real estate business news

Real estate: Comparing house and condo costs in Canada

21/07/202321/04/2025dansa

As the average price of a home in Canada rises year-over-year, a new study is highlighting the growing gap between the cost of condominiums and houses in major Canadian cities.

Conducted by Point2 Homes and published earlier this month, the study shows that house prices are more than double the cost of condominiums in 14 Canadian cities, most of which are in Ontario and British Columbia. The data is based on MLS benchmark prices determined by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and realtor associations in each local market as of May 2023. Benchmark prices are assigned based on property types rather than square footage.

According to Point2 Homes, the study’s results paint “a bleach picture” for those looking to upsize from condos to houses, particularly in major real estate markets such as the Greater Toronto and Vancouver areas.

In Vancouver, for example, houses are approximately $1.2 million more expensive than condos, on average, representing a difference of about 153 per cent. The term “house” refers to single-family houses, attached single-family houses and townhouses or row houses, while “condominium” refers to apartments.

Meanwhile, in Trois Rivieres, Que., there is a price difference of $44,000 when comparing the average cost of

Brace for a Wave of Commercial Real-Estate Defaults

14/05/202321/04/2025dansa

Billionaire investor Howard Marks sounded the alarm on the commercial real-estate sector.
The Oaktree Capital co-founder warned of mortgage defaults that could add stress to the US financial system.
“We’re very likely to see mortgage defaults in the headlines, and at a minimum, this may spook lenders,” Marks said.

Billionaire investor Howard Marks raises the alarm on commercial real estate in what he labels as “one of the biggest worries” US banks face today.

In a Monday memo, the Oaktree Capital Management co-founder warned of a wave of mortgage defaults that could add stress to the US banking sector.

“We’re very likely to see mortgage defaults in the headlines, and at a minimum, this may spook lenders, throw sand into the gears of the financing and refinancing processes, and further contribute to a sense of heightened risk,” Marks said.

“Developments along these lines certainly have the potential to add to whatever additional distress materializes in the months ahead,” he added.

The commercial real-estate market has become investors’ newest concern thanks to higher interest rates, tighter lending

Canada’s housing prices to keep climbing, says Royal LePage

09/05/202321/04/2025dansa

Royal LePage is forecasting that the average price of a home in Canada will increase 4.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to the same quarter in 2022. This revised forecast anticipates an earlier-than-expected boost in activity in major housing markets across Canada.

The projection is included in the real estate company’s house price survey released Thursday, which drew from national property data as well as statistics collected from 62 of Canada’s largest real estate markets.

“Coming out of a correction, it is common to underestimate the speed at which the market will turn itself around,” Phil Soper, president and CEO of Royal LePage, said in a press release. “As market activity is rebounding faster than anticipated, we are looking ahead with a sense of cautious optimism. While we do not expect huge price gains this year, some sense of normalcy is returning to the market.”

The average price of a home in Canada reached its peak in February 2022. Over the course of a year, the national average fell 18.9 per cent, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. According to Soper, the housing market’s “inevitable correction” was triggered by the Bank of Canada’s aggressive interest

You’d need a raise of almost $20K to afford the same Calgary home you didn’t buy last year

04/05/202321/04/2025dansa

Sometimes, waiting can be a pricey move.

A buyer in Calgary today will need to earn $18,820 more in annual income to purchase the same house, compared to this time last year, according to a fresh report from Ratehub.ca, an organization that analyzes real estate and financial data.

As well, Calgary is the only city in the study to see an increase in the average price of a home from March 2022 to March 2023. It’s gone from $523,100 to $528,700.

A longtime real estate agent says Calgary is an anomaly.

“What we are seeing this year, in January, we were all anticipating there would be more inventory coming on the marketplace,” Len T. Wong of Greater Property Group told CBC News in an interview.

“And then in February, we started to realize that sales volumes were down 47 per cent and inventory levels were down as low as 2006, an all-time low.”

Len T. Wong is a Calgary realtor with Greater Property Group. — Len T. Wong is a real estate agent at Greater Property Group in Calgary. (Anis Heydari/CBC)

Inventories of single-family homes in the city are low, and that’s a double-edged sword.

“I think part of it is interest rates,” Wong said.

“There’s a little bit of a concern

Could The Housing Market Collapse Again? Recovery Talk ‘Premature’ After Mortgage Rates Surge Past 7%

09/04/2023dansa

Topline

As fears of inflation push mortgage rates back toward multi-decade highs, economists are warning the resurgence in borrowing costs will deal another blow to the precarious housing market, driving home sales to new lows and proving the recent recovery many hoped would mark a turning point may instead be a short-lived “mirage.”

The recent bounce in housing activity is likely a “mirage,” says one economist.

Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Key Facts

The average rate on the popular 30-year mortgage jumped back above 7% this week for the first time since October—once again approaching the highest levels in 20 years—after a string of worse-than-expected inflation data fueled the expectations of the Federal Reserve will intensify its rate-hiking agenda.

This surge in rates “dealt a fresh blow” to mortgage demand, says Pantheon Macro chief economist Ian Shepherdson, adding he’s been “puzzled” by claims the housing market is starting to recover and instead expects total home sales will plummet to a new multi- year low by May if rates remain close to 7%.

After collapsing more than 35%, home sales have remained relatively flat since November, but Comerica Bank economist Bill Adams calls the recent response in the housing

1-bedroom downtown Toronto condo listed for $400,000

04/04/2023dansa

#GTAHomeHunt is a weekly series from the Star that gets into the details of real estate listings in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area. Have a tip? Email us at [email protected]

Prices: $399,000

Neighborhoods: Kensington — Chinatown

X-factor: This one-bedroom condo apartment at 60 St. Patrick St. is on a quiet street downtown, steps away from the Art Gallery of Ontario and Grange Park.

Accessing the heart of Chinatown to the west or Eaton Center to the east will take less than 15 minutes on foot or by streetcar, and the St. Patrick subway station is just a five-minute walk away. Nearby, there are countless restaurants, cafes, shops and grocery options.

The building itself offers an outdoor pool, sauna and exercise room, according to the listing, and the condo fees are $600 per month.

According to realtor Othneil Litchmore, that’s not a bad price. What makes it even better is that, according to the listing, the fees also cover all utilities and cables.

“That’s a really good thing,” Litchmore said, adding that this kind of offer is typically only seen in older buildings.

Condo fees for a unit in a new building might cover only water, he explained.

Overall, the

Instability of Banks Boosts Appeal of Property Investing in 2023

27/03/2023dansa

If you’ve been paying attention to the news recently, then you may have noticed several banks collapsing in the US in the past couple of weeks, which is beginning to cause alarm.

For those not in the know, on March 10th, the biggest failure of a US bank since the global financial crisis of 2008 happened in real time. Silicon Valley Bank collapsed after a bank run and failed to raise capital, which was the second-largest failure of a financial institution in US history.

Following this, a second bank, Signature Bank, has also shut down, and a third has been propped up. As well as this, Credit Suisse was taken over by UBS, otherwise it would have faced the first threat to a major international bank since 2008.

More than $400 billion has been spent so far to try and dam the river and stop this crisis from spreading further, and by guaranteeing the deposits of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, the US Federal Reserve has spent over $140 billion.

This crisis naturally has investors worried about where to put their money. Savings accounts have traditionally been known to be the safest way to invest large sums of money

Student Accommodation Shortages Mean High Demand for PBSA

20/01/2023dansa

Between 2018 to 2021, university-building student halls decreased by 5%, and such figures expand significantly when extended to the private sector.

The supply of purpose-built student accommodation has too taken a significant dent – with figures showing the number of beds provided more than halving since 2019.

On top of this, the number of beds submitted for planning has also dropped dramatically. It has been suggested this is due to varying factors such as landlords leaving the market and moving back to renting professionals.

Recent regulation surrounding HMO’s (House in Multiple Occupation) has also made it more difficult to convert a residential home into a student let which has further contributed to a slump in supply.

However, students’ own preferences have shifted to purpose-built student accommodation in recent years – contrasting the traditional HMO house share. This has placed further strain on the need for investment for purpose-built student accommodation.

Some investors may also wish to capitalize on what has been labeled ‘turnaround’ projects – this is where existing first-generation purpose-built student accommodation assets are refurbished and revamped to draw even greater returns.

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Local real estate heads see ‘return to normalcy’ in 2023

09/01/2023dansa

The head of the local real estate association said we’re seeing more of a balanced market, and there’s more interest being seen from potential buyers to at least explore moves

The president of the Guelph and District Association of Realtors sees the local real estate market returning to normal next year.

A recent survey by Royal LePage is predicting a one per cent drop in the aggregate price of a home in Canada by the fourth quarter of 2023, to an estimated $765,171. That’s a drop from the $772,900 for Q4 this year.

Broken down, it’s seeing a two per cent decline in aggregate housing prices in the Greater Toronto Area, from $1,078,300 to $1,056,734.

The report didn’t discuss Guelph specifically in its forecast, but local association head Tyson Hinschberger noted Guelph and southern Ontario are always influenced by the GTA market.

So what does this all mean for Guelph?

“Certainly I think that at the end of the day, it speaks more to a return to normalcy and stability than probably a lot of the frenzy that we’ve seen over the last 12 to 18 months,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of the association, he believes the worst is