HAPPY DIWALI FROM RHB!
May the light of Diwali shine in your life and bring you peace, prosperity, and happiness. Happy Diwali from RHB!
read moreJUSTIN TAYLOR NAMED CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER, SIGNET GROUP INC.
Signet Group Inc. is pleased to announce that Justin Taylor will be joining the firm as Chief Operations Officer, effective October 28, 2024. “Justin will oversee the operations and management of Signet’s commercial and residential portfolios alongside our talented team”, says Gerald Greenberg, President & CFO. Before joining Signet, Justin held the position of COO at Greenrock for over 12 years. Justin’s brings with him over 25 years of senior management experience...
read moreFEDS LAUNCH MORTGAGE REFINANCING PROGRAM TO BOOST SECONDARY SUITES AND EASE HOUSING CRUNCH
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland announced that starting January 15, 2025, Canadians will be able to access up to 90% of their home’s value through default-insured mortgage refinancing to build secondary suites. This new program marks a revival of a similar initiative that was discontinued in 2016, when the federal government tightened mortgage insurance rules to cool the overheated housing market. The reintroduction of this option is part of a broader effort to address the current...
read moreONTARIO’S BIG CITIES SAW INVESTORS BUY UP TO 85% OF CONDOS, FUELED BY GOVERNMENT INCENTIVES
Canadian real estate is increasingly being scooped up by investors, and incentives play a large role. That was the take in the latest report from the Canadian Housing Statistics Program (CHSP) at Statistics Canada (Stat Can). The agency’s latest numbers show that up to 85% of condo apartments in Ontario’s ten largest census metropolitan areas (CMAs) were investor-owned in 2022. More surprisingly, the CHSP attributes this boom in part to large, single corporate investors fueled by government...
read moreMANITOBA GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES $1.2M TO END PAUSE ON RENT TOP-UP PROGRAM FOR LOW-INCOME RESIDENTS
The Manitoba government says it’s spending another $1.2 million to end what it previously called a “temporary pause” on a program that hundreds of people at risk of homelessness count on to pay their rent. The province had in recent weeks paused new applications to the youth and homelessness streams of the Canada-Manitoba Housing Benefit, which it said in a letter issued to some community organizations last month was because of “unprecedented demand” for the...
read moreWHY ARE CITIES LIKE VANCOUVER STILL BANNING APARTMENTS IN MOST AREAS?
Vancouver is the epicentre of B.C.’s housing crisis and shortage. So why does the city still effectively ban new apartment buildings on most of its residential land, reserving it exclusively for low-density housing While there have been small steps toward reforming single-family zoning in Vancouver in recent years, apartments are still not allowed on more than three quarters of the city’s residential land. Much the same is true in other big, expensive cities in British Columbia and across...
read moreALBERTA POPULATION SURGE CAUSING RAFT OF POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL PROBLEMS FOR THE PROVINCE
Alberta’s classrooms are crowded. Housing costs are expected to climb, propping up inflation. Economic growth will lag population growth. The province started its most recent fiscal update with good news: It expects a surplus of $2.9-billion this year, more than eight times larger than it originally predicted. Then came the bad: “The rapid and unexpected growth in population has added pressures on government programs and services,” the government said. This clinical description, contained in...
read moreCANADA’S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE APPROACHING ‘WORRYING LEVELS’: SENIOR ECONOMIST
A senior economist at job-search website Indeed says that Canada’s unemployment rate is approaching “worrying levels” as employment growth continues to lag behind the number of new participants in the labour force. “The story really is that the job numbers aren’t keeping up with that soaring size of the labour force and it’s resulting in a weaker employment situation,” Brendon Bernard told BNN Bloomberg in a Friday interview. Bernard’s comments came immediately after Statistics Canada released...
read moreRENT SUPPLEMENT CHANGES COMING AFTER HUNDREDS IN N.S. RECEIVE MORE THAN THEIR ACTUAL RENT
Changes are being made to a joint provincial-federal rent supplement program after hundreds of its clients in Nova Scotia received payments that exceeded their actual rent. The province said about 860 applicants currently receive benefits that are higher than the amount they pay for rent, under the Canada-Nova Scotia Targeted Housing Benefit, a program introduced to help people struggling with rising rental costs during the housing crisis. “I think that’s been going on since the...
read moreRENT IS FALLING IN TORONTO? THE HOUSING MARKET SHOWS ITS SUPPLY SIDE
The cost to rent a home in Toronto and Vancouver is falling. At the same time, the construction of new homes – especially rentals – is in a multiyear surge, compared with before the pandemic. This news doesn’t mean it is suddenly cheap to rent in the two most expensive cities in the country or that there’s enough new housing in Canada. But it does show a significant increase in the new supply can help ease prices. The market works. The shift in Toronto is particularly striking. The average...
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