WEEK OF OCTOBER 14 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE AND SPECIAL GUEST JILLIAN KATZENBACK
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, join Vanessa Topple and Jillian Katzenback with a preview of the Top Ten rankings according to the 2024 national edition of theANNUAL. To make things more interesting, this preview includes behind the scenes footage and bloopers. Happy...
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 moreCONDO INVESTORS PLAY A CRITICAL ROLE IN CANADA’S TIGHT RENTAL MARKET
Statistics Canada’s latest data drop exposes the hidden backbone of Canada’s rental market: investors. Condos built between 2016 and 2022 are increasingly investor-owned, quietly providing lifelines for renters in a housing market desperate for supply. While Toronto is severely lacking in purpose-built rentals, investor-owned condos are bridging a gap that would otherwise leave thousands of people without affordable housing. In the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), encompassing the City...
read more3 HOUSING EXPERTS WEIGH IN ON WHAT’S MISSING IN NEW BRUNSWICK HOUSING POLICY
A rent cap, tax reform and funding for a broader spectrum of housing are three of the keys to solving New Brunswick’s housing woes, according to people with close eyes on the sector. “The crisis is continuing,” said Julia Woodhall-Melnik, a housing researcher with the University of New Brunswick in Saint John. Rents are up about 10 per cent in the last year, encampments have grown around cities and unaffordability has increased in rural areas, she said. Woodhall-Melnik is in...
read moreB.C. ELECTION 2024: 12 HOT TOPICS AND WHERE EACH PARTY STANDS
Wondering who to vote for in the 2024 B.C. election? Here are brief summaries of where the B.C. NDP, Conservative Party of B.C. and Green Party of B.C. stand on 12 major issues, and highlights of what they are promising British Columbians: Affordable housing and rental housing B.C. NDP: The NDP are promising to expand on many policies they have put in place since David Eby became premier, including additional density near transit stations, upzoning single-family lots to allow four to six...
read moreWEEK OF OCTOBER 7 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE
This week, AI offered insight to the housing crisis. Will it help solve the crisis, well, no but it does expose issues we’ve been covering for years....
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 moreINFLATION, SUPPLY CHAIN AND INSURANCE: TACKLING CANADA’S MULTIFAMILY REAL ESTATE HURDLES
Josh Pillsbury, co-founder and managing partner of Summit Cover, describes a complex and evolving landscape in Canada’s multifamily real estate market, driven by significant demographic shifts and persistent housing shortages. According to Pillsbury (pictured above), the country is facing a supply crunch that is putting immense pressure on both property managers and real estate investment trusts (REITs) to meet demand. “Right now, we don’t have enough housing supply for, you know,...
read moreBLUE MOUNTAIN COUNCIL REJECTS RENTAL HOUSING PROJECT … AGAIN
For the second time in two weeks, Town of the Blue Mountains council has rejected a developer’s request for help to speed up a proposed rental housing project. At its recent meeting, in a 4-3 vote, council rejected a new motion to explore all planning process options available to move forward a proposal to build a significant rental housing project not far from the Village at Blue. Councillors Paula Hope, Gail Ardiel, June Porter and Alex Maxwell combined to vote against the resolution that...
read moreCALGARY HOUSING PRICES STILL CLIMBING, RENTS TAPERING AS CITY HITS RECORD FOR STARTS AND COMPLETIONS
Calgary’s home construction industry has supercharged as the city absorbs record numbers of newcomers arriving in the province — though its increasing population is still nudging home prices higher, housing data show. The city is an outlier among Canada’s major cities that are struggling to build new homes as they, too, continue to see high immigration. It comes as welcome news as Calgary’s housing prices have been climbing for several years. It’s also a departure from the rather grim tone at...
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