Wasim Elafech of Century 21 Bravo Realty in Calgary is among
the banner brokerage’s top sales agents in the world.Century 21
operates in 78 countries with over 100,000 agents, and Elafech
managed to become their number one unit producer in 2015 and number
three in Canada last year, so he knows a thing or two about getting
the best bang for your buck out of a rental property.He shared some
of those tips with us.
1.Maintain the property
Elafech says some he’s sold properties to clients who in turn
rented them out, but without putting in the necessary work.“The
work you do doesn’t have to be expensive, but it has to be brand
new,” he said.“It will be liveable but it won’t look good.The
floors will be cracked or peeling, and when people walk in they get
the impression it’s a rundown property, but they won’t if you do
the work.Make sure all the fixtures work, that they’re not
broken;make sure door handles are loose or need to be replaced.If
the place is well-maintained, 100% of the time you’ll get more
money for your rental.”
Elafech added that properties are often reflections of the
people who live in them.
“A really good tenant won’t look for a rundown place, first of
all, so they wouldn’t
Halifax has joined a list of suitors vying to be the second
North America headquarters (“HQ2”) of Amazon.
It might be a tough goal for the Nova Scotia capital.Dozens of
large cities across the US and Canada – including Chicago, Toronto,
and Vancouver – are seeking to be picked.But Halifax Mayor Mike
Savage believes that several key economic trends make the city
stand out, apart from its lobsters and beer.
“Lobsters and fiddles and bagpipes are really cool but they’re
not a value proposition,” Savage told Bloomberg. “There’s no
better place in the world to have a drink than Halifax at our many
bars and restaurants, but it doesn’t pay the bills.So we’ve been
trying to add to that over the last number of years.”
According to Savage, affordable housing has been a boon:The
average price of a property in Halifax was $288,000 in August,
about one-third of Toronto’s and a fraction of the equivalent
$852,000 in Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, Bloomberg reported.
Apartments and condos are going up to match the population
influx, with housing starts rising 37% in the first half of
2017.
The city has reversed an ageing demographic trend.Last year the
25-to-39-year-old age group rose by a record 3,800 people.The city
has also stepped up on immigration – international students
comprise about
In its latest study, real estate team HM Commercial Group
found that Kelowna is poised to distinguish itself in the
B.C.housing market through its accelerated pace of building in the
residential segment.
“Demand for all forms of housing remains exceptionally strong
and the City of Kelowna favours a policy towards densification in
the urban town centres, which also bodes well for more affordable
forms of multi-family development,” according to the Fall 2017 HM
Commercial Report.
Most notably, “the Downtown Core is experiencing a boom of high
density development, with projects like the 21-storey tower at 1151
Sunset Drive (now 85% pre-sold before occupancy in Spring/Summer
2018),” the report added.“New projects like One Water Street and
Live at Ella are anticipated to achieve average sales of more than
$600 per square foot with the upper floors expected to reach more
than $900 per square foot.”
As of the third quarter of this year, the value of multi-family
building permits in Kelowna totalled $95.5M, compared to the $76.9M
for the whole of 2016.
The study results indicated that up to 95% of condo buyers in
Kelowna will be occupying their purchases instead of using these
for investment purposes—a much different situation from 10 years
ago, “when up to 70% were speculative investors.”
“[This] is an excellent
The provincial government today announced its plan to
eradicate systemic issues plaguing the construction industry –
issues that ultimately affect some of Toronto’s most vulnerable
citizens.
The formation of the Housing Delivery Group fulfills a Fair
Housing Plan recommendation intended to cut through red tape and
other impediments to timely construction developments.Helmed by
Paula Dill, an experienced urban planner with around 30 years of
experience, the Group will intervene should developers run into
obstacles with permits, zoning, site plans or anything else.
In particular, the Housing Delivery Group will dedicate its
efforts to increasing the supply of rental units and affordable
housing.Part of that plan is to build those housing types near
transit, like subways, GO Trains and LRTs.
“Part of the mix of affordable housing is making sure people
have the ability to get to work and school, or wherever they need
to go, because not everybody can afford a car,” said the provincial
Minister of Housing, Peter Milczyn.“Securing affordable housing
around (transit) is part of the overall need to make life more
affordable, certainly for vulnerable populations by making their
lives easier in every respect, not just housing, but their mobility
and their community.”
The aforesaid vulnerable communities include families and
seniors.
The building industry welcomed the announcement because, in
Toronto specifically, development hurdles
Although showing signs of moderation, sales of new
construction homes in the Greater Toronto Area remained strong on a
year-to-date basis, according to latest data from the Building
Industry and Land Development Association (BILD).
August sales were down 69% from August 2016 and 62% below the
10-year average, while year-to-date sales kept ahead of last year
at this point and 28% above the 10-year average.
The majority of the 31,749 new homes purchased so far this year
were multi-family units, condo apartments in high-rise and mid-rise
buildings, and stacked townhomes, while 20% of year- to-date sales
were low-rise single-family homes.
A total of 795 new homes were sold in August, with low-rise
single-family homes accounting for 114 transactions, while the
remaining 681 sales were those of multi-family homes, condo
apartments in high-rise and mid-rise buildings, and stacked
townhomes.
BILD President and CEO Bryan Tuckey cautioned against reading
too much into the decline, saying that August is typically a slow
month.
“One month does not a trend make.Late summer is a quiet time for
real estate, and most builders wait until September to launch
developments and bring new product to market,” Tuckey explained.“We
are expecting fall to be very busy, and 2017 could still be a
record year of new home sales driven by the
In spite of recent scares regarding their values, detached
houses remain the strongest real estate investment to be had in the
GTA.
Government intervention contributed to the cooling effect
experienced by the recently searing detached market segment, but by
no means is the market headed for a crash, say industry
insiders.While the market was unquestionably overheated, all
indications are that it has stabilized.
According to Richard Lyall, President of the Residential
Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON), conditions for buying
real estate remain highly conducive.
“The economy is doing relatively well and interest rates have
moved up a bit, but they’re still very, very low relative to years
gone by,” said Lyall.“In 2008, there was a steep drop in the
market, but things settled and the market recovered very
quickly.Given the fact that the economy is okay and we’re not in a
recession, and everybody needs a house, it’s a good time to
buy.”
Lyall also says the recent scare impelled by the drop in home
values is overblown, and that it’s obvious a market correction was
long overdue.However, he warned about confusing a correction with a
crash.
“I’m not terribly concerned with where we’re at right now,” he
said.“When you have prices accelerate, you know there’s going to be
some kind of correction because it’s
Montreal might not be doing bad relative to other major
Canadian cities, but contrary to numerous praises by media outlets
and industry professionals alike, the city is nowhere near the
front-runners in becoming the next red-hot housing market.
This according to Better Dwelling’s latest analysis, which
argued that the numbers from the CREA and the GMREB showed that
Montreal’s real estate sector is showing signs of “narrative
crafting”.
“This is when the industry uses observations that can't be
proven to drive FOMO from buyers.Buy now, or a mysterious person
from the East will lock you out of homeownership in your own
city!”
“Once this fear hits, domestic speculators will start driving
prices – attracting global speculators.This is when it turns from a
healthy market, to a speculative one.They’ll play against each
other, until growth tapers.They leave as quickly as they come, and
locals are usually left with nothing more than a pile of debt,”
Better Dwelling explained.
Framing price growth in terms of dollar value without further
context might appear remarkable, Better Dwelling added, but the
percentages represented by these figures reveal a far different
story.
“The benchmark price, which is the price of a typical home, rose
to $326,400.That’s up a whopping 0.06 per cent from the month
before, which works out to $200.Compared
In a recent analysis on the broker network’s online portal,
Dominion Lending Centres chief economist Dr.Sherry Cooper stated
that the August numbers from the Canadian Real Estate Association
(CREA) revealed a national housing market still performing well
below its potential.
The CREA data indicated a slight 1.3-per-cent growth in sales
last month, which ended four consecutive months of declines.This
was mainly driven by a significant 14.3-per-cent increase in
Greater Toronto Area sales.
Cooper noted that lopsided performance on a national scale was
evident in flat sales growth in all other Canadian markets apart
from the GTA—and that even Toronto’s recent rally was just the
“first monthly rise since the April announcement of the Ontario
Fair Housing Policy.”
National activity remained 13.8 per cent below the record set in
March 2017.In Ontario, the number of sales remained 36 per cent
below the peak (reached in March as well) and 32 per cent below the
levels a year ago.
“Actual (not seasonally adjusted) sales activity was down nearly
10% year-over-year in August.Sales were down from year-ago levels
in about 60% of all local markets, led by the GTA and surrounding
housing markets,” Cooper wrote.
Related stories:
Are you looking to invest in property?If you like, we can get
one of our mortgage experts to tell
Although rent control appears to be here to stay, a new report
proposes meeting halfway with a rolling exemption of 10 to 15
years, before reintroducing rent control for the same period of
time, and then scaling it back again.
The Federation of Rental-Housing Providers of Ontario (FRPO) and
Urbanation joint report shed light on some of the pressures placed
upon the rental market that’s resulting in short supply and high
demand, and posits that, unless rectified, renting could be
rendered as unaffordable as owning.
It also warns there’s an annual 6,250-unit shortfall, which is
exacerbated by the absence of new purpose-built rental buildings,
and that most of the new rental stock on the market are impermanent
secondary units in condominiums proffered by investors.
A major reason for the dearth of new purpose-built rental
buildings is -- in spite of industry-wide acknowledgement that
there’s an appetite for them -- the provincial government’s
reintroduction of rent control this past spring.
Jim Murphy, President and CEO of FRPO, says vacancy rates
throughout the GTA are dangerously low, and that in Toronto, in
particular, it risks falling below 1% -- which could have
devastating consequences.
“The vacancy rate is 1.3% in Toronto and 1% in the city’s condo
rentals, so there’s a need for government to
by Neil Sharma
The downtown Toronto core is where investors can expect to fetch
the best return on their condo investments, because of better
crafted suites, the core’s myriad amenities and its swift access to
underground transit.
TheRedPin put together a list of the city’s 25 best
intersections at which to buy, and not surprisingly the majority
fall within the core, bounded by Spadina to the west, Jarvis to the
East, Bloor to the North and Front to the south.
According to Hyder Owainati, TheRedPin’s communication manager,
the Yonge-University subway line is replete with sound investment
opportunities.“Around those intersections, (condos) carry a
premium,” he said.“Yonge and Dundas, Carlton and Gerrard carry a
premium on the market.”
Conversely, condos around Spadina and King, while still strong
investments because of surrounding amenities, aren’t directly
connected to the city’s underground transit system and, therefore,
fetch slightly lower ROIs than units around the Yonge-University
line.
“Direct subway access is always big for investors, but even if
you’re a little east but along the streetcar line, you still have
triple-A transit access for your ROI,” continued Owainati.
While the Yonge corridor carries Toronto’s
safest investment properties, ROIs decrease north of Bloor
St.because subway stations are scarce.However, uptown in the
bustling Yonge and Eglinton neighbourhood, investment returns begin
experiencing gains.
“For
The recent influx of tenants and investors in New
Westminster’s commercial properties might be a good indicator of
the city’s prospects as a strong contributor to the national
market.
In the first half of 2017 alone, total commercial building
permits in New Westminster amounted to $6 million, and more
commercial building construction is incoming, according to Blair
Fryer, the Royal City’s communications and economic development
manager.
“Much of the commercial under construction is ground-level
shopping at the bottom of mixed use towers, which are dominated by
the residential component,” Fryer told Western Investor.
Fryer stated that Westminster Toyota has already submitted
applications to build a new dealership in Queensborough, with the
old Keg building being renovated into new Kelly O’Bryan’s/Carlos
O’Bryan’s location.Applications for a new banquet hall and a new
entertainment complex under the banner of Extreme Air Park are also
pending.
Other upcoming projects involve a $2 million application to
expand a liquor store and increase commercial space, along with a
five residential units, on Front Street;as well as a mixed-use
development that will add nearly 11,000 square feet of retail and
offices with two new residential buildings.
One notable transaction was the sale of the 8-storey Anvil
Centre office tower in downtown New Westminster.Gambling firm
Evolution Gaming is set to take one floor of
Vancouver and Toronto luxury property sales should accelerate
this fall after a period of relative sluggishness, according to a
new report from Sotheby’s International Realty Canada.
This is in sharp contrast to the situation in Montreal, which
was touted by the report “as a strong leader on Canada’s luxury
real estate landscape this fall.”
The variance in the markets’ performances came amid expected
sustained strength in the Canadian economy.The Sotheby’s report
predicted “a brisk and active” market for luxury real estate in
Toronto this fall and for Vancouver to regain momentum.
The rosy outlook stemmed from a slew of policy changes—including
some from Ottawa and a couple provincial governments—designed to
cool the country’s hot housing markets.
“The psychological confidence that people had in the marketplace
was shaken by all of the different factors that were put in there,”
Sotheby’s International Realty Canada CEO Brad Henderson said, as
quoted by The Canadian Press.
In July and August, sales of condominiums and houses over $1
million in Toronto fell 27 per cent compared to the same months the
year before.Transactions of properties over $4 million in the city
fell by nearly the same amount (28 per cent), according to the
Sotheby’s report.
Part of that drop came as buyers and sellers in Ontario
by Neil Sharma
Montreal is Canada’s next investors’ paradise.
A city of multiplexes — which continue to yield high returns for
investors — Montreal’s burgeoning condo market is also attracting
international attention.In particular, the southwest neighbourhoods
of Griffintown and neighbouring St.Henri, the latter of which has
rehabilitated its rough and tumble image through gentrification,
are the surest bets, according to Fred Serrecchia, Partner, Broker
of Record and Head of Real Estate at Montreal-based NestReady.
“Things are changing quite rapidly,” he said.“The condo market
has seen absorption, and new developments like the ones in
Griffintown and St.Henri have made them unrecognizable.A lot of
inventory has gone up there and it’s all being absorbed incredibly
well.”
Griffintown’s proximity to Montreal and the Lachine Canal, where
waterside condos are sprouting with state-of-the-art amenities, has
made it the hottest neighbourhood in town.From an investor’s
standpoint, because most buildings are very new, they’re exempt
from the rent control that applies to builds more than five years
old.
“Griffintown is not entirely subject to rent control because of
the new buildings, so rent is increasing faster there than anywhere
else” making it ripe for investment, added Serrecchia.“It has a
demographic that consists mostly of young professionals, so it’s
lively — they prefer Griffintown.It’s also on the water by the
Lachine Canal, which
Saskatoon’s housing market performance should readily outpace
that of other Western Canadian markets in the next few years,
according to a report released earlier this week by the Real Estate
Investment Network.
“Understand that if North Korea fires off some missiles and
things, all bets are off,” REIN founder Don Campbell told CBC
News.“But Saskatoon, and Saskatchewan as a whole, has food, fuel,
fertilizer and farmers.Those four Fs definitely are going to be
needed in the future.”
However, Campbell cautioned potential buyers to avoid acquiring
until the right property enters the market.
“The next 18 months probably aren’t going to be pretty in the
housing market anywhere in Saskatchewan,” Campbell said.“But the
stability and the diversity and the age of the population are all
indicating it's going to be one of the outperformers.”
REIN data indicated that with its lower-than-average GDP
decrease of just 1 per cent in 2016, Saskatoon is in stark contrast
to current market trends in other Western Canadian cities.
The expectation of steady growth is supported by numbers from
the Royal Bank of Canada, which projected that Saskatchewan’s real
GDP growth will be 1.8 per cent in 2017 and 2.3 per cent in
2018.
Still, potential weak points abound, as Saskatoon’s unemployment
rate is now sitting at 8.4
Fully 95 per cent of Canadians believe that easy access to
green spaces near their domiciles plays a crucial role in enhancing
their quality of life, according to the results of a fresh survey
conducted by TD Bank.
Meanwhile, 77 per cent of those polled said that there is much
room for improvement like more picnic areas, natural playgrounds,
and solar lighting in local green spaces.
Proximity to green space is a central factor in deciding where
to live for a significant proportion of Canadians, with 18 per cent
ranking it a high priority, behind proximity to close schools and
public transport.
According to 40 per cent of respondents, commercial development
should not impact green space.24 per cent said that housing
developments should not come at the expense of existing green
space.
“Canadians agree, community green spaces are an integral part of
our identity,” TD Bank Group chief environment officer Karen
Clarke-Whistler said.“As the pace of life around us intensifies,
Canadians value outdoor spaces in their communities where they can
find common ground.”
Most importantly, Canadians treasure environmentally sustainable
community green spaces, regardless of cost to themselves.94 per
cent of those surveyed stated that natural sustainable playground
equipment would be important for their local community green
space.
“Sensory-rich community green spaces are the rare
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