IMMIGRATION NEEDS TO RETURN TO PRE-TRUDEAU LEVELS TO SLOW POPULATION GROWTH: POILIEVRE
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, currently the favourite to win the next Canadian election, says the country needs to slow its soaring population growth to better align with the growth in housing, jobs and health care. “We have to have smaller population growth, there’s no question about it,” Poilievre told reporters Thursday. He said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been adding new residents at “three times the rate of the housing stock.” “We need to have a growth rate that is below the...
read moreTRUDEAU LIBERALS’ 2015 PROMISES ARE HURTING THE MIDDLE CLASS
The Trudeau Liberals have failed Canada’s middle class. On taxes, housing, employment, economic growth, health care and income, ordinary working Canadians are worse off than they were in 2015 when the Liberals took over. The latest proof came this week from Statistics Canada’s family income data. On the surface, the numbers from the latest available year were not that bad: “In 2022, the median family after-tax income of Canadians was $60,800.” That was “up 2.5% from 2021, before adjusting for...
read moreREAL ESTATE INSOLVENCIES IN CANADA SET TO SURPASS LEVELS OF GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS
Residential property developers are facing rising insolvencies as they struggle with higher borrowing and construction costs – and industry experts warn the trend is likely to worsen as interest expenses remain elevated. The number of insolvent real estate companies and projects has been rapidly climbing over the past year and is now on track to surpass levels of the global financial crisis, according to data from the federal Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy. “This has been a long...
read moreU.S. PROPERTY GIANT HINES HAS $2 BILLION TO SHOP FOR HOUSING DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN CANADA
Real estate giant Hines Interests LP is looking to invest up to $2-billion in Canada, and high on its shopping list is land for rental housing developments. The Houston-headquartered firm, which owns and manages about 850 properties in 30 countries, views apartment building developments as a top investment in Canada given the country’s shortage of affordable homes. Its significant pool of capital will let it compete for deals at a time when the commercial real estate sector is reeling from...
read moreTINY SHARE OF CANADIAN HOMES ARE AIRBNBS THAT HAVE POTENTIAL TO BE LONG-TERM HOUSING
A recent StatsCan study indicates that an estimated 0.69 per cent of the country’s housing stock in 2023 was short-term rentals that had the potential to be long-term housing. Less than 1 per cent of the country’s housing stock are Airbnbs and Vrbo rentals that could be turned into long-term rentals or permanent housing, according to a Statistics Canada study. Housing experts have been trying to understand how short-term rentals (STRs) affect the housing market given that rental vacancy rates...
read moreOVER 100,000 SHORT-TERM RENTALS COULD BE HOMES: STATSCAN REPORT
A new report by Statistics Canada shows the country’s total number of short-term rental listings increased by more than 60 per cent between 2017 and 2023, while the number of short-term rental units that could be used as long-term housing grew by more than 80 per cent. The report identified more than 100,000 short-term rentals that could be homes. But the fact that figure makes up less than one per cent of Canada’s total housing stock, according to the data, only adds more fuel to...
read moreTRUDEAU PLEDGED TO SLOW IMMIGRATION. THE BANK OF CANADA HAS DOUBTS
There’s mounting uncertainty about when and by how much Justin Trudeau’s government will be able to reduce the number of temporary residents in Canada, muddying a key input for fiscal and monetary policymakers. The Bank of Canada raised its population growth forecasts Wednesday, saying the government will probably need more time to limit non-permanent resident inflows. It predicts the number of people over 15 in Canada will rise by 3.3% this year, up from about 3% previously. The pace — among...
read moreFEDERAL EMPLOYMENT BLOAT COSTING TAXPAYERS AT LEAST $10 BILLION ANNUALLY
Buried among the many tables in Statistics Canada’s June employment report are data on public sector employment: federal, provincial and local employees hired by departments, agencies, hospitals and schools, including universities and colleges. As of June, 4.412 million workers were public employees, representing 21.5 per cent of Canada’s workforce. That is an astonishing 972,000 more (28.3 per cent) than in 2014, when 3.439 million Canadians were working for governments. And the numbers don’t...
read morePROPOSAL FOR RENTAL PROPERTY BYLAW TO UNDERGO PUBLIC CONSULTATION
North Battleford’s rental property situation is about to get a closer look following Monday night’s council meeting. “Under the mandate of council’s strategic plan, subsequent discussions related to community safety, community standards and housing challenges and as a result from complaints from the public and general community regarding substandard rental properties, the administration was directed to develop an approach to develop inventory for residential rental properties in the city,”...
read moreRETIREES TAKING A LARGE CHUNK OF THE RENTAL MARKET
One third of Canadian households are renters. And although it’s a common belief that older people are big on property ownership, a key part of the renting pool are Gen Xers and boomers. New census data released by Statistics Canada show renters by individual and by age, instead of household. In Vancouver and Toronto, 30 per cent of individuals over the age of 55 are renters. “This is the first time this population has been broken down by age and made available, so we learn a little more about...
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