the inverted yield curve club, signaling a growing risk of recession that may keep Stephen Poloz on hold for his final 14 months as head of Canada’s central bank. The yield on Canada’s 10-year bond dipped to 1.6 per cent Friday, or six basis points lower than the rate on the three-month Treasury bill. That hasn’t happened since 2007, at the start of the financial crisis sparked by a housing crash in the U.S. The so-called inverted yield curves in both the U.S. and...
read more12-Storey Affordable Rental Proposed on Kipling in Rexdale
As a housing crisis grows more urgent across the region, the City of Toronto’s 2016-approved Open Door Affordable Housing Program is finally starting to net results. The program aims to incentivize affordable housing construction by providing financial contributions and tax cuts for developers. One result is a newly submitted application for an affordable housing project at 2667 Kipling Avenue, a short distance north of Finch Avenue West in Etobicoke’s Rexdale area. The property...
read moreNon-resident ownership and participation in B.C., Ontario & Nova Scotia
The presence of non-resident owners on Canada’s housing market is a subject that continues to generate a lot of interest. Our latest Housing Market Insight (HMI) takes a new look at non-resident ownership. Using data from Statistics Canada, we look at non-resident participation in British Columbia (B.C.), Ontario and Nova Scotia. We also examine the number of owners for each residential property in the 3 provinces. What is non-resident participation? A property is classified as having...
read moreAlberta campaign settles into early ‘grinding’ rhythm
It’s only Day 4 and the Alberta election campaign has already settled into a grinding rhythm as deliberate and relentless as a pile-driver with no off switch. The NDP has launched daily personal attacks against United Conservative leader Jason Kenney over his socially conservative background, a campaign Kenney has dubbed as “fear and smear” and part of “the politics of personal destruction.” But it’s not as if Kenney is campaigning on sunshine and rainbows. His rhetoric is at times filled with...
read moreBUDGET 2019 INCLUDES $10B OF NEW MONEY FOR RENTAL SUPPLY
In Budget 2019, tabled on March 19, the federal government announced an expansion of the Rental Construction Financing Initiative (“RCFI”) from $4B to $14B, over the remaining 9 year life of the National Housing Strategy (“NHS’). In a Budget clearly meant to address the issues of Millennials, the federal government has recognized the importance of increasing rental supply at close to new market rents. Another NHS program, the National Housing Co-Investment Fund (“NHCF”), demands affordability...
read moreFrom Poster Child to Problem Child: The Canadian Dollar in 2019
Canada’s dollar may have gotten off to a flying start in 2019, outperforming all its Group-of-10 peers except the British pound, but those good times may be a thing of the past. Weaker-than-expected local economic data is combining with a decidedly more downbeat view from the central bank to put a damper on the currency, and some analysts are calling for the loonie to weaken significantly as the year progresses. Prospects for the Canadian dollar “have shifted considerably to the downside over...
read moreMulti-family starts predominant in the hottest markets
In recent months, more multi-family buildings were constructed than any other housing type in Canada’s hottest markets, according to a new report by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. “The national trend in housing starts resumed its downward trajectory in February while still remaining above historical average,” CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan said. The Crown corporation said that despite the nationwide housing starts trend falling to 203,554 units in February 2019 (from the 207,742...
read moreNew Brunswick property tax stifling investment in apartments
New Brunswick’s property tax has led to virtually zero growth in new apartment investment, according to market players and observers. “It is stopping investors from coming here, it is stopping people coming in and purchasing income properties, and it is also hurting our economy,” according to Pamela Doak of the Fredericton Real Estate Board, speaking to GlobalNews.ca. These assertions were supported by Statistics Canada numbers, which indicated that apartment investment has grown in Nova...
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