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Vancouver approves laneway housing improvements

Vancouver will make changes to bylaws to make it easier to build laneway housing.

The City Council voted in favour of the changes this week which will help to achieve the Housing Vancouver target of 4,000 new laneway homes over the next 10 years.

“It’s great to see City Council support changes to get more laneway homes built in neighbourhoods across the city,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “We’ve heard loud and clear that Vancouver residents want more housing choices and laneway homes are a great option for middle-income households.”

The agreement on the changes means several benefits:

  • Streamlining approvals for one and a half storey laneway homes by introducing an outright review process similar to the current process for one storey laneway homes
  • Supporting more functional and flexible laneway home design by increasing allowable heights and updating the method of measuring height
  • Improving livability by introducing minimum room size requirements
  • Providing more flexibility for the location and design of one-storey laneway houses

Since 2009, the Laneway Housing Program has approved more than 3,900 laneway homes across the city.

“These changes are a result of consultation with the public through Housing Vancouver about housing needs, as well as focused engagement with owners and renters of laneway homes, industry engagement, and staff analysis,” says Paula Huber, Senior Planner. “By removing identified barriers to building a laneway home, we are making it easier and faster to build the type of housing we know people want and need.”

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Toronto is fastest-growing tech market in North America

The technology sector is continuing to view Toronto as a great place to be based, driving demand for offices and other CRE units, while also supporting employment in the city.

A report from CBRE shows that 28,900 technology jobs were added in 2017, a rise of 13.6% from the previous year.

“High-quality and well-educated tech talent, cost-efficiencies and welcoming immigration policies are competitive advantages for the Canadian tech markets. Toronto continues to outpace other North American markets, having added more tech jobs in 2017 than the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Washington, D.C. combined,” commented Paul Morassutti, Executive Managing Director at CBRE Canada. “Canada’s tech markets are booming. In downtown Toronto alone, tech demand sits at 36% of all current office space demand.”

Toronto ranks fourth in the top 5 markets for tech talent in 2018, which also includes San Francisco Bay Area (1), Seattle (2), Washington DC (3), and New York (5).

Ottawa, Montreal increasingly appealing
While Toronto is a top 5 tech town, two other Canadian cities are climbing the ranks; Ottawa and Montreal are ranked 13th and 14th respectively in CBRE’s scorecard.

Ottawa beats North American peers for concentration of tech talent; while Toronto is third at 8.9%, Ottawa’s 11.2% means it has more than three times the US national average of 3.5%.

“Ottawa is shedding its government town image. It is home to over 1,700 technology companies and employs over 70,000 tech talent employees,” said Shawn Hamilton, Managing Director of CBRE Ottawa. “In the last five years, urban tech has grown to be the second largest user group in downtown Ottawa, bigger than the accounting and legal sectors combined. Shopify continues to be our homegrown success story and has the international appeal to encourage tech clustering.”

Toronto ranks as North America’s fourth largest tech talent market, with over 241,000 tech workers, representing an increase of 51.5% over the past five years. Tech industry growth has accelerated demand for downtown Toronto office space, pushing vacancy down to 2.9% in Q2 2018, the lowest on record for the city and across North America.

“Companies looking to house operations are putting serious thought to locating in Canada. Compared to cities such as New York, Washington, D.C., Newark and Los Angeles, Toronto is among the best value for quality options for tech firms thanks to less expensive access to labour and real estate, but also high educational attainment levels. In short, Canada provides access to very high quality labour at a fraction of the cost,” said Paul Morassutti, Executive Managing Director at CBRE Canada.

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It’s not just condos — Toronto is also running out of commercial real estate

Canada is not just running out of residential real estate in its key markets — the country’s commercial and industrial real estate is also filling up fast.

Availability of industrial property across the country fell to a historically low level of 3.9 per cent in 2018, while supply tightened in eight of the 10 major commercial real estate markets, according to CBRE Group, Inc., the real estate services and investment firm.

Though Canada has 70.6 million square feet of available industrial space left across the country, leading to the highest net rent the country has ever seen, at $7.21 per sq ft in the second quarter.

“Availability in Canada’s major industrial markets continue to plummet, which is putting pressure on tenants,”  Werner Dietl, executive vice-president and GTA regional managing director at CBRE Canada, said in a report published Tuesday.

However, strong demand for industrial space in Canada has led to a 47.1 per cent increase in construction activity, CBRE said.

The new facilities should ideally be located close to city highways and near population centres, which has compelled some markets such as Montreal to increase its transit capacity in a bid to attract more commercial operations.

Demand for e-commerce, food distribution and warehousing were leading factors driving demand for industrial real estate in the country.

“It’s no secret that e-commerce is driving a lot of activity globally. With the change in of how people are shopping, we’re seeing a shift in how retailers are running. We also see it in the food sector, which is showing investments in more effective distribution.” Dietl said.

Toronto is currently the most constrained industrial market in North America, sitting at a 2.2 per cent availability, thanks to its ideal location and demographics that appeal to both foreign and local companies.

Vancouver is North America’s second tightest market, with 2.4 per cent of industrial availability left. The average net asking lease rates on the West Coast city stood at $11.59 per square feet, a 33 per cent increase rate since the start of 2017.

While Vancouver and Toronto markets were tight, Calgary marked its sixth consecutive quarter of rising vacancy rates, due to low unemployment rates and lower economic activity. However, the rise of e-commerce and cannabis facilities across the province has led to new construction, to offset the oil-led downturn. As much as 3.5 million sq ft. of industrial space is at the construction stage to meet rising demand in those sectors, CBRE estimates.

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Construction applications for GTA rental buildings tripled last quarter: Urbanation

Toronto’s low rental vacancy rate has been pushing rents upwards for months, and last quarter was no exception.

The average rent for a 732 square-foot Toronto apartment rose 11.2 per cent year-over-year to $2,302 last quarter, according to a new report from Urbanation.

Meanwhile, condo lease transactions fell 8 per cent to just 7,754 as the rental market hit what Urbanation senior VP Shaun Hildebrand calls a “critically low level” of supply.

But there is some good news: The number of applications for new purpose-built rentals was 3.5 times greater than Q2 2017, with 5,920 new units proposed last quarter.

The reason for the uptick in applications? Developers are looking to capitalize on sky-high rents, says Hildebrand.

“[The rise in applications] is a direct response to the growth in rents,” Hildebrand tells Livabl. “It offsets a lot of the negative impacts of rent control [on purpose-built rental construction.]”

While Hildebrand says that he believes the level of construction is still too low, he believes that last quarter’s increase signals a move in the right direction.

“If we continue along this path, we eventually will get to the point where we get to a balanced market,” he says. “Not anytime soon, but if we continue this trajectory, then yes.”

Hildebrand says it is critical not to rely on condo investors to supply the city with rental stock, especially since there are some signs that investors may be selling their units instead of placing them on the rental market.

“When we look at the percentage of condo units that were added into the rental pool last quarter, that percentage has been declining,” he says. “Fewer investors are holding onto their units after they get built.”

As for the much-decried rent control legislation — which came into effect last April, as part of the province’s Fair Housing Plan — Hildebrand says that, while rental construction does seem to be on the rise, the policy is still negatively impacting the market in other ways.

“Rent control is still an issue because tenant turnover has been declining,” he says. “Reasonable rate of rent growth has been jeopardized because tenants aren’t moving as often.”

Hildebrand says that with fewer units being rented out, and fewer being turned over, the city becomes caught in what he calls a “supply trap,” with less activity across the board, placing an upward pressure on rent prices.

Still, he is hopeful that the market could be in what he calls the “early stages of an upward trajectory.”

“We’re still going to be undersupplied for a long, long time,” he says. “It’s going to take awhile to see supply reach a level that will satisfy the amount of demand.”

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Robert De Niro Breaks Ground on Nobu Toronto


Watch Video: https://youtu.be/UcYKhWs6ip8

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PUBLIC EXHIBITION: July 4 to July 17 Ten Design Proposals for Two New Waterfront Parks Unveiled at Toronto City Hall

Waterfront Toronto and the City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation have unveilled ten creative design proposals as part of the international design competition for York Street Park and Rees Street Park.  Five design proposals will be on display for each park in the Rotunda at Toronto City Hall, so that members of the public will have the opportunity to provide their feedback. The exhibition will be open to the public for during regular hours, beginningWednesday, July 4 at 9:00 a.m. and closing at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 17.

A new website for the design competition will allow Torontonians to explore the design proposals and provide their feedback online.  Visit http://yorkreesparkdesign.ca/ to see the proposals on exhibition.  

York Street Park and Rees Street Park will be the two newest additions to the Toronto’s growing collection of beautiful and sustainable public spaces along the city’s main waterfront boulevard, Queens Quay. The design competition challenged international design teams to strike a balance between the needs of local residents, a growing daytime population of office workers and the bustling crowds that visit the waterfront for recreation and leisure.

The design proposals on exhibition have been created by:

York Street Park
• Agency Landscape + Planning (Massachusetts) + DAVID RUBIN Land Collective (Philadelphia)
• Claude Cormier et Associés (Montréal)
• Hapa Collaborative (Vancouver)
• PLANT Architects (Toronto) + Mandaworks (Stolkholm)
• Stephen Stimson Associates Landscape Architects (Massachusetts) + MJMA (Toronto)

Rees Street Park
• PUBLIC CITY Architecture (Toronto)
• SCAPE Landscape Architecture (New York) + BSN Architects (Toronto)
• Snøhetta (New York) + PMA Landscape Architects (Toronto)
• Stoss Landscape Urbanism (Boston) + DTAH (Toronto)
• wHY Architecture (New York) + Brook Mcllroy (Toronto)

Following the public exhibition of the design proposals and the public comment period, the competition jury will be convened in the early fall to recommend a preferred design proposal for each park. The jury consists of leaders in design and art: Jane Hutton, Assistant Professor, University of Waterloo; Janna Levitt, Principal, LGA Architectural Partners; Michael Van Valkenburgh, Principal, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates; Neil Hrushowy, Principal Urban Designer, City and County of San Francisco, and Matthew Hyland, Director/Curator of Oakville Galleries.

Following the jury’s recommendation, Waterfront Toronto will award design contracts to the two winning design teams and begin design development of the parks. Construction of the York Street Park is expected to commence first in 2019, with Rees Street Park following in 2020.

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Real estate brokers see GDP gain for first time this year

Canada’s economy saw some slight growth in April as real GDP gained 0.1%, the third month of growth following a decline in January.

Statistics Canada reports that 12 of 20 industrial sectors gained, driven by a 0.2% rise for goods producing industries despite a decline for construction.

Services industries were broadly unchanged but real estate brokers and agents posted their first gains of 2018 with a 0.5% rise in output. The industry posted three monthly declines at the start of the year following the introduction of the new mortgage rules in January.

The colder-than-usual weather in April impacted many industries including retail and motor dealers and parts; energy firms gained.

For construction, there was a 0.5% decline with residential construction falling 1% as building activity declined in most types of structures. The monthly decline for the sector overall was the largest since the strike-influenced decline of May 2017.

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Household lending conditions eased in Q2

The latest Senior Loan Officer Survey from the Bank of Canada shows how lending conditions have changed in the second quarter of 2018.

The new mortgage rules introduced at the start of the year continue to impact mortgage approval rates for low-ratio mortgages while the changes to regulations introduced at the end of 2016 are still impacting high-ratio loans.

The report shows that for the remaining pool of qualifying borrowers, lenders eased pricing conditions for both low and high ratio mortgages while non-price lending conditions remained unchanged.

The survey points to a tightening of mortgage lending conditions in the third quarter.

There were few changes for conditions in non-mortgage lending and demand for non-mortgage borrowing was unchanged.

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Rate hike likely this month but then a pause?

The Bank of Canada will meet to decide on its latest move on interest rates next week and many are expecting an increase.

But once July’s hike is done, things become less clear as the economy is showing some mixed signals.

Two economists from Canada’s big banks have given their assessment of the likelihood of rate rises and both are confident that homeowners are facing higher mortgage costs from this month.

CIBC’s Avery Shenfeld says that the recent GDP and outlook survey were positive and a strong labour force survey for June is also expected.

“That will be the last piece of the puzzle for a Bank of Canada rate hike in July, but we’re also of the view that economic growth will moderate enough after Q2 to force another extended pause on rates,” he says.

Meanwhile, TD Economic’s James Marple is also expecting June’s labour figures to support a July interest rate rise; and concurs with Shenfeld’s call for a pause afterwards.

“Given a more cautious outlook and ongoing threat of escalating trade wars, we suspect it will be some time before we see another hike,” he says.

Marple notes that the housing market has shown some signs of stabilization with  some markets, Ottawa and Montreal for example, showing “decent positive momentum.”

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Homebuyers overestimate impact of foreign investors

Homeowners in Vancouver and Toronto believe that foreign investors are driving up home prices but that isn’t backed up by official figures.

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A new Housing Market Insight from the CMHC shows that 68% of survey respondents in Vancouver and 48% in Toronto think foreign investors have a lot of influence on home prices in their cities.

However, official Statistics Canada data shows that total non-resident ownership is just 4.8% of homes in Vancouver and 3.4% in Toronto.

Vancouverites are more likely to believe that investors have more influence on home prices than supply restraints and demand-side factors.

Buyers are also spending more than planned in Canada’s two hottest housing markets; 48% of respondents in both cities said they had exceeded their budgets, twice as many as those who did so in Montreal.

“The survey allows us to better understand how home buying is influenced by attitudes and perceptions, giving rise to sustaining local narratives. As we can see, psychological drivers can be at odds with economic fundamental drivers,” said Guillaume Neault, Senior Manager, Analytics, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Are you looking to invest in property? If you like, we can get one of our mortgage experts to tell you exactly how much you can afford to borrow, which is the best mortgage for you or how much they could save you right now if you have an existing mortgage

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Building Canada’s Tallest Condo Towers—Right Into Toronto’s Sales Slump

Great Gulf Group is well aware it’s forging ahead with one of Canada’s ritziest condo projects in a market that appears to be cooling. In fact it’s bracing for the possibility.

The developer plans to construct the country’s tallest residential buildings — two towers as high as 92 stories plus commercial space, designed by Frank Gehry, and projected to cost more than C$1 billion ($750 million). Chief Executive Officer Jerry Patava is confident demand for condos will remain strong in a city that’s a magnet for immigrants, even though sales have slumped.

“That’s a lot of square footage, 1.7 million or 1.5 million square feet of residence is a lot to sell but you know obviously, the building itself is spectacularly designed and the location is great,” Patava said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Toronto office. “But if we don’t get our presales, we’re not building our condo.”

Condo sales dropped 30 percent in the first quarter in the Toronto region compared with the year before, though average prices rose 9 percent, according to the local real estate board. The retrenchment is happening as supply is rising, with work begun on almost 10,000 condos this year — the most since 2015, according to Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp.

Sculptural Form

The project, located in Toronto’s entertainment district, calls for space for an art and design university, offices, retail or a luxury hotel. The first building on the west side, will be launched for presale next year, said Patava, and will total more than 1 million square feet of space. That tower will supersede the 85-story luxury condo currently being built by Mizrahi Developments at the corner of Yonge and Bloor Streets.

The two skyscrapers, which will sit on top of a seven-story podium, will carry the trademark sculptural design that shot Gehry to fame with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, though in vertical form. The project has been approved for zoning as a mixed-use site and the next phase for the closely held company is to move into presales to get financing for construction.

Patava said the plan is to build the entire underground of the development first, close it off and proceed with the west tower. “I’m hopeful that we get halfway and we can sell the west well, and maybe even start construction, so we can immediately start to sell the east.”

Withstand Correction

The project is one of several under way by Great Gulf in the city, including a 34-story condo building at Yonge and St. Clair and a 46-story at King and Spadina, both of which will also start pre-sales next year in a market Patava describes as “frothy.”

“We are very selective in what we acquire in the downtown core,” he said. “We spent a year and a half before we bought the site working with Frank Gehry just to make sure we can build it right.”

A drop in immigration flows, a significant jump in interest rates or unemployment could trigger a 10 percent downturn in Toronto home prices, though Patava hasn’t seen signs of that yet. Even if that were to occur he wouldn’t be too worried. “We can withstand that kind of downturn, we’ll just cut back on production and look in the U.S.,” Patava said.

Southern Charm

Great Gulf’s U.S. residential divisions, Ashton Woods and Starlight Homes, are two key growth drivers for the company. The company is aiming for U.S. sales of more than 4,000 units this fiscal year in markets including Orlando, Florida and Texas after reaching 3,800 in the 12 months to May.

U.S. residential markets are in “the sixth and seventh inning of a recovery,” Patava said, noting the company’s come a long way after almost filing for bankruptcy in the U.S. during the housing crash. “We still have some pricing power and we still have some volume that we can generate in the U.S.”

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GTA new condo sales “very encouraging”

Sales of newly-built condos in the Greater Toronto Area totalled 2,003 in May, accounting for the bulk of the 2,345 total new home sales.

While condo sales were 47% below May 2017’s record high, they were just 1% behind the 10-year average for May.

“May new condominium apartment sales were very encouraging,” noted Patricia Arsenault, Altus Group’s Executive Vice-President, Research Consulting Services. “Not only was it the strongest month since last November, but the sales of 2,003 units are impressive in historical terms: there have only been five other years where May new condominium apartment sales topped this year’s performance.”

The figures are part of a report from the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), which also reveals a 25.4% year-over-year rise in the benchmark price for new condominium apartments in low, medium and high-rise buildings, stacked townhouses and loft units ($758,370).

Inventory is down to 9,345 as only five developments, totalling 710 units, opened in May.

Single-family home sales, prices down
The benchmark price for single-family homes was down 6.4% year-over-year to $1,144,191; and sales of just 342 homes meant sales dropped 33% from last May and down 78% from the 10-year average.

But the fall in prices may be about to change; and not in a way that will benefit sellers.

“It is doubtful prices will continue to moderate, considering embedded government fees, taxes and charges, and high land costs due to regulatory constraints,” said David Wilkes, BILD President & CEO.

BILD is asking residents to send letters calling for action on the GTA’s housing issues to candidates for municipal office ahead of the October 22 elections.

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How Mississauga’s 10-tower, $1.5B condo complex could reshape the city’s future

The M City complex and Hurontario LRT are scheduled to open in 2021 and 2022, respectively

The start of construction for a $1.5 billion condo complex is being hailed as a major step in Mississauga’s ongoing evolution into a full-fledged urban centre.

Developers are set to host a ceremonial groundbreaking Monday at M City, a 10-tower, 15-acre development to be built on the west side of the city’s burgeoning downtown core, at 3980 Confederation Parkway.

“I think it’s going to transform Mississauga,” said Mark Reeve, a partner at Urban Capital Property Group, one of the developers behind the project.

The first two towers of the complex are scheduled to be completed in 2021, one year before the scheduled opening of the Hurontario LRT, which will include a stop just blocks from M City.

There are hopes that the combination of housing and transit will help Mississauga in its ongoing evolution from a sprawling bedroom community into a modern city where people live and work.

Mayor Bonnie Crombie said the complex will help the area achieve its goals of becoming a “vibrant, livable, walkable downtown.

‘The future of the GTA’

Urban planners say the complex and upcoming rapid transit projects have put Mississauga at the forefront of Toronto’s suburbs when it comes to planning and intensification.

“Mississauga really represents the future of the Greater Toronto Area,” said Graham Haines, a research manager at the Ryerson City Building Institute. “It’s a municipality that’s starting to figure out how to build up instead of build out.”

In March, Haines published a report that examined how Mississauga can best prepare itself for its expected population growth.

With the right planning and developments, he found the city could accommodate 160,000 new homes, and as much as 80 per cent of all projected growth in Peel Region until 2041.

The best way to accommodate that growth, he said, is through the construction of so-called “missing middle” housing — homes such as townhouses and mid-rises.

While researchers say the towers at M City are a good fit for downtown Mississauga, they warn it’s not a model that will work across the city.

“It doesn’t mean that we need to build towers everywhere,” said Cherise Burda, the institute’s executive director.

Jobs still needed

Burda said the city is on the right path to achieve it goals, and that among the GTA municipalities, Mississauga is “leading the region in thoughtful intensification planning.”

However, the city needs more than condos and transit if it is to achieve its full potential. That will take jobs too, researchers say.

“This M City condos project is an exciting one for sure, but it’s largely residential,” Haines said.

The next stage is to attract more jobs and office towers to downtown Mississauga.

That effort will be the “key inflection point,” he said, that will determine the city’s success in its transformation.

Crombie says those jobs are on the way, as part of Mississauga’s expected population boom of around 200,000 people over the next 25 years.

That growth will create more than 100,000 new jobs in the city, she said.

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Huge demand for student housing makes it a lucrative opportunity for investors

Haider-Moranis Bulletin: The private sector can develop student housing into a mature class of real estate investments

As enrolment at Canada’s universities and colleges continues to grow, the space for lecture halls, labs and academic offices is becoming scarcer. The same goes for on- and off-campus student housing.

More than 1.5 million full-time students are currently enrolled in Canadian universities and colleges. They collectively generate a huge demand for rental housing and, in particular in large urban centres where rents are high, present a predictable source of demand for rental units.

But these days, students aren’t the only ones with an interest in student housing.

The previously ignored sector has become a niche opportunity for investors as well, lured by yields that U.K.-based real estate services provider Savills notes are “currently higher than in many sectors.”

Earlier this year, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) announced that their joint venture, Scion Student Communities, acquired a student housing portfolio worth US$1.1 billion. The portfolio comprises 13,666 beds in 20 university campus markets across the U.S.

A recent report in the Economist revealed that student housing attracted US$16 billion worldwide investment in 2016, as sovereign wealth funds increasingly target the sector.

Opportunity exists in Canada as well. The growth in the number of post-secondary students here has not been met with a commensurate increase in student-centric housing. The need is most acute in cities such as Toronto, where a collaborative initiative, StudentDwellTO — sponsored by the presidents of the four Toronto universities — aims to find solutions for student housing challenges.

While universities may be tempted to secure a larger piece of the student housing pie by getting more involved themselves, that would be a mistake. Universities are in the business of education and not running rental accommodation. They should encourage and facilitate the private sector, which has the experience and the resources to help the hitherto nascent student housing market reach maturity in Canada.

SVN Rock Advisors Inc. Brokerage specializes in student housing finance. They estimate that the unmet (residual) demand for student housing in Canada is more than 416,000 beds. This should hardly come as a surprise since even with millions enrolled in Canadian universities, the total number of on-campus beds is just 121,164.

SVN estimates that the current number of purpose-built off-campus beds across Canada is 39,178, almost half of which are in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.

The unmet demand for such housing is estimated to be huge, with 51,000 beds needed in Montreal, 32,000 in Toronto and 21,500 in Ottawa.

From an investment point of view, the numbers favour student housing over other residential rental projects. For instance, a purpose-built rental with 140,000 square feet of rental space can house approximately 220 people in 140 units. The same space will accommodate 450 students and can generate 30 per cent more rent, says Derek Lobo, who heads SVN.

And the demand for student housing in Canada is only expected to rise. The demographic realities of most regions of Canada and the increased appetite for education around the world mean that international students will comprise a larger proportion of university enrolments in the future.

During 2011-12 and 2015-16, the number of full-time Canadian students enrolled in Bachelor’s or equivalent programs increased by only two per cent. In comparison, the number of international students studying in Canada increased by a whopping 52 per cent. In Manitoba and British Columbia, the comparable international student population grew by 88 per cent and 74 per cent respectively.

As Canadian universities compete globally to attract international students, they must recognize that “residence life” is very much part of the educational experience. As universities specialize in the delivery of educational services, they should collaborate with private sector investors and property managers to provide quality housing services.

The days of ageing, run-down student housing are over. Students and their parents expect and demand quality housing. Given a stable source of demand and the willingness to pay, the private sector can develop student housing into a mature class of real estate investments.

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City plan puts focus on two- and three-bedroom residential units

Nearly half of new residential developments in downtown Toronto could be made up of two- and three-bedroom units, a new plan for the core just approved by city council outlines.

The city’s sweeping TOcore plan for downtown growth considers many aspects of living, working and being in Toronto’s core, including expanding and improving parks; fostering walking, cycling and transit, and protecting open spaces from shadow.

The Official Plan Amendment and three infrastructure strategies was considered by council late Wednesday night.

The master plan requires new residential developments with more than 80 units to be made up of at least 40 per cent two- and three-bedroom units.

“It’s something that we’re … hoping for, because we’ve been seeing a steady decline since the 1990s in the size of condo units and in the number of bedrooms of condo units,” said Cherise Burda, executive director of the Ryerson City Building Institute.

“At the same time, we’re seeing an increase in the height of condo buildings. And, so, essentially, we’re building small and tall; we’re building small units in tall buildings.”

To create balanced mix of unit types and sizes, the policies approved lay out regulations for developments with more than 80 residential units:

    • At least 15 per cent of units would be two-bedrooms that are at least 87 square metres (936.5 square feet) in size.
    • At least 10 per cent of units would be three-bedrooms that are at least 100 square metres (1,076.4 square feet) in size.
    • An additional 15 per cent of units would be a combination of two- and three-bedroom units, without the same minimum size.
“Making sure that we build a livable downtown means ensuring that we have access to affordable housing, but also means that we have access to family housing, and that means family-sized units,” said Councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 20—Trinity-Spadina) before the vote.

“Not just two and three bedrooms where the three bedrooms are closets, but rather two and three proper-sized bedrooms. And that’s what’s key in TOcore; it provides a percentage that’s required for two and three bedrooms, but also the specific square footage that’s required.”

Douglas Young, an associate professor who teaches urban studies at York University, said the policy is a “very interesting” example of the government regulating the production of housing.

“I think, in this country, there’s always been something of a dance between government and the private sector around housing, with sometimes government getting very involved and other times stepping back,” Young said. “So I see this as a point in time where they’ve decided to step forward and get more involved.”

Young said the regulations are an attempt to reverse the trend of smaller condos being built in Toronto, which are more suitable for singles than families or groups. He added the 87- and 100-square-metre minimums for new units are “big” by today’s standards.

Burda said multi-bedroom units will create opportunities for families to remain downtown, but emphasized that affordability remains an issue.

“We need to get way more innovative and figure out how to create more affordable, family-friendly housing in our downtown, and it doesn’t necessarily require a million-dollar, three-bedroom unit,” Burda said.

The plan adds that, “where appropriate,” residential units would include storage space, operable windows, bedrooms with closets, bedrooms with an operable window on an exterior wall and balconies or terraces.

“They’re acknowledging the fact that the standard of accommodation that the private sector is producing is pretty low, where you can have a space without a window and without a closet and you can call it a bedroom,” Young said.

The downtown plan is a 25-year project that directs the scale and location of future growth in the city centre. It’s the first comprehensive update since the 1970s, when the 1976 Central Area Plan introduced policies to encourage residential growth downtown and avoid inner city deterioration.

“Fundamentally, TOcore is about designing a downtown that is livable,” Cressy said. “Another way of putting it: it’s about ensuring we build neighbourhoods, rather than simply building towers. And, so, central to building neighbourhoods is having a range of ages and families and people that live there.”

Cressy called the masterplan “long overdue and necessary.”

By the year 2041, the population of downtown Toronto is expected to double from 240,000 to 475,000.

Recognizing that growth was outpacing infrastructure, city council initiated the TOcore study in 2014.

The study area is bounded by Lake Ontario to the south, Bathurst St. to the west, the mid-town rail corridor and Rosedale Valley Road to the north and the Don River to the east.

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New Condo Sales 2008 – 2018

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Syndicated mortgage investors still out tens of thousands, say Ontario’s new regulations won’t help

Amended regulations will set $60K a year investment cap on some of the risky investments

Margaret Wong, left, and Alexander Wong each invested more than a $100,000 in syndicated mortgages. They’ve never seen a penny of the money they were counting on for retirement. (Chris Dunseith/CBC)

Investors who have likely lost tens of thousands in syndicated mortgages say the Ontario government has “done nothing” for them, and that amended regulations touted in the province’s budget last week won’t do much to help.

The budget outlines changes that will come into effect July 1 to strengthen investor protections and make sure that “potential investors are aware of the risks” surrounding syndicated mortgages.

 

A syndicated mortgage is when a borrower finds more than one private lender to invest money in a property instead of going to the bank.

One big change coming for investors in Ontario is a $60,000 annual investment limit.

It will apply to individual investors in some syndicated mortgages, like the ones a CBC Toronto investigation revealed left 120 investors in the hole nearly $9 million after their money was handed over to a convicted fraudster.

Margaret Wong was one of those investors.

Nearly a year later, the retiree’s no closer to recouping the $200,000 she put into four syndicated mortgage projects with Black Bear Homes.

More than 120 people from the Greater Toronto Area’s Chinese community have likely lost nearly $9 million in syndicated mortgage investments solicited by someone they trusted and then loaned to a convicted fraudster, a CBC News investigation has found. 2:32

“At least we wouldn’t lose as much,” said Wong, about the changes. “But the main point is we would still lose the $60,000, because the government is not doing anything to protect the investor.”

Investment cap, more disclosure coming July 1

In addition to the $60,000 cap, new forms dealing with investor risk tolerance, property appraisals, and disclosure will be created by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO), which currently regulates syndicated mortgages.

The province plans to transfer that power to the Ontario Securities Commission down the line.

Wong says the amendments to the Mortgage Brokerages, Lenders and Administrators Act are a “starting point” but don’t address some borrowers’ behaviour.

We need more accountability. The government should go after the borrower.– Margaret Wong

FSCO considers syndicated mortgages to be high-risk investments, but Wong and others who invested in them with Black Bear say they were told the investments were safe and secure.

“What has the government done for us, other than checking our background and limiting our investment?” Wong told CBC Toronto. “We need more accountability. The government should go after the borrower.”

Gary Fraser and Dominic Ha took investors on a tour of properties under development in Crystal Beach, Ont.

In Wong’s case the borrower was Black Bear Homes, a developer in Fort Erie, Ont., which was represented by Gary Fraser, a convicted fraudster.

Most of the projects involved renovating or building houses or townhomes in the Crystal Beach community on Lake Erie.

After examining Black Bear’s syndicated mortgage contracts, ledgers and the investors stories a year ago, a certified fraud examiner told CBC Toronto, in his opinion, “this is open fraud.”

Police close Black Bear investigation

But in the end police disagreed.

York Regional Police closed their investigation into Black Bear syndicated mortgages in October of last year.

“I was pretty disappointed,” said Alexander Wong, who invested $160,000. “We never had any interview. No one that we know was interviewed.”

“By doing so, how can they draw the conclusion this is not fraud?”

In a letter to another investor, police said “it was determined the this matter may fall under civil or regulatory law but not criminal law” and that investigators “provided material” to FSCO to help in their investigation of the Black Bear investments.

A month after CBC Toronto published its investigation last year, FSCO suspended the licence of the mortgage agent who solicited $9 million from Black Bear investors, Dominic Ha.

According to the contracts that investors signed, Ha received 10 per cent of the funds for each syndicated mortgage he solicited for “mortgage orientation, referral, management and consulting fees.”

FSCO hearing cancelled for mortgage agent

After his licence was suspended, Ha requested a hearing to try and restore it. That hearing was supposed to start Monday, but last week Ha withdrew his request, according to FSCO’s website.

“FSCO just dropped the hearing,” said Margaret Wong. “He just doesn’t renew his licence and that’s it? And the whole case is closed? Come on.”

In a statement FSCO told CBC Toronto the licensing hearing was cancelled because Ha withdrew his request. As a result the regulator revoked Ha’s mortgage agent licence last week.

Wong says she knows she and the others aren’t going to get all their money back, but she still wants agents who defraud investors like her to face some consequences.

“Penalize them with a fine … with a big fine,” Wong told CBC Toronto.

Percy Chan says she’s lucky she still has time to work to earn back the money she lost in syndicated mortgages, unlike seniors who were counting on the money in retirement. (Chris Dunseith/CBC)

And she’s not the only one waiting for some action, Percy Chan says this whole experience has felt like a basketball game.

“We are the basketball being passed around,” said Chan. “Nobody wants to help us.”

She says while the the government changes are “better than nothing,” she doesn’t think they they’ll prevent more people from losing money like she did in Black Bear syndicated mortgages.

We are the basketball being passed around. Nobody wants to help us.– Percy Chan

“They might help a little bit,” Chan told CBC Toronto.

“But in the long run I don’t think so because the people who are looking for the bait, for the victim, they will look for the grey area.”

Still Chan counts herself lucky, because she and her husband have time to work and earn back the money they’ve lost. Unlike many retired seniors who invested their savings with Black Bear.

“They won’t see their money before they pass away,” said Chan.

“I can see the hopelessness from their eyes. It really drowns me; it really tears me down.”

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Relief Line: Preferred Alignment Now Includes Unilever Stop

Step by step, the scope of Toronto’s Downtown Relief Line is taking shape. This week, a new round of transit consultations is revealing an evolved alignment for the future subway, with a Queen corridor that includes a station at the Unilever Site near Broadview and Eastern Avenues, preferred by both City Planning and the TTC. Today, the Province also pledged $150 million towards the Relief Line’s planning, following the federal government’s $840 million state-of-good-repair pledge to Toronto transit last month. Though the Relief Line planning process is still in its early stages, the latest plan is an important step forward in setting out a more finalized corridor and precise station locations. Notably, the new plan also presents meaningful revisions to the preferred corridor identified earlier this year.

In March, a preferred alignment connecting Downtown to Pape Station via Queen Street was announced. The City’s initial preferred corridor terminated at ‘City Hall’ station on Queen, bypassing the Unilever site. However, the proposed station at Nathan Phillips Square would not provide direct transfers to either side of Line 1 at Queen or Osgoode stations, requiring transit users to walk long hallways in order to change trains. Meanwhile, although the Unilever station would boost ridership and be a major socio-economic boost to the formerly industrial area, the added cost was cited as a prohibitive factor. The new plan presents a different approach to both issues.

Although the general Queen-Pape alignment is maintained, the “emerging” preferred corridor jettisons the City Hall station in favour of direct connections to Line 1 at Queen and Osgoode. In lieu of the placemaking benefits of a station at—referred to as “the psychological heart of Toronto” by City Planning—direct transit connections are now preferred. Likewise, the plan now includes a station at the Unilever site, facilitating a more complete multi-modal hub, and helping advance one of the country’s largest developments. (A closer look at First Gulf’s plans will be provided in an upcoming story).

As outlined in this week’s consultations, stations are also being proposed at the intersections of Queen and Sherbourne, King and Sumach, Queen and Pape, and Gerrard and Pape. The Relief Line—which may eventually be extended north and west—is set to add five stations to the network, while connecting three existing TTC stops at Osgoode, Queen, and Pape. For each of the planned stations, including the transfer points to Lines 1 and 2, the City and TTC also provide individualized overviews of potential station configurations.

Thanks to photos taken at Tuesday night’s consultation by UT Forum contributor Alex Glista, a full selection of images is available in our dedicated Relief Line thread. While the benefits of transfer stations at Pape, Osgoode and Queen are self-evident, the station at Queen and Sherbourne is presented within the context of the “new street pattern and area redevelopment” in years to come. A future secondary entrance could also be integrated with the proposed 245 Queen East development immediately to the south.

The Queen and Sherbourne station, photo by Alex Glista

At King and Sumach, the planned station “could help stitch two sides of the off-ramp together,” allowing pedestrians connections from both sides of the Richmond/Adelaide/Eastern overpasses. North entrances “would support 514 Cherry and 504 King streetcar transfers,” while the secondary entrance to the southeast beside Underpass Park could provide a direct connection to the growing West Don Lands.

King and Sumach station, photo by Alex Glista

For Queen and Pape, the challenge is in accommodating high population densities in Leslieville to the west without interrupting EMS service located by the station, nor disrupting the neighbourhood.

Queen and Pape, photo by Alex Glista

At Pape and Gerrard, the station would serve an area that’s showing signs of becoming a development hub, with a large proposal currently in the works for Gerrard Square. Here, the station entrances would need to be designed to allow easy transfer to GO services should a GO RER station be built here too.

Gerrard and Pape, photo by Alex Glista

Source : UrbanToronto.ca

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Stats Can releases GDP numbers for February

The Canadian economy, which contracted to start the year, bounced back in February, led by gains in the mining and oil and gas extraction sector.

Statistics Canada said Tuesday real gross domestic product grew 0.4 per cent in February after a slight pullback of 0.1 per cent in January.

The mining and oil and gas extraction sector gained 2.4 per cent for the month as production in the oil and gas sector began returning to normal after a number of issues in January including unscheduled maintenance shutdowns.

Economists had expected an overall increase of 0.3 per cent in February, according to Thomson Reuters.

“The rebound in February GDP is encouraging even as oil drove a good chunk of the gain, as growth was pretty broad based,” Benjamin Reitzes, Canadian rates and macro strategist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a report.

“For the Bank of Canada, this report likely doesn’t change much, but reinforces the theme that the economy is in decent shape and can continue to move slowly but surely higher.”

Overall, 15 of the 20 industrial sectors tracked saw growth.

Goods-producing industries grew 1.2 per cent as manufacturing and construction rose in addition to the rebound in mining and oil and gas extraction.

The manufacturing sector rose 1.0 per cent in February, while the construction sector gained 0.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, the services-producing side edged up 0.1 per cent, hurt by a 0.5 decline in wholesale trade and weakness in the real estate and rental and leasing sector which was affected by mortgage rule changes at the start of the year including stress tests for uninsured mortgages.

The real estate and rental and leasing sector fell 0.2 per cent in February after a 0.5 per cent decline in January, the first back-to-back contractions since the summer of 2010.

The output of offices of real estate agents and brokers fell 7.9 per cent in February after a 12.9 per cent drop in January.

source : The Canadian Press

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Young Canadians want to own a home but aren’t planning for it

The dream of owning a home is still very much alive among Canadian millennials, but when it comes to saving for it they are lagging.

A new poll of 18-37 year-olds by CIBC has found that 46% intend to buy a home in the next five years but 76% have yet to start saving or have saved less than a quarter of their down payment.

“Our survey reveals that few millennials are taking the necessary steps to make the move to homeownership,” says Grant Rasmussen, Senior Vice President, Mobile Advice, CIBC. “You can’t buy a home with intent and desire alone. It’s important to have a financial plan to make the most of your income and set yourself up with the right savings plan to achieve your goals now and in the years ahead.”

Four in 10 Canadian millennials currently rent and almost a quarter live with their parents with 94% of those intending to become homebuyers. However, 45% say they don’t believe it is realistic or desirable anymore.

More than a third are already homebuyers but 58% are concerned that rising interest rates will impact their ability to manage current household expenses.

“While most still dream of owning a home one day, higher house prices, the prospect of higher rates, and new qualifying rules are prompting some millennials to pause and question whether being a homeowner is realistic or even desirable for them,” says Mr. Rasmussen. “The key is to understand your total housing costs and start planning early so you can consider your rent versus buy options in the context of your overall financial plan and desired lifestyle.”

Although many respondents to the poll say that renting can be as expensive as homeownership, they are concerned about the costs of ownership.

But millennial homeowners manage to save more each month ($566 on average) than renters ($368) or live-at-homers ($360), and homeowners have amassed an average nest-egg of just over $60,600 – more than double that of their peers who rent or live at home.

Are you looking to invest in property? If you like, we can get one of our mortgage experts to tell you exactly how much you can afford to borrow, which is the best mortgage for you or how much they could save you right now if you have an existing mortgage

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