EDMONTON RESIDENTS EVICTED BY FEDS FROM AFFORDABLE GRIESBACH RENTALS
Rows on rows of aging red brick townhomes sit around a quiet grassy courtyard in a residential area of north Edmonton. Empty, lifeless.Until a few months ago this part of the Griesbach neighbourhood was bustling with activity: groups of children playing and roaming the vast green space, birds singing, adults walking dogs after work. One of these townhouses was Laidler’s home for more than a decade.Hers and 173 other families were evicted by their landlord, federal Crown corporation Canada...
read moreINVESTORS CONTINUE TO DEMONSTRATE CONFIDENCE IN MULTI-SUITE RESIDENTIAL AND INDUSTRIAL SECTORS
According to Morguard’s 2024 Economic Outlook and Market Fundamentals Second Quarter Update, the Canadian commercial real estate sector showed positive momentum in the second quarter, the multi-suite residential rental property investment remained largely stable due to healthy fundamentals and there was a surge in industrial investment property transactions. In terms of the rest of 2024, further rate cuts by the Bank of Canada and a continued easing of inflationary pressure are anticipated and...
read moreTORONTO CALLS ON RESIDENTS TO WEIGH IN ON A NEW RENOVICTIONS BYLAW
The city of Toronto is set to gather feedback from the public this month on a plan for a new bylaw that would crack down on illegitimate evictions. City staff hope the feedback from both tenants and landlords will help in drafting the renovictions bylaw. Renovictions occur when a landlord illegitimately evicts a tenant, claiming they require a rental unit for renovations or repairs. That can lead to significant rental increases or refusing to allow tenants to return to their homes, according...
read moreCANADA TO ROLL OUT NEW STEEL TARIFFS, HOME BUILDING COSTS TO RISE
Canadian home building costs surged as rates were cut, and stimulus fueled record demand. Policymakers assured households that it was just supply shortages and the inflation was transitory. Supply chains will scale up and prices will come down, eventually. That day is finally here for steel. It turns out that was never the goal. Earlier today, the Government of Canada (GoC) announced it will impose import tariffs for steel imported from China, the world’s largest producer. The politics of the...
read more‘DEMAND, DEMAND, DEMAND’: INVESTMENT RED HOT IN CALGARY’S RENTAL REAL-ESTATE MARKET
Investment in Calgary rental properties almost doubled over the first six months of 2024 — a response to the city’s skyrocketing population and rent prices, one expert says. The data comes amid Calgary’s third-highest six-month stretch of commercial real estate investment since 2013, showing the greatest amount of interest in rental properties and industrial land. But while greater investor interest in rental properties could be a positive signal for renters weary of increases to their monthly...
read moreB.C. LANDLORD CAN INCREASE RENT 23.5% BECAUSE OF VARIABLE MORTGAGE: ARBITRATOR
A potentially precedent-setting ruling from the Residential Tenancy Branch has prompted B.C. Minister of Housing Ravi Kahlon to review regulations for special rent increase applications from landlords. At issue is a recently published May 8 ruling that allowed a landlord to increase rent by 23.5 per cent for four tenants. The landlord claimed that their increase in mortgage financing costs, due to a sharp rise in interest rates in 2022, “could not have been foreseen under reasonable...
read moreWHY CANADIAN LANDLORD GROUPS SAY PUSH TO VOID ‘NO PET’ CLAUSES IS ‘UNFAIR’
As a petition is being pushed to end pet restrictions in rental housing, some organizations representing landlords in Canada are cautioning voiding such clauses in the proposed federal renters’ bill of rights could create conflicts. Last month, Humane Canada started a parliamentary petition asking the House of Commons to include a specific provision for tenants with pets in the proposed bill of rights, calling for “no pet” clauses to be voided “so that tenants with pets are no longer excluded...
read moreTORONTO’S CONDO MARKET IS FACING ITS BIGGEST TEST SINCE THE 1990S RECESSION
Canadian housing markets have taken some knocks over the past few years as interest rates and inflation soared, but few have had it as rough as Toronto’s condo market. While the low-rise market in the Greater Toronto Area is holding its own, conditions in the condo market are deteriorating to levels not seen in decades, says a report by Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC Capital Markets, and Shaun Hildebrand, president of Urbanation. Their report describes how the condo market has...
read moreMORE QUEBEC LANDLORDS REFUSING TENANTS WITH ANY RENTAL BOARD RECORD
Tenants’ rights advocates say landlords openly using records from Quebec’s housing tribunal against prospective renters is cause for concern. CBC News has reviewed dozens of postings specifically spelling out that having any record with the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL) will influence your shot at getting the place. Some landlords are considering any interaction with the TAL as a potential red flag. The TAL enforces housing law and protects both tenants and...
read moreA DOWNTOWN APARTMENT FOR $1,200 A MONTH? HERE IS ONE GROUP’S PLAN ON HOW TORONTO CAN RETHINK ITS VACANT OFFICE SPACE
A Canadian think-tank has a plan to keep young people from fleeing urban centres in search of more affordable accommodations. As part of its Toboggan Flats project, Youthful Cities is working on a plan to convert vacant office spaces in Canada’s urban centres into residential co-living developments for young people struggling to pay rent in the country’s most expensive cities. “Downtowns are starting to hollow out because people aren’t coming back to work,” Robert Barnard, co-founder of...
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