10 top tips for a successful tenant background check

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 take to avoid being put in such situations. With the right tenant screening […]

Ontario’s best investment hubs this year

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, and fundamental strength, Ottawa came out on top of the wide-ranging survey, which looked at multiple factors including economic […]

GTA Retail Overview

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 vacancy rate has edged down, by 50 bps year-over-year to end […]

GTA Industrial Overview

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 year-over-year to end 2018 at 1.9%. To keep up with demand, construction activity has been equally strong. […]

GTA Office Overview

GTA Office Overview 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 the same period to $18.50/SF per annum. With strong demand from […]

November 2018 GTA New Home Sales Recap

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 average Low and High Rise home or unit price […]

lower tax rate for small business owners

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.  

15 of the Most Important Questions To Ask When Buying a House

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. But before you fall too much in […]

Basement dweller cliché needs to be buried

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 relationship. In the rare moments when we have time, it’s nice to have a coffee together, bounce ideas […]

Mortgage brokers help the homeless across Canada

Mortgage brokers and staff from Invis-Mortgage Intelligence delivered more than 100,000 items of clothing and supplied to homeless shelters across Canada this week. The Angels in the Night program began in 2002 and has raised around $4 million to date in cash and in kind donations for homeless shelters. Funds are used to buy items […]

Lack of homes for the ‘missing middle’ to impact GTA

Building the right homes to meet the demands of the population is essential to avoid a sizeable deficit in housing supply in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton region. A new report from the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario warns that the region is at risk of missing provincial population targets, which could potentially […]

Don’t let market uncertainty prevent you from buying your dream home

Toronto recently plummeted in a global ranking of housing markets. Is it a bad thing? Is it a sign of things to come? I think it might be a good thing. Having the hottest market sometimes means there are more people who can’t afford a home. Real estate consultancy, Knight Frank, released its global index […]

Why VR and AR may become standard terms for real estate agents

The importance of effective listings is highlighted by a new report which shows that 1 in 5 homebuyers bought their home without physically walking through the property before deciding it was ‘the one’. While that may be a risky strategy and most buyers still want to go inside their potential purchase, online listings do play […]

Fraser Valley sales in line with historic averages

Home sales slipped back in the Fraser Valley last month but were broadly in line with historic averages for the time of year. A total of 1,028 sales were recorded through the MLS system of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, including 383 residential detached homes, 241 townhouses, and 286 apartments. This was a decline […]

Competition has increased in some Toronto neighbourhoods

Moderate price growth and a decline in sales continued the trend in the Toronto residential home sales market in November. But in some markets there appears to have been an increase in competition in some parts of the market according to the Toronto Real Estate Board. Sales through the MLS totaled 6,251, down 14.7% year-over-year; […]

Mortgage, real estate professionals warned about cyber threat

Mortgage and real estate professionals may be in the sights of a group of Nigerian cyber criminals who are trying to steal company funds. CNN reports that the group, called London Blue, have obtained a list of the email addresses of around 50,000 executives, including 35,000 chief financial officers, across 80 countries. Some are from […]

U.S. financing from Canadian bank offsets purchase

Canadian real estate investors are often dissuaded from purchasing American properties because of the exchange rate, but a lot of needless headaches can be avoided by receiving U.S. financing from select Canadian banks. “A $400,000 home in the U.S. will become $532,000CAD, so the U.S. mortgage makes sense to mitigate the impact of the weak […]

Builders blame Ontario’s growth plan for rising home prices

The Toronto area’s land squeeze will continue to drive up home prices and commute times unless the Ontario government puts the brakes on some of the targets in the updated version of its smart growth plan, says the region’s home builders’ association. The dwindling supply of greenfield lands where builders have traditionally developed subdivisions, along […]

Housing Can’t Be Both Affordable and a Good Investment

Promoting homeownership as an investment strategy is a risky proposition. No financial advisor would recommend going into debt in order to put such a massive part of your savings in any other single financial instrument—and one that, as we learned just a few years ago, carries a great deal of risk. Even worse, that risk […]