January 2019 - Posts
Five years ago, Sarah Sklash, co-owner of the June Motel, visited Prince Edward County for the first time to attend a wine festival. On the car ride home, she knew it was the place for her and immediately began property shopping from the back seat. Sklash
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Whether you want to stop paying skyrocketing rental rates, start building equity, or own property that can be passed down to your children, purchasing a home is likely a long-term goal of yours. However, with rising home costs and the mortgage stress
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The Bank of Canada has stepped to the sidelines since it last hiked the overnight rate, which influences rates on the mortgage market, this past October. Leaving the policy rate at 1.75 percent since then is a departure from the central bank’s gradual
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More Canadian banks are trimming mortgage rates following RBC’s move last week to hack 15 basis points off its five-year fixed rate. It was likely welcome news for homebuyers in Toronto, one of Canada’s priciest markets with an average home
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A recent Ipsos survey painted a grim picture for many Canadians: apparently, nearly half are $200 or less from being too broke to pay the bills. The annual survey of more than 2,000 adults in Canada garnered dire headlines across the country, with nearly
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The Canadian housing market’s performance has been even worse than TD expected, but there are multiple reasons one of Canada’s biggest banks doesn’t predict “a further sustained deterioration” — or worse — this
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If you’re torn between investing in either RRSPs or real estate, don’t be. Calum Ross, a leverage wealth expert and VERICO broker with Mortgage Management Group—and author of The Real Estate Retirement Plan: An Investment and Lifestyle
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(Mount) Pleasant Victory A recent court decision has put over 1200 acres of green space back into the hands of public ownership. This is a massive victory for residents, and if upheld on appeal, will help ensure these lands are properly managed and remain
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It wasn’t so long ago that there was hardly any doubt that Canadians would be seeing higher mortgage rates this year. The Bank of Canada was widely expected to continue on its path of tightening monetary policy with continued increases to the overnight
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Sales activity in Ontario’s existing-home market was slowing last year, but homebuilders weren’t saddled with high levels of new unsold dwellings, suggests a recent report from Central 1 credit union, which predicts the trend will continue.
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Although much has been made about the decline in Canadian home sales and prices, one economist suggests it wasn’t as bad as it seems. “Remember: If the price of every house in the neighbourhood stays the same in a given year, but fewer of
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The leading property listings website for Chinese consumers has added a new channel focused on those who want to retire abroad. Juwai.com, which reaches more than 3 million Chinese consumers each month has launched its Retirement and Lifestyle Channel
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On January 15, 2019, the Minister of Municipal Affairs posted proposed changes to the Provincial Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe on the Environmental Bill of Rights Registry. The province is now receiving comments on the proposed changes
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With seniors slated to comprise nearly a quarter of Canada’s population by 2030, real estate that caters to their needs is being touted as one of the most investment-friendly sectors this year. That’s in spite of a somewhat volatile interest
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With a focus on security and performance, Oracle today announced the opening of a 700,000 square-foot data centre in Toronto to support customer demand in the region. Oracle has “leapfrogged” the competition when it comes the next-generation
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A national trend of dampening homes sales has not swept through the new condo segment of every large Canadian housing market. Activity is markedly down in a number of Canada’s major housing markets, but new condo sales in a handful of cities tracked
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In the not so distant past, Canadian contractors were building more single-family homes than multi-family homes, such as condo apartments. It’s a very different story today — so much so that an economist with one of Canada’s biggest
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An executive with one of the biggest Canadian banks is questioning the judgement of the Bank of Canada’s governor over his comments about bankruptcies in the country. When Stephen Poloz announced this week that the central bank was maintaining the
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Switzerland once again clinched the top spot in a global survey on fostering and attracting talent, in a top 10 list that includes Canada but not the U.S., and no Asian nations. The country retained its title for the fifth consecutive year on the World
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Condo apartment owners in the GTA saw higher returns on their investments in 2018 with rents setting a new record. Urbanation, which has been tracking rents in the market since 2010, says last year’s 9.3% increase was the largest it has seen, beating
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A decade ago, an office landlord might have gone into crisis mode upon learning a tenant as big as Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was preparing to flee to a new development down the street. But these days, perhaps nothing says more about demand for
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“There’s no doubt there has been huge growth in rent prices over the last couple of years, but [anecdotally speaking], it seems to have stabilized in Vancouver,” adding that he predicts the city will not see rental increases in 2019,
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Buying a home is a major investment and the largest financial transaction most people will make in their lives. In addition to the purchase price, interest rates, and condo fees, homebuyers need to be aware of their closing costs. Expenses such as legal
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With data in for all but one month of 2018, Canadian home prices have posted an average decline of 4.1 percent, as many local markets have weakened against 2017 numbers. However, a handful of markets have held strong this past year, bucking the national
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On a recent segment of BNN Bloomberg, Toronto realtor John Pasalis voiced support for extended mortgage stress testing nearly a year to the day after the federal government introduced it. “The stress tests are great,” Pasalis says of the measure
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Being a landlord isn’t without its challenges, but covering one’s bases in the following ways is bound to yield quality tenants and rents. Every real estate professional understands the importance of location, and so should every landlord.
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We’ve all heard the horror stories of tenants who destroy property or fail to pay rent. A bad tenant can be a nightmare for any landlord, as well as both emotionally and financially draining. Fortunately, there are many steps that landlords can
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A new report from independent research think-tank Real Estate Investment Network (REIN) ranked Ontario’s largest metropolitan areas by real estate market performance and suitability for investment over the next 5 years. In terms of growth, diversity,
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GTA Retail Overview Similar to Vancouver, the GTA retail market continues to receive new international retailers who are either looking to enter the GTA market, or are using the GTA as a launching pad to reach the rest of Canada. The GTA retail market
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GTA Industrial Overview Despite the bad news on the manufacturing side, the GTA industrial market, which is being driven by the transportation and warehousing sector, has experienced continued strong demand. Overall GTA vacancy has decreased by 120 bps
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The GTA office market is experiencing exceptionally strong performance and is deeply entrenched in landlord control. The overall market vacancy rate is down 80 bps year-over-year to end 2018 at 5.4, with the average net asking rental rate up 1.6% over
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There were 2,823 total new home sales in November 2018, with 369 Low Rise sales, even with November 2017 (down -71% from 10yr avg) and 2,454 High Rise sales, down -24% from November 2017 (down -6% from 10yr avg). The New Home Benchmark Price tracks the
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A new year, and a new lower tax rate for small business owners across the country. Today, we cut the tax rate to 9.0% – the lowest in the G7 – so that businesses have more money to save, invest, and create good jobs.
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It might seem like all the hard work is done: You’ve determined that you want to buy a house, have the funds, and are prepped and ready to apply for a mortgage. Now comes the fun part of touring houses for sale and picking out your favorite one.
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Mattan Lustgarten lives in his aunt’s basement and he loves it. “I am fortunate to have such generous family,” says the 26-year-old surgical resident at the University of Toronto. “As my aunt says, it’s a mutually beneficial
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